I agree that the owners manual is largely useless for these little things as it covers all 400 Golf variants in 37,000,000 countries and doesn't give you all the details.

The GTI badge on the rear is stuck on with double sided foam tape. If you want to remove it, the easiest way is to use some fishing line and "cut" through the double sided tape by using a sawing action. Then you can remove the excess tape with a bit of turps / goo remover and a hairdryer to warm the glue up. In my opinion, the Golf's are sedate enough without removing the teeny little badges so id leave it on. Im not positive about the front badge on the GTI, but on the R its held on with a screw and you need to take the grill off to get to it.

The gear selector is useless - i just ignore it. I agree it would be better if it told you what gear you ARE in rather than what gear its wants you to be in. I mean, who drives in 6th gear at 65kph.....talk about labouring the engine....

As for your odometer readout being replaced by the little guage logo on the MFD, as someone else mentioned above, turn the cruise control off on the left hand stalk and it will go away. The little logo is just telling you that the cruise control is enabled and ready for use.

And regarding the light clutch pedal. Yes mine is light as well but it has good feel.