Advice Wanted for New GTI Buyer

[Chico]

Hi all...been a Mazda Rotary Man all my life but am buying a GTI now. I've just sold my RX8 and buying a 3-Door GTI with DSG. Not sure what colour yet but am keen on White, Silver or Blue. From the little bit of research I've done I'm guessing APR is the first place to stop for an ECU re-map? I'd love to hear from any of you who have had the re-map done or any other work like Exhaust, CAI etc from Harding Performance to see what you think of the service and products etc.

Also love to hear about the best deals you've heard of for a 3-Door GTI/DSG purchase so that I don't end up getting robbed... I'm thinking of using Private Fleet to broker the best deal.

Any other advice for a VW Virgin?

[Tim]

welcome aboard buddy.
Im expecting my car to be delivered in sept.
Deal i got was 3 door candy white, manual, xenons and leather. just over 3.5K discount off RRP.
there are a lot of alternatives to APR. And a lot of opinions on the topic too. It seems u cant go too far wrong with your brand of tune so long the other mods u do dont have any adverse effect

[phaeton]

Welcome to VWwA Chico

Pick the white its the in colour of the season (JC & Hamster say so )

[anarchycamp]

Never ask for opinions on which chip company to go for...theres the first tip

Just kidding!!! Comes down to personal preference/cost etc but a few of them offer trials so I would say that would be your best bet. Give them a run and see which one puts the biggest smile on your dial!

Also, this may interest you if you are after info on APR remap + CAI + exhaust.....

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2738017

[Chico]

OK!...didn't want to open a can of worms or anything...just a newbie looking to suckle on the teet of your combined wealth of knowledge...Broker getting back to me tommorow with some prelim pricing...will post to get your feedback.

[gpk_gti]

hey chico! welcome!!! what made you come across from rotary land??? harding performance is highly recommended and GUY is a member here.there are also many other chip manufacturers for the GTI - MTM,Oettinger,giac and REVO to name a few,so its wise to shop around and also check the forum for feedback! theres plenty of people here that are happy to help and give share their experiences with you!!

ps-what area are you from??

[GTILover]

Could you just clarify that price for us please Tim. I hate to be rude and ask, but hey I will. Three and a half under rrp?
Thanks
Owen

[Tim]

its ok i dont mind. i was a bit annoyed at how some coy some people get when u put the hard word on them about price when i was trying to get an idea of what price to shoot for. So i went in offering 40k on road for a basic spec car. they pretty much accepted that but then i fell in love with the leather. and as per the xenon blinding thread. well i wanna go BMW driver hunting as well. give em some of their own medicine

car is $38500, xenons are $1800 on roads are $1700ish leather is $3000 and dealer delivery is $3000 = 48k.
I am paying 44.5k and that was with about 30 minutes of bargaining. i reckon i coulda been stubborn and held out for 44 flat but the guy was getting whiney at me.
Basically if u shoot for not paying dealer delivery at least youre doing orright. I think some people have managed to get even more off. but my price is with no trade in. so there is no hidden deal.

1 word of advice though. go in knowing what you want. otherwise they will get u caught up in the heat of the sale. you need to control the deal. so yeah. dont waste the salespersons time unless youre willing to sign the contract. if youre just looking. say youre just looking. If youre ready to buy. say "i want to sign a contract today" and then make a low offer. not too low though. cos they wont take u seriously. if u get no luck at one dealer. go to a different one. i went to one dealer. and they pretty much ignored me. then i went to another and they were onto me in a flash.

one other thing i said is "I KNOW these deals have been done cos im a member of a VW club and other members have purchased recently" they cant argue with that so long as you are realistic.

[REDMKVGTI]

I got about 2.5K under retail, and pushed my trade in up a grand or so as well.

That said, I didn't have the extra fat of the DSG or the Xeonon's to play with, the more gadgets you add on the more you can haggle out.

[GTILover]

Thanks for that Tim, A very good bit of advice, and a fantastic car you have! (I want exactly the same in UG)!
More honest recent purchase prices would be appreciated..

Thanks again Tim

[LowVeeDub]

Tim has very good advice chico, He seems to know the ins and outs of buying a car. When you have got your price from a broker send me a PM and i'll see what i can do for you... Brokers will always take a fee for the deal they are getting, and its usually paid to them so your more or less paying more than you should if you where tough and asked for a good deal from a dealer. Hopefully i'll here from you. If not good luck.

[Tim]

Tim has very good advice chico, He seems to know the ins and outs of buying a car. When you have got your price from a broker send me a PM and i'll see what i can do for you... Brokers will always take a fee for the deal they are getting, and its usually paid to them so your more or less paying more than you should if you where tough and asked for a good deal from a dealer. Hopefully i'll here from you. If not good luck.

EEK! A SPY!
Lets hog tie him, then interrogate him for all of VWs cost pricing. Once we're done we can feather and tar him and ship him back to VW

heres the million dollar question that could cost you your job mate (yes im a **** stirrer) The price i quoted above. Is it about as good as it gets or is there more room to move?

[LookOut]

Good thread! I would agree strongly with Tim's advice on doing the deal.

It helps when you know exactly what you want (option wise, even down to the colour) before you sit down to haggle, because there is no chance for the salesman to start to muddy the water on price. If you can go in there and say "R32, 5 door, Blue, DSG, Sunroof, Bluetooth - Howmuchontheroad?", (you should already know this figure through your research) then offer what you think you can get away with. That last figure will depend on how good both you and the saleperson are at haggling, and how desperate the dealership is to sell a car. It can either be fun, or excruciating, depending on your attitude! Either way, at the end of it, you'll have a new car, (eventually) so enjoy it.

[Tim]

dont be scared to walk from a deal either.
I walked from a deal when they wanted me to sign on their counter offer on the spot. I said "you have my number, i want 24 hours to think it over (as they were arguing with me over $500) call me"

I got the phone call the next day saying "ok we will meet you half way. and we argued over $250" I said ill think about it and call u back later.
I got another call within an hour or so saying ok we'll do it.

So yeah. Dont WANT the car too much. I thought it was all a fun game

[Chico]

Thanks for the advice all

To answer some of your questions... I am here from 'Rotary Land' for many reasons but most are just plain practical ones...Wife and I will be using the GTI as 'our' runaround as we have a CX-7 for hauling our two kids around with...she has only Auto licence and to be frank there are no other 'auto' transmissions I would consider (even though the DSG is not strictly an auto, at least she can drive it like one). Other reasons were fuel economy, and a general desire to not have to rev the back end out of something to get it moving...having said that, if Mazda makes another Rx-7, I'm there with bells on but they have been playing hide and seek with that topic for more years than I care to mention and I needed to do something now. Also, Mazda really dumped on it's RX-8 owners but lowering the RRP by over $7000 over the last couple of years which tends to have a nasty flow-on effect for re-sale when the time comes...I thought I'd 'get-out' when I could so to speak. I am from Mansfield on the southide of Brisbane (I think someone asked that?).

So, the meaty bit...

Deals on the table are

1. An 06 built/07 complianced Black 3-Door DSG with 700kms on the road for $42,500 - immediate delivery.
2. An 07 built/07 complainced Silver 3-Door DSG with no kms, Tints, Mats OTR $43,500 - 8 weeks delivery.
3. An 07 built/07 complianced White 3-Door DSG, with no kms, Mats OTR $43,500 - 3 weeks delivery.

Number 3 has my attention with the 07 build, I love the White and the delivery time aint too bad. It works out to only about $1600 or so off the normal on road price (for Qld) but I am buying it through my business and will be claiming all the GST back in my next BAS, so there's a handy $4000 GST credit, effectively giving me a $39,500 GTI with DSG.

I'm sure there's better deals to be had if I had the time/inclination but I don't right now, just want to get it, re-map it, drive it.