Golf GTI: the good, the bad, the weird...and appreciation thread

[sVWatt]

"Faults" seems a bit wide of the mark, if items 3 and 4 were your kids

So really you had a coolant leak which is now awaiting a part.

Not too bad.

[Maltopia]

Faults in first 3 years (including coolant leak) and warranty results

My GTI is just short of 3 years (33,000 km) and here is the list of what has gone wrong with it and what the dealer fixed under warranty and what they would not:

1. Coolant leak due to faulty water pump - diagnostic pressure test and replacement of the pump covered by warranty but not fixed yet (no parts at the dealership).
2. Nub for the parcel shelf strings in the rear door snapped off - covered by warranty, they replaced the entire internal frame
3. One of the rear aircon vent tabs (the bit you hold to adjust the vents) has come off - not covered by warranty, they say they can't reattach the tab/handle without replacing the whole vent ($331 or so). This was probably kicked off by my kids - they all usually pile in the back from one side and have to climb over the middle divide.
4. Rear drinks holder door had come off (probably kicked off by my kids - see above) - reattached by them at no cost

Hope this is interesting for some of you.

re the coolant leak, a couple of weeks ago, I hopped in the car to drive and shortly afterwards had the flashing coolant light come on which the manual says "don't drive, call the technician" or something like that. Coolant tank (top left under the bonnet) was less than full and there was a few slimy drops of liquid in the belly pan. A bit surprised now to find that the water pump is slowly leaking the coolant after so few kms.

[Ryan_R]

Nice, loosing the supercharger + the extra weight will be the main factors. A tune will help no doubt. Congrats on the upgrade.

[danielv10]

Well done on the buy mate ! Some may say its not a big upgrade but I'd snap one up too given the opportunity. And plenty of little mods and things available for the Golf compared to the Polo GTI. Both look great there.
A tune appears to turn the Golf GTI alive, it would seem

[Bassik]

Just upgraded from Polo to Golf Adidas

Hey all,

New to the Golf world previously being a Polo owner I just took both my cars around the block comparing my drives in both performance and comfort. I will list my thoughts:

Golf vs Polo (GTI)

Pros
- ALOT more comfort and room, definitely feels it as soon as you step in.
- Build quality is so much better, buttons, less creeks and genuinely feels it's price point.
- Corning is way more precise, no body roll.
- Features well that's an easy one.
- Looks are much more appealing.
- Suspension is more refined even though i'm on 18" rims I don't feel it at all.

Cons
- Lacks in the small little compartments, front armrest, boot under carriage, glove-box size and under seat draws.
- Torque is less apparent in the golf, the Polo feels like it has a lot more grunt in the early rpm's. I feel this is due to the supercharger however it losses the pull around 3000-4000rpm.
- Agility, the Polo feels like it can be thrown around a little more. It's a zippy car.

For only owning the Golf for an hour or so I can tell it's so much better to drive the only thing it lacks IMO is torque. Check out my two little babies in the garage. It's weird owning 2 cars that basically look like siblings.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ic67v3cofhyv58/IMG_1278.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2al1dvujodwulls/IMG_1279.JPG

I don't want to do any major mods as I like to keep my cars stock I'm happy to change minor things but I'm open to first mod suggestions.

Next is tune or not?

[sVWatt]

Four Months Old - A 6000km Review

Executive Summary:
Brilliant Car. It's very responsive and no turbo lag, compared to an early SAAB 9000 I used to drive. It's sooooo comfortable in the leather, side hugging, bum warming (Canberra Winter is here) and lumber supporting seats. Solid clunk of door shutting, and fires up first time.

I've been impressed with its ability to sip petrol when required. Though not as miserly as my previous Polo 6R, its still easy on my wallet. Grip is brilliant. I love enthusiastic turns into 90' corners and keeping the throttle on play. The short wheelbase is brilliant for its balanced and well predictable handling. Great also is the integration of the RNS510 into the rest of the car smarts - like the on screen heater display or the ability to pick and choose displays across the RNS or MFD screens.

I genuinely look forwards to driving to and from work, and will happily find an excuse to go to the shops at night, just to enjoy the red interior lighting effect, and watch for the fogs (which I tinted yellow) coming on when I corner.

The RVC is great. It's fast, and well graduated with the on screen markings proving to be very accurate.

The gear change on the DSG is silky smooth. It's far smoother and smarter than my recollection of the Polo 6R 7 speeder.

Wishes:
That there had been the choice of metallic grey with the RVC and Sunroof options - because white takes a bit more cleaning effort.

That the boot space was quite as smart as its younger brother - the Polo 6R has a great two tier boot with subfloor.

That the sides of the door pockets were carpet or felt lined to the top, because plastic or metal drinks bottles tend to rattle in the holders. I fixed this with some adhesive felt, but the Polo 6R solved this by slightly tilting the base of the door pocket away from the passengers, so the bottle lies at an angle weighted up against the door.

That the centre armrest for rear passengers had the cupholders built into it. The fabric armrest does. The leather armrest does not.

The auto hatch lift was standard. It's an easy mod, but would add greatly to features if standard from the outset.



In short; I'm so glad I upgraded from the Polo to the Golf. I feel the build quality and materials used as a clear step up from the Polo. Great car.

[AdamD]

The Golf GTI features in this month's Motor Magazine (December 2012), against the Hyundai Veloster Turbo SR, Toyota 86 GTS, and Ford Focus ST.

Needless to say the Hyundai trails the field, with 6.5/10 - slow and unrefined. The Focus finishes 3rd with 8.5/10 - sharp and reasonably fast, but has some torque steer and a naff interior. The 86 and GTI both rate 9/10, and essentially draw - the 86 for the great driving experience, and the GTI for everything else.

Interestingly, this GTI they've tested was a DSG and clearly a good 'un - 0-100 in 6.12, 0-400m in 14.59 @ 155.63km/h. Substantially faster than the Focus ST (6.79 and 15.05 @ 151.91km/h) and 86 (7.19 and 15.20 @ 148.91km/h).

The GTI's still got it.

[Mi16 Man]

In 26,600kms of motoring, my MY10 GTI has never missed a beat.

Can be a docile as you need and a feisty terrier when you want to turn up the wick.

Highly recommended. Want to buy mine? Am sacrificing my car for the family to get a Octavia vRS TDI.

Tough call..... I'm sad.

[jords]

Hey John,

Having gone from a v8 Discovery down to a Mini Cooper S and then on to mk6 golf gti, I love it. As a daily drive it's brilliant. Quiