GTI fanboys, here's your chance.
 

dead

She doesn't need a GTI. The Jetta TDI would be a better choice for a chick.

I'm definitely going to be trading in my 2010 Golf TDI for a mk7 GTI in a couple years. Cars don't get any better for the price.

My wife loves our mk6 GTI. She pretty much started driving it and never gave it back. No problems with about 25k miles on it now. She wants to run it into the ground, although I am a bit hesitant keeping it past the powertrain warranty to be honest. Not worried about the engine (TFSI/EA888 in the mk6 is reliable), but the dual-clutch trans will be expensive if anything ever goes wrong with it.

It's also a pretty good drive if you want to change things up and take it some days or autocross/track. Not like an FR-S/BRZ, but the torque and refinement are nice.

Also be prepared for the possibility of more tickets. With the refinement and quiet turbo, the speed can sneak up on you. My wife got one of these driving the car. :bonk:

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8337/...86360e71c2.jpg

The GTI is so reliable that my MKV was only in the shop for one whole month when it had a CEL at 30k miles! And the dealership/shop experience was so good that the owner initially offered me a whopping 16 thousand dollars to buy the car back from me when they crashed it on a "test drive" after they told me to come pick it up because it had been fixed! Imagine that, the car only depreciated 13,000 in the year and a half I had owned it! When they were tooting their horn about how VWs held the best resale value that year, they sure were accurate!

tl;dr to the above: Screw Steve White Volkswagen in Greenville, SC.

Would I buy another VW? I dunno. My wife really likes the Jetta Sportwagen and admittedly we never had any issues with her MKV Jetta Wolfsburg Ed. So the 2.5 at least was a good engine. Personally, when it comes time to replace the Camry I'd rather we get a Prius instead of a VW.

@King Tut yeah but then I have to drive a Jetta. Also, she doesn't like the Jetta.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Keep them coming. There really isn't much else on the market that is fun to drive and that she likes.

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TDIs should have better resale value as well. If she really likes the Golf over the Jetta, then I still say a Golf TDI would be a better investment. Dose turbo diesel torques. :drool:

This^

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If she wants a fun car, the GTI is a great choice, but if you're the one angling for a fun car and she doesn't care as much, I agree with the comments above that a Golf TDI would be a better car. It has great low end torque, and it's hard to argue with the combo of better resale value and better gas mileage.

Thanks for pointing out the TDI guys. How is the DSG in this platform? No matter how much I try to convince her, she does NOT want a manual.

Forget the Jetta, get the Passat TDI. My brother drives to work and back, he only fills up fuel once a month. :bellyroll:

My brother has one, it's nice car. The DCT is stupid fast for a commuter car like that. It can fit 5 people comfortably, it's also pretty damn good looking in blue. It has a lot of details other cars in that price range dont.

More importantly than all this other nonsense, what color is she looking at? It has to complement your car when they're both in the driveway.

wut

Then you don't recommend it. You recommend HE make HIS little baby girl happy, by getting HER the car SHE wants. When the car SHE wants inevitably poops its pants, it's HER fault because she's a woman and makes decisions based on emotions instead of logic.

I thought for sure this sentance would end with asking for pics of his girlfriend. Son I am disappoint.

I'm sure we'll see pics of her standing next to her new car once she buys it.

FTFY.

Girls and cars, sometimes that's just how it is. That's why I asked about the color.

A

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Good point.

I'm also seriously considering a Jetta Sportwagon, but that's not the point.

From what I can tell the engines are bulletproof, VW cranks them out and drops them in everything, every modern manufacturer seems to have figured out how to get sheetmetal to last for two or so decades, wheels turn blah blah blah. The scary bits seem to be the electricals that can develop lasting gremlins (sensors, wiring, switches going out etc.) and the DSG in my mind isn't entirely proven yet, they've already had at least one major recall. The DSG feels good but if it goes to shit it's going to be expensive.

I personally wouldn't choose the DSG, but when I drove the sportwagon (TDI) it was better than most AT's I remember. In the sportier Golf/GTI it might be tuned for a little more fun but this one was pretending to be a slushbox with the priority for smoothness and efficiency. Manual mode wasn't much different from the only other manumatic I've driven, an Acura.

I'd also echo everyone else, the Golf may be 'good enough' and I'm hoping I get the chance to support the diesel market. Everybody is hyped up on electrics and Tesla but for the vast majority of the world it won't be feasible for a long time, diesel is viable today, it is rather clean, and it is renewable.

Walk in, ask to drive a Golf gas/TDI and let the salesman 'convince' you guys to try out the GTI.

Edit: Also worth noting, in their quest to be the largest automaker they've moved a lot of production down to Mexico and fans have complained that build quality suffered significantly, namely interior. But as a Toyobaru owner, OP may not mind as much as most.

And this is how threads around here go to shit. Every. Damn. Time.

They're not car people so thinking of any other car besides a camry or civic is crazy to them. She really likes the GTI after I brought it to her attention. So I decided to post here to see if anyone has had experience or owned one. Started out well. Thanks for not contributing to thread at all Orbital.

Thanks to the earlier posts that made this into an actual discussion. If anyone has any info on what the TDI is like to drive with the DSG then please PM me. I'd appreciate the information.

Mods shut it down. We're done here.



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First post on FT86Club and it is a mind blower.

Let's bring it back on topic then. This statement intrigues me. So you were the first one to suggest a GTI? She didn't bring it up to you. What exactly does she like about the GTI?

