GTI and loving it!

[Tricky]

Funny his name is Guy as well.

That's right, Guy Harding... pun unintended Spoke with Guy when I was checking out the tuning possibilities for a GTI... he seemed a nice chap, he was happy to talk generally about pros (lots) / cons (none?) of buying a GTI.

If you wanna come along and meet some of the crew and you dont have a car i may have a spare seat. for the cruise in february that is. Once again welcome.

Thanks for the welcome and seat offer... I may come along on my motorbike if I haven't got the GTI yet...

[Golf Loon]

Wife has already been advised next car is a MkV GTI

I think you need to get onto this Ian and retire the Gas Guzzler

[gtimk5]

Welcome Tricky. You wont be dissapointed in the GTI mate. This car is a classic of the future. Already a classic in its own right. Mine has all the mods and goes extremely well. Love the thing to death.
I hope you enjoy the forum, we are a friendly bunch here and if you have any questions, feel free to ask
Cheers, Andrew

[srbsta]

hey congrats on the new GTI you will love it from day one........i have the APR chip on my one and its a whole new car with it

[Dr Spine]

Can someone explain to me the difference between having the APR Flash done on my GTI or having another one of the Chip upgrades that are possible. What is the difference between Oettinger and APR. Is one better or are they essentially the same. I've heard that the APR Flash doesn't affect warranty.

I'm thinking about having the APR thing done sometime soon but just want to know more before I hand over $2200.

[shaneth]

Mate you are delving into a black hole there. To my knowledge APR can but not always affect warranty if they can prove it was the cause of the fault. APR and oettinger are pretty much the same (owned by same company, apr i think???). Oettinger offers a back up warranty of some sorts it s on there web page. and then you have other companies. Basically your best bet is to talk direct to the companies and get as much info as you can and make n informed decission that way. You can also trial APR software for 6 driving hours. Also think about after sales service. i.e. if something goes wrong or VW upgrades your ecu where do you have to go to get you flash redone?

[srbsta]

damn man can VW do that hahhahaha scares me now after thinking about it lol

[Lima]

Can someone explain to me the difference between having the APR Flash done on my GTI or having another one of the Chip upgrades that are possible. What is the difference between Oettinger and APR. Is one better or are they essentially the same. I've heard that the APR Flash doesn't affect warranty.

I'm thinking about having the APR thing done sometime soon but just want to know more before I hand over $2200.

My understanding is if, for example, your window regulator breaks then VW can't deny your warranty claim simply because you have an APR flash. If your turbo blows ... good luck.

Mind, there's at least one case of a guy with an A3 that I know of where he had a lot of APR related mods (ECU upgrade, K04 upgrade) and he had his transmission replaced under warranty by Audi. How that transpires to the VW world only you can decide really.

Ultimately, I think it could come down to the loyalty you have shown the dealership doing the warranty work. If you have a good rapport with them they could be more likely to want to serve your best interests.

Also, and I'm pretty sure I am correct in saying this Andrew or Guy can correct me if I am wrong, but when getting a trial flash from any vendor I am pretty sure that once the trial has expired you are going back not to the exact stock ECU code but the "stock" version as flashed by the supplier of the trial code. Therefore, once the trial has expired you're not getting your car back to the exact stock form it was prior to the flash. For probably 99% of people this is no big deal, but to some of the more aprehensive folk out there it is porbably worth mentioning.

[PeterH]

Hi All, like nsshunt at the start of this thread, I am a first time owner of a German car. I have a week old 2007 GTI (red).
Test drove the Jetta 2.0 TDI, nice car plenty of grunt.
Then jumped into a test drive of a GTI the dealer had. Omigod, this is what they talk about! Where do I sign? As it turned out, my car took 2 months to arrive.

Previously I have had a 97 falcon, which I felt handled like a boat, then swapped that for a 2000 Camry 3.0L. I found it a good improvement on the Falcon, despite people telling me the Camry is boring.
So I took the GTI up to the same twisty roads west of Melbourne where I used to drive the Camry regularly. Wooah what a difference, the GTI just sticks to the road, I reckon I was going maybe 20kmh faster without hardly thinking about it.
My poor wife in the passenger seat, she loves the look of the car (calls it cute) but she now goes white when I drive those corners (used to be just clutching the grab handle).
Love the stopping power too. On the way home from the dealer, road was wet from a light rain, come round the corner to find this idiot in a small truck is crawling across the road into his drive way. Big push on the brake and the GTI just goes zoooh stop, (well that's what it sounded like to me). It just stopped, no fuss, with space to spare. Think I did see the ESP light briefly blink.

Anyway, I do have one complaint with the car (Complaints you say ?? how could there be!!)
OK, grievance, point of order, whatever.
It's that I like to have the steering wheel virtually sitting on my knees, in any car really, but in the GTI I need it like this to operate the paddles properly. When I set it up that way, I can't see the markings on the speedo past 50kmh!!

I have spoken to a few people (dealer, repairers, a guy down the road with an 06 model) and no one knows what I'm talking about.
Anyone come across this?

[tofo17]

Hi All, like nsshunt at the start of this thread, I am a first time owner of a German car. I have a week old 2007 GTI (red).
Test drove the Jetta 2.0 TDI, nice car plenty of grunt.
Then jumped into a test drive of a GTI the dealer had. Omigod, this is what they talk about! Where do I sign? As it turned out, my car took 2 months to arrive.

Previously I have had a 97 falcon, which I felt handled like a boat, then swapped that for a 2000 Camry 3.0L. I found it a good improvement on the Falcon, despite people telling me the Camry is boring.
So I took the GTI up to the same twisty roads west of Melbourne where I used to drive the Camry regularly. Wooah what a difference, the GTI just sticks to the road, I reckon I was going maybe 20kmh faster without hardly thinking about it.
My poor wife in the passenger seat, she loves the look of the car (calls it cute) but she now goes white when I drive those corners (used to be just clutching the grab handle).
Love the stopping power too. On the way home from the dealer, road was wet from a light rain, come round the corner to find this idiot in a small truck is crawling across the road into his drive way. Big push on the brake and the GTI just goes zoooh stop, (well that's what it sounded like to me). It just stopped, no fuss, with space to spare. Think I did see the ESP light briefly blink.

Anyway, I do have one complaint with the car (Complaints you say ?? how could there be!!)
OK, grievance, point of order, whatever.
It's that I like to have the steering wheel virtually sitting on my knees, in any car really, but in the GTI I need it like this to operate the paddles properly. When I set it up that way, I can't see the markings on the speedo past 50kmh!!

I have spoken to a few people (dealer, repairers, a guy down the road with an 06 model) and no one knows what I'm talking about.
Anyone come across this?

Hi Peter, good to hear your enjoying the experience!

Try raising the seat up so that when the steering wheel is in your lap it will be higher relative to the dashboard.

Cheers,
Tom

[Lima]

Peter, I have three words for you...

Great.
Ocean.
Road.

We'll be taking our GTI along there in April, can't wait.

[PeterH]

Thanks Tom,
I tried the seat in the highest position, the steering wheel at the lowest, with my head just brushing the roof lining. I can see the tip of the speedo needle in the range of about 70-210kmh. I guess this would be ok for out of town.

I am looking at mounting a separate speedo on the top of the dash, ideally with a bright (adjustable) digital readout.

Great Ocean Road, ah yes. In the few times I've been that way, it seemed crowded with tourists (like me), blind corners, and men in blue shirts wanting to take my picture.

Peter