Funny you say that... I wasn't sure if I liked them at first. They definitely have grown on me to where I agree with you - at least they suit this car well. I think this style of wheel - machined aluminum + gloss black - works perfectly with all the angles on this car. And they're not terribly annoying to clean either.

 

Always liked this design....very appealng

What rattles are you experiencing?

 

Same here. It's a clean understated (in a good way) design.

 

Well, there are three different kinds of noises I am experiencing:

• Dash rattle that happens over large/sudden bumps in the road. It seems to get better over the course of a drive. The dealer replaced my entire glove box, but it didn't fix this issue.
• Rattling/ticking from the B-pillar interior trim area. This one comes and goes. I can't seem to figure out a pattern of what causes it. Dealer replaced the entire seatbelt adjustor part and surrounding trim, but it is still making the noise.
• Popping and ticking from the passenger seat or perhaps the floor under the seat. This one started up recently, and very consistently happens over minor imperfections in the road for about the first 10 minutes of driving. Usually, the way this one works is as follows - on my way to my destination, I hear the noise. However, on the way home, it's silent.

All in all these issues are not deal-breakers, but for a brand-new car, they are certainly annoying.

 

The GLI is a great car! Back in 2012, I had a friend looking at the A4 after her 3-series lease was up and I told her to look at the GLI, as it was a much better value. She ended up loving the GLI and got the 2012 with the autobahn package. In 2015 she ended up with another GLI that also had the autobahn package. Finally, this past year, she once again ended up with another GLI, this time a 2019 with the 35th anniversary package. The 35th anniversary package is actually a few notches below the autobahn package on her prior two GLI's, but it's the best driving one yet! The 35th anniversary package came with adjustable dampeners, which improved an already great ride and handling - not sure why they didn't make this standard on all GLI's! I always enjoy driving her GLI when I get the chance. It's a great value and I'm always surprised there aren't more on the road.

 

I agree. I actually have seen a few 35th Anniversary GLIs around, but I want to say I haven't seen any other Tornado Red ones yet.

That is amazing - 3 GLIs in a row. I kinda understand of course - even though my GTI had issues, I liked driving it enough to stick within the family (by "family" I mean the GTI and GLI siblings ). I also went from an Autobahn (in my GTI) down to an S, but I have to say, it's not a bad deal still. I mean, heated seats, auto-dimming mirror, limited-slip diff, a touchscreen that is just as big as the one in my old GTI... Doesn't really feel like a downgrade outside of the sound system, which still isn't bad at all - better than the base sound system in basically any other non-luxury car I've owned. I only wish the seats had more bolstering sometimes, but I have to say, for 90% of my driving, they are actually more comfortable than the highly-bolstered chairs in my GTI.

I definitely can see why someone would keep coming back to these cars, too - they have a fun-ness to them that is hard to explain sometimes but no less important. I actually just went for a little drive today to get out of the house, and I am surprised I never noticed the turbo noises too much before now. I guess they are more subdued than in the GTI but still very fun to hear that little "psssh" when letting off the gas. A lot of cars muffle the turbo sounds a bit too much. Also helping the fun factor is how I can chirp the tires as the DSG goes from first to second gear, even with TC on. You know... the little things!

 

i've always been impressed with how fast the DSG shifts, and now you tell me it can chirp the tires?! that's wild!

lots of neighbors around my area have open exhausts on their DSG equipped VW/Audis (and some bimmers too) which "fart" on upshifts; it's cool...for the first 5 mins!

 

That is hilarious. The "DSG farts" are pretty loud even on stock GTIs, but it seems like my GLI doesn't have them at all. Seems like the most you get out of these cars is a bit of a "pop" sound on upshifts, but only with aftermarket exhausts. I believe VW changed something with the transition to the 7-speed DSG.

And yeah the tire-chirping might partially be due to the tires. These Hankooks are obviously eco-focused tires. I'll be curious how this thing gets off the line with some proper tires mounted.

 

It might be hard to tell from photos, but I got the GLI ceramic coated yesterday! It was an all-day job, but I can definitely see and feel a difference. What's more, they buffed out the vast majority of the swirl marks. It looks better than new now, I'd say.

 

Looks good! You will love the ceramic coat. I consider it a "must have" on all of my cars.

 

My wife and I have moved from KCMO down to the Atlanta, GA area. It's been a big change, and frankly, it isn't over. The first order of business was, naturally, to get our butts into our new home, and since we both have cars, we had to make a drive. So, we drove about 800 miles from our home in Kansas City to our new home in Alpharetta.

This was a good test for the GLI. I had been thinking that, on paper, it might make a better long-distance highway companion than my old GTI. Overall, I'd say I was right.



Although it rained for a significant chunk of the trip, it was nonetheless pretty seamless. The traffic was only intermittently annoying, and it never got so rainy that slowing to a crawl was needed. The car isn't the quietest ever, but it was good enough that I felt I could enjoy the tunes. And yet, I didn't feel the need to blast music at high volume to compensate for road noise. Honestly, I was expecting worse at the speeds we were doing.

The ride, too, was decent for what the car is - that is, it's not like riding on a cloud, but it also was smooth enough that our cat didn't mind the trip. He survived without getting car sick right up until the last day of the trip, when we were mere minutes away from our destination. I guess the hilly roads north of Alpharetta were not to his liking.

