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Ambient lighting

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2022 10:12 am
by Andy D
My 2020 Polo Gti+ has ambient lighting albeit one line across the dash and the leading edges of the front doors. Is it possible to change the colour of the light as it is a white light and would prefer something a little more subtle. On my Mercedes it has 64, I think, different colours you can select so it's not quite so in your face. 8)

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2022 12:08 pm
by POLO Clive
Colour changing isn't an option Andy, you can only change the brightness.

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2022 12:10 pm
by OomStu_ZA
Hi Andy D

AFAIK it is'nt possible but if others on the forum are "in the know" they will respond, but it may only be possible through aftermarket "mods". One may also then need to change out the led strip in the dashboard and on the doors.

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2022 12:52 pm
by SRGTD
I personally find it’s fine and not at all ‘in your face’ but that’s just me and we’ll all have different likes and dislikes.

The white LED strip ties in nicely with the overall red / white lighting theme in the car’s interior whereas other colours might not - unless there was also an option to change the colour of the instrumentation display, which in my opinion would be overkill. The mk8 Golf has (I think) something like 30 colour choices for interior lighting - now that really is unnecessary IMHO and way too many choices.

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2022 1:01 pm
by lancslad1985
I’m with SRGTD. I had ambient lighting on my Tiguan and it got fiddled with first few weeks, mainly by my daughter. Then next 12 months it didn’t change once. It’s a gimmick and pointless.

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2022 5:36 am
by johnpolo2
I would like the choice of a small number of colours, I'd change it from white but once I'd done that I probably wouldn't bother with it again.

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2022 7:58 am
by AnnieGTI
It was one of the first things I looked at to see if I could change it when I bought mine. The dealer confirmed that it's just the white setting.

On previous cars, I've set it to blue and left it. Would have been nice if they had continued it along the door rather than stopping after a few inches :)

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2022 10:32 am
by OomStu_ZA
Interestingly, the Audi A1 (built on the MQB-A0 platform) ambient lighting is changeable but then they have made it possible through the software and probably use a different LED strip.

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2022 11:48 am
by grazuncle2
lancslad1985 wrote: Fri Nov 11, 2022 1:01 pm I’m with SRGTD. I had ambient lighting on my Tiguan and it got fiddled with first few weeks, mainly by my daughter. Then next 12 months it didn’t change once. It’s a gimmick and pointless.
sorry but I had to say this made me laugh out loud!

I'm guessing you feel strongly about this.. :D

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2022 5:33 pm
by lancslad1985
Not at all Graz :lol:

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2022 5:14 am
by LEEA123
got it on the golf eight, set the dash display and ambient to red, never touched it since, wish my polo would hurry up, really not happy with the golf

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 5:12 am
by Steve_2019
LEEA123 wrote: Tue Nov 15, 2022 5:14 am got it on the golf eight, set the dash display and ambient to red, never touched it since, wish my polo would hurry up, really not happy with the golf
What is the matter with the Mk8 Golf? I was thinking about trading in the Polo for one?

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:45 am
by LEEA123
Steve_2019 wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 5:12 am [quote=LEEA123 post_id=594319 time=<a href="tel:1668489249">1668489249</a> user_id=34462]
got it on the golf eight, set the dash display and ambient to red, never touched it since, wish my polo would hurry up, really not happy with the golf
What is the matter with the Mk8 Golf? I was thinking about trading in the Polo for one?
[/quote]

Just fed up with the software issues since I have had the car,and the issues keep on and on

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:48 am
by SRGTD
Steve_2019 wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 5:12 am
LEEA123 wrote: Tue Nov 15, 2022 5:14 am got it on the golf eight, set the dash display and ambient to red, never touched it since, wish my polo would hurry up, really not happy with the golf
What is the matter with the Mk8 Golf? I was thinking about trading in the Polo for one?
From what I’ve read on various Golf forums, I’d hazard a guess the majority of any issues would be software related. Dynamically, the mk8 Golf is meant to be very good, but software related issues seemingly have spoiled the overall ownership experience for many owners. The mk8 has been on sale almost three years, and VW still haven’t got it 100% sorted and IMHO that’s a very poor show on their part. Even some new cars being delivered now are still suffering from a range of software related gremlins - admittedly no where near as many issues now as there were on earlier cars, but from what I’ve read on golftgtiforum.co.uk, vwroc.com and golfmk8.com forums, they’ve not all been resolved.

With all the tech in modern cars, I think it’s inevitable that there’ll be a few software teething troubles, but the mk8 Golf seems to have had far more than its fair share - similarly the current Seat Leon which which uses the same platform as the Golf and shares pretty much the same software has had many of the same software related issues. There’s a very long software gremlins discussion thread over on the Golf R forum - currently that discussion thread runs to 183 pages! 😲

If I was in the market for a Golf sized car, the mk8 wouldn’t be on the list; I’d certainly avoid an early used example where some of the software issues seem to persist or reappear. Owning a mk8 outside of the factory warranty period would be a big no-no for me - I wonder if VW will offer some form of out of warranty ongoing goodwill to owners for software related problems; if not, then those owners could potentially be faced with a number of expensive trips back to the dealers for fault finding investigations and subsequent fixes 🤔.

Re: Ambient lighting

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:56 am
by SRGTD
LEEA123 wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:45 am
Steve_2019 wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 5:12 am [quote=LEEA123 post_id=594319 time=<a href="tel:1668489249">1668489249</a> user_id=34462]
got it on the golf eight, set the dash display and ambient to red, never touched it since, wish my polo would hurry up, really not happy with the golf
What is the matter with the Mk8 Golf? I was thinking about trading in the Polo for one?
Just fed up with the software issues since I have had the car,and the issues keep on and on
[/quote]

VW’s decision to move software development on house to their Cariad subsidiary doesn’t seem to have been the smartest move. I understand the reasoning behind doing this was to remove dependency on third party software houses and to reduce cost. However, with Cariad’s early attempts not really being fit for purpose IMHO, I wonder what the extent of damage to VW’s brand is in financial terms?