She likes the interior and what she's read about the ride comfort. She drove the new Mazda 6 and said the car felt too big and the suspension was unnecessarily rough. The mileage is another plus while it still has enough power to get out of its own way. The TDI didn't dawn on me until you guys brought it up. Now this is also something I'll be looking into. I'll be home in Aug so we plan on test driving a few vehicles then.

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PM me your ULN.

Girls dig the plaid. My wife too. :iono: I think it reminds them of Burberry.

My GTI had DSG. It wasn't my first choice, but I went ahead and compromised on that in case my wife ever had to drive the car. Annnd she never even once sat in the driver's seat. After that car was gone I decided I was sticking to, well, stick.

Anyway, driving impressions. Normal is pretty much like an automatic. Sport lets it rev a bit higher. Manual mode did have very quick shifts but there were a handful of times that I said "GODDAMMIT SHIFT NOW" and it took a bit longer than I wanted. What turned me off a bit was the maintenance schedule on DSG. Every 40k miles was a $450 fluid and filter change. From what I've heard the costs may have decreased since the six years or so ago that I had the car.

Also the Abarth will be available in an automatic soon too. Uh, no bias at all. Nope, none. ;)

Not sure about new GTI, but here's feedback I got from my friends

Friend/co-worker have '01 GTI. She's love the shape & inside, but every month, there's some kind of issue: airbag light, several different CEL (vacuum line, abs & lists goes on). Last month, trans was acting up. After 6wks later w over $3k spent, shop claim they're fixed... but next day, she had to bring it back. She still loves that car... but debating on selling it currently.

Friend's GF. She have '08 GTI (white line iirc). She's not car-holic or anything, but she loves that car a lot... til last wk. Some kind of engine or ECU mechinical issue happened & currently at the dealer.

My work's HR Manager. He own '13 GTI. He enjoying his GTI & love driving it. Don't have any issue on his car.

My neighbor. He own '12 GTI & he autox it in the summer. Looks nice & I think, he said, never had any issue with it.

Hope that feedback helped a bit.

lol that sucks man, could have had a manual. Oh well, can't predict the future. That is pretty pricey every 40k but the DSG's have been around for a little bit now so I can see those costs probably going lower. I drove a 2013 GTI DSG and I was impressed with the responsiveness of the shifts but this was a short drive around the block.

Haha! I keep asking her about the Abarth. Different posts on the blogs keep popping up about how cool of a little car it is and I can't help but start to love it. It sounds pretty great too! She's not going to budge on the 500 though, she can't stand the look and needs more space and utility.

How long did you have the car? What year? Did you have any major issues?

Thanks man! Exactly the kind of real life experience I'm looking for. Thanks for the input! From what I've been reading it seems that for every perfectly fine GTI out there, there is another "lemon" that has an owner plagued with issues.

Yeah, pretty much. So take these as grain of salt. Cuz not all the GTI will have same issue (if it did, it'll be in recall lol). :)

For a non enthusiast, regular Golf or Mazda 3 is a better value, and have softer rides.


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Note the age differences between Itchitaka's examples, <3 years, zero problems, >5 years oodles of problems. From what you said it seems like you'd get shit if it kicked the bucket any less than 10 years down the road.

Also worth noting, that $450 fluid flush every 40k miles, how much do you plan on driving it? For most people that service is >3 year intervals.

Concerning the Abarth, it was my second choice car, an automatic might do the car too much of a disservice, FIAT isn't exactly known for putting industry leading tech in their economy cars. Check out Top Gear's review though, it's the same car (they call it an SS), several years old but still the same chassis and 160hp powerplant, long in the tooth over there still a bit of a novelty here.
http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/take-abarth

But if she dislikes the styling don't waste her time.

It was an 07, I had it a little over a year and a half, and when I brought it in for a CEL at 30k-ish the dealership crashed it, as I said earlier. Owner was still a **** to my wife and I, but I got a couple grand more out of them than originally offered.

I think the problem was with the evap system. All of a sudden one day I couldn't put fuel in the car without it shutting the pump down. I thought it was weird, but I got it filled anyway. A few weeks later it happened again at a different gas station. Then the CEL came on shortly after.. It took them forever to diagnose and fix it, but at least they gave me a loaner Passat. About a week or so after I got back after my honeymoon they had the car fixed, told me to come pick it up. I said I'd be there tomorrow after lunch time because I was an hour away at the time and couldn't make it. And then the next day about an hour before I'm about to go pick it up I get a call saying they needed to speak to me about my car. Yeah, tech took it out for a "test drive" to make sure the problem was still fixed...a fter they told me come pick it up. And then he t-boned a SUV. I still to this day haven't gotten an apology for what happened.

Damn, that's a mess! This seems to happen quite often on these "test drives". I know it's happened to a couple 86's. I've seen some of those post around here.

So you're just out of high school and you already drive a BRZ. Now your girlfriend's parents are trying to give her a leg up by giving her a brand new car, as long as it's reliable and will last a long time. But you're not happy with the choice of car her parents are giving to her. Here's my suggestion, shut your ungrateful mouth unless you're telling her parents 'thank you.'

He's been in the military for three years, so he's at least 21.

And he's dating a girl in high school?

Being in the military doesn't make him any less of a douche.

The first post said she's completing grad school, not grade school. And her dad wants to buy her a car as a gift for completing grad school. He's just helping her shop.

I stand corrected. I read grade school. :bonk: