This car actually has 200ft/lbs of torque not 185. Both the A3 1.8T (USA and Canada) and all of USA golfs are rated at 200.
At first I thought you made a mistake, but sure enough, the brochure for the American Golf lists torque at 200 ft/lbs.
http://www.vw.com/content/dam/vwcom/brochures/2015models/VW_MY15_Golf_Brochure-Digital.pdf
So, either our engines are different states of tune, or VW is lying. Both of which seem pretty strange.
I'd read that rating on US sites but was going by VW Canada official ratings, but yes, we have long held that it feels like 200 or so, so we will confirm and update shortly... maybe its because our Canadian lb-ft are just that much stronger...
I think the US initially tried to launch it claiming 185 when it was really 200 as well, perhaps to give the A3 1.8T an advantage on paper, but they eventually just reverted to the correct number....
So our VW representative won't come right out and say it, but yeah, it's 200.
Also, the note on fuel consumption has been revised: an extra receipt was found wadded up with some napkins that put it right on the 8.0, but our most recent tank of city driving saw it climb up to 8.15 L/100 km over 3,000 km combined. Our apologies.
and to allmanual: it has only a tiny gear indicator in the screen between the gauges with arrow to upshift when revs are high, but it's barely noticeable and completely passive.
I used cruise control sparingly, but at the speeds i was traveling and the mild inclines on our route, there was no issue maintaining cruise in 5th when I used it. however, steeper terrain, speeds under 110, yeah, i imagine there would be times when 4th is required.