Fuel mileage was really the highlight, however. I was getting 36+ MPG on the highway for pretty much the whole trip. I even managed to get 38.5 average on our final stretch of road, even with average speeds of about 80 MPH and some hilly, curvy sections near the end. For a "GTI engine", it's not bad at all. I'd say this mileage would even be acceptable in a run of the mill family sedan - it was certainly in line with the mileage I was getting in a rental Kia Optima on this same journey last year.

All in all, it was a smooth trip and we're liking being back in our home state already!

 

As I've now owned this red Jetta GLI for almost 4 months while also moving across states to its new home in the northern Atlanta metro area, I figure an update's in order.

After the big move, the car got its first oil change at Nalley VW in Alpharetta, GA. I have to say, I am already liking this dealership a lot. At only 3600 miles, the oil change reminder light started to come on, and I suspect the car's one-year birthdate was approaching. I'm still debating with myself on whether to go with 5,000-mile intervals from here, or try riding out the manufacturer-recommended 10,000-mile intervals. However, the fact that my service advisor stated, "It can't hurt to do it more often" suggests to me that it's a common occurrence to dial up the frequency of oil changes.



Living in an apartment complex again has been quite interesting for a change. After living in a house for over 5 years, I started to forget that apartments are an exercise in patience, tolerance, and sharing. This is especially true when it comes to parking. We have open street parking, like you see above, and we also have a gated parking area. No matter which area I choose, I occasionally find that something like this happens:



And before you ask, yes, I was parked there first. Overall, though, this is a relatively upscale apartment complex, so most folks are respectful and friendly. I haven't really feared for door-dings while parking here.

Driving around the suburbs of Atlanta is pretty satisfying, especially when I have a fun car in which to travel. The roads here are rarely straight, and most are well-surfaced, unlike the cratered pavement of my Raytown-area roads from before. It's honestly given me even more appreciation for having a vehicle like this GLI. It really can shine when the road surface is more polished. Only an hour or so north of here lies the famous Suches Loop, a great driving road with lots of twisty bits, which I intend to check out once I have some car-friends up here to tag along. North of that is the Tail of the Dragon, which would take some more commitment, but nonetheless is a legendary road.



The next things on my list of car-related activities are to get GA driver's licenses and plates for the cars. A nice perk of living in GA compared with MO is the lack of annual property tax on vehicles. If you didn't know, in GA, there is merely a one-time "Title Ad Valorem Tax" that is paid during registration, followed by registration renewal costs of $20 yearly. It's a lot better than paying a few hundred every single year - and, in fact, the TAVT is basically the same as what one year's property tax would be in MO. Beyond that, front plates are not required... so that leaves me with the question of what to do with my front plate situation on the GLI.

Overall, I think I am liking this car more now than before. It's fun to drive and was roomy enough to cart a lot of my stuff here, while being comfy enough for taking my mother-in-law for brunch without complaint. I still think I'd recommend this for someone who needs a cost-effective daily that's actually really fun to drive.

 

Congrats and happy you all had a safe and smooth move! Virginia has the annual property taxes (ugh). GLI sounds like a lot of fun and still enough of the bells and whistles for a nice daily driver.

 

Agreed.


Counties in Virginia have that tax because the State Constitution does not allow county income-taxes, so they make up for the lost revenue with the car-tax, real-estate-tax, and sales-taxes. And the car tax is not currently being charged at the full rate.

It also styled a little more like a sedan than so many of today's four-door coupes.

 

Well, it's the end of an era. Today, my wife and I traded our Versa Note in on a 2021 BMW 330i with the M-Sport package!



Her birthday is coming up (in June, so... generously), and with me only recently getting a new job, I had a little budget to work with... Plus, we have had her Nissan Versa Note paid off for several months now. With me getting my 2020 VW GLI a few months ago, and this big move to the Atlanta area complete, it seemed like a good time to make a car change as well.



So why this 3-series? My wife has always been a BMW fan, if not exactly a "car guy" girl. Knowing this, I started looking into the numbers on one of these, and saw an opportunity. I asked her about other models like the X3, 2-series, and X1. Basically, it came down to the fact that we really didn't need the SUV format due to our kid-less status (if for the moment), and she preferred the more "normal" seating height of the 3-series. She also didn't want a boring color, and wanted something other than red. When we stumbled across this reasonably-optioned Portimao Blue Metallic 330i, it seemed like exactly what we were searching for.



This car has some nice M Sport specific touches, like the M colors on the blue-stitched seats, along with M Sport-branded wheels, M-colored carpet floor mats, and always-upright center caps for the wheels (Rolls Royce style). My driving impressions are pretty limited so far, with some residential driving in traffic as well as a brief highway ride, but I'll say it's a very smooth, luxury experience. However, with the M Sport dampers, it's certainly not floaty, either. The active exhaust sounds rather aggressive for what I had considered to be an entry-level car, with some nice burbles when revved. The ZF 8-speed is a champ as always, and other than it being somewhat awkward in the stop-and-go on the highway, it is smooth. Overall, it's very pleasant to drive - we'll have to test it out on the back roads to comment on the fun factor. However, I suspect it will be a hoot, with RWD, a great amount of power, and quick steering.



I just had to come on here and brag. Though this is the wife's car... Still, feels great to have a luxury sport sedan back in the stable again. Cheers.