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Great update, thanks! I test drove a GTI a few years ago and loved the way it drives. Wasn't smitten with the interior especially as the one i test drove had the plaid seats.
Have you driven a type R one? I imagine the awd would make a huge difference.
Yeah I have heard as much. There was one, actually, at this very same dealership, in a nice blue color to boot. However it was pretty low miles, and was asking about $13k more than this car. It didn't seem worth the extra cash, so I figured it's probably best to not entertain the idea. I do want to try one out! I've heard differing opinions on it - sure it's faster and has much better traction, but the GTI is lighter and can match the stock R's power quite easily with a tune. So we'll see!
I think I said before - always liked the GTI - just a little afraid due to the maintenance costs + reliability.
Glad its its great fun car!!!!
I believe the maintenance cost delta to a typical car is pretty much down to a few things:
Brakes (semi-metallic pads eat rotors a bit quicker than usual street pads).
DSG service every 40k miles (fluid exchange).
225-width tires.
Otherwise I don't see anything unusual about the maintenance, and the above don't amount to an inordinate amount of money. Having said that, intake valve cleaning is going to be necessary sometime in the future with this engine due to its use of only direct injection, and it could be pretty expensive to replace the turbo should it fail (very uncommon with these cars unless highly tuned). Also, it's worth noting that insurance and fuel are much cheaper on this car. I've been averaging about 26 MPG lately, compared to 19 in my IS in similar driving conditions. I usually get, according to the trip computer, around 340 miles to a tank, as opposed to the 300-ish I usually got in my IS - and it costs more to fill up that IS than this GTI! The insurance difference mystifies me a bit... You'd think this car would be similar to insure to an IS, but apparently not.
what's the 60K service you mentioned entail/cost???
does the car have a timing belt or chain??
Timing chain.
60k generally means spark plugs, cabin filter (which I'll just DIY because why not?), serpentine belt if needed, differential fluid if needed, and obligatory oil change + tire rotation. I plan to do the diff fluid and maybe the serpentine belt - I might just ask my mechanic to look at it or his general opinion. On my wife's car, the serpentine belt cracked at around 50,000 miles and needed replacement. This GTI is at 54,000 now, but the belt looks great just eyeballing it. Could be a good preventative thing to do though. I guess I am also conflating brakes with this... Otherwise, this isn't too crazy a service. I will likely do brakes around the same time.
So I've been on a quest recently. It's a quest to eliminate all the creaks and rattles coming from the various rubber and felt (or, felt-like?) seals in the car. Here's a list of all the things I've done:
Totally cleaned the rubber seal on the back part of the sunroof and applied Honda OE Silicone Grease to the rubber.
Cleaned all four window channels.
Drove around for a couple of weeks and got nearly driven insane by new noises coming from the front windows and front part of the sunroof.
After having enough, I cleaned and applied the same silicone grease to all hard rubber components on both front doors.
This did not solve the problem. However, I also found more hard rubber seals toward the front of the sunroof and cleaned those.
After a test drive, I determined the sunroof problem to be fixed, but not the windows.
After doing some research, I discovered there's a felt-like seal between the door and the body of the car. I felt a bit weird about using the silicone grease on it, but I didn't have any dry lubricant handy.
Test-drove the car and found minimal, intermittent noise, nowhere near as bad as before, where it was almost constant unless I was on a glass-smooth road. I'll take it!
I made a small quality of life change to the car that makes a big difference in the overall experience of driving it - unplugging the Soundaktor.
It was a pretty easy process - I just had to remove the windshield wiper cowl clips and stick my hand in there and unplug it. Scraped up my hand on the scratchy plastic, but painless otherwise. Digital engine sound is always a questionable thing in cars - and in the case of the GTI I have to say, it's not the worst. The car pretty much sounds the same without the Soundaktor, just... much more refined and less boomy at lower RPMs. As expected, it doesn't need the Soundaktor for high-RPM sound either. It's still loud enough... for now.
I debated for a while on whether to unplug it or to buy something like OBDEleven and code it out. Obviously, the cheaper option won out here. If I want to sell the car, I can always plug it back in. Ironically I might still end up getting a scan/coding tool like that for other reasons, though I could live without it.
I also added a silly, but cool thing - a plaid plate frame based on the Mk7 GTI plaid seats.
Finally have a front plate installed. Curse you, Missouri.
However, I was able to do it in a way that is easily reversible and involved no drilling into the bumper.
It's a pretty simple solution. A kind fellow on Ebay makes 3D-printed mounting plugs that fit perfectly into the lower grille of the GTI. Just slide them in and drill some holes in them.
Looks a lot cleaner than having a whole plate-mount assembly up there. One thing that crossed my mind was cooling concerns - so, I mounted it to the side to allow the intercooler to be able to breathe. I don't think there's any cooling on the passenger side of the lower grille area.
One of my friends and I were discussing the meaning of the "GTI" moniker. We Googled it and came up with "Grand Touring Injection". Interesting, we thought. These days, the GTI is more known for being turbocharged than "injected". Technology has moved on, but the name has remained the same. Insert a Regular Car Reviews "BRAND" joke here, if you like.
"Even though it's not really a grand-touring vehicle", he quipped.
"I bet it could do it ", I replied.
So here we are. My wife and I were curious to see what the Omaha Zoo was all about, and I offered to use the Golf for transporting us there. I had been curious how a compact hatchback like this would hold up on a hot day over more than 6 hours of driving. After this trip, I have some thoughts.
Luckily for me, the car saved my last trip's info from yesterday. So when I hopped in today, I thought I'd take a photo.
From Kansas City to Omaha, it's about 3 hours' worth of driving including a stop for fuel and/or a restroom. With a car like the GTI, you might be somewhat disappointed to know what the roads are like on this route - straight, open, and generally uneventful. If I take the fastest route there, I go straight up I-29 North until I hit the Omaha area. Fortunately, there are some hills to either side of us as we hit Nebraska land, so at least it's visually interesting to a degree. Much of the highway is four-lane, so it's entirely possible and likely that we would get stuck behind a pair of eighteen-wheelers engaging in the world's slowest roll race. This only happened twice, thankfully.
Once there, my wife and I are generally all right in terms of our moods. The car has done just great at speed, with decently controlled wind noise and tire noise. Only over larger cracks in the road did the wheels make any unwanted noises. Indeed, it's almost on the same level as my old IS in terms of highway quietness - in fact, on a smooth road, I'd say it is quite possibly even better. The Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate tires may be to thank for that, but perhaps it's also the felt-like material used to line the wheel wells - something that Lexus had omitted from the IS.
With that relatively easy 3-hour trip behind us, we get brunch at a place called Bailey's, which is phenomenal. After that, we see some animals. Notably, we see a giraffe totally ruin the collective day of a trio of ostriches by invading their personal bubble.
The animal equivalent of stealing a parking space, I'm sure.
This thread isn't really about animals, though, so I will press on. After visiting some more animals, we get snacky and try a local brew-pub, Upstream. I don't know who gave the chef the idea of putting mustard and cheese together to make a pretzel dip, but the result is mildly interesting at best. At least, the beers are tasty and certainly unique. (Don't fear - we only had one flight of four four-ounce beers each - so essentially one pint - and took our time. Don't drink and drive!) This thread isn't really about beers, though, so I will press on.
After a fill-up at an Omaha BP station, with about a third a tank remaining prior, we head home. On the return journey, things get interesting. We are a bit fatigued from the long drive there, the heat of the day, and, well, eating twice in a relatively short span of time. What's more is that the heat is something we'd have to deal with in the car. This is a time when the ventilated seats from my IS would have come in handy. It seems like, even with A/C blasting, we can't fully replace all the hot air with cold. Thankfully, the Fender audio system provides some distraction. We blast the music at a high volume, and thanks to the decent quality of the system, it takes quite a while for us to grow tired of music.
My knees get a bit sore as we close in on the KC metro again, leading me to believe I have my seat adjusted badly for long trips. This is a phenomenon I experienced in the Lexus as well - my favorite driving position often doesn't work if I am confined to it for a whole day. Even though we only have 29 miles to go, we pull over to stretch for a bit, and I notice the sheer carnage on my front bumper. (Photo below taken today in my garage.)
I have to take a moment of silence for all the bugs who have gone on to meet their maker in the name of making way for us. Yet, it's still hot out, and we could really use a proper sit-down. This is no time for sentimentality, so we hop back in and continue home. I begin to notice an odd clattering over some bumps in the road, which only intensifies the slower we go, as we approach our own neighborhood. I begin to think "What a piece of junk, can't handle even one long day of driving!", and my Lexus elitism briefly returns.
However, I also don't like to give up. So, the next day I set out to fixing this issue. I think the clattering is coming from the rear driver's side door, and sure enough, just opening the door is enough to cause a weird, newspaper-crinkling sound. I repeatedly open and close the door, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise by moving my ear up and down the door. It seems to be at about the level of the door handle, at the point where the front and rear doors meet. I bust out some CRC spray lubricant and soak the rubber stripping. After a short drive to the car wash, I still haven't noticed the noise return, so I am calling this case closed. My theory is that the heat was a little too much for that door yesterday.
All in all, I'd say the Golf did a great job. The GTI feels like a stable, confident cruiser, with just enough comfort that I thought to myself "Yeah, I can do this for a while" pretty early in the drive. Had the weather been a bit cooler, it would have been more pleasant. However, the good gas mileage (including a couple slowdowns due to accidents), comfy seats, ample passing power, and great sound system make me want to use it for a proper road trip one day.
Thanks for the detailed posts. These sort of "long term", "daily" type reports give insight that the magazines/video reviewers just don't.
Do you remember the peak outside temps during your recent trip? I'm wary of weak A/C systems as I live in the desert.
Thinking about picking up the Mk8 Golf R when it comes out, since Audi/MB refuse to bring their (sporty) hatchbacks to the USA.
That's a good question. I believe it peaked around 92 degrees or so. I do want to give the disclaimer that the car was sitting out in the sun basically all day long, and even with a/c, it has leather seats that really don't breathe all that great. And, I could have very well switched the a/c over to Max but was just relying on the automatic climate to do its thing. So hindsight says to try that. I think that, most days, it's absolutely fine.
05-24-20, 11:22 AM
I do want to try one out! I've heard differing opinions on it - sure it's faster and has much better traction, but the GTI is lighter and can match the stock R's power quite easily with a tune. So we'll see!
