iPad and Gmail Contact Groups: Best I can do until Google fixes contact group management

Currently, I cannot get Gmail and the iPad to talk properly to each other about contact groups.
I have iPad contacts synching with Gmail contacts via the exchange settings

So here is the best workaround that I have:

Creating groups

• On the ipad, go to https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2#contacts (this is the ‘desktop’ view instead of the mobile view and has more options)

• Select contacts that you want included in the group.
• Click on the groups drop down (which only became visible when you started selecting contacts)

• Click on "Create new" underneath the text entry box.

Sending to groups

I have tried a few free apps, that say that they can access Google groups such as "Goupemail" and "GContactLite", but they all access the iPad contact list which does NOT sync groups at the moment.

Use the normal mail app for all single emails, but when wanting to send to a group:

• On the iPad, go to https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2#inbox
• Click on compose, type the contact group name, and select it when it pops up.

I know that this solution is pretty lame. 

What we need is:

• Google exchange connection should be improved to sync contact groups and other labels as well as raw contacts OR
• Google mail app improved so that it recognises email groups, as it doesn't at the moment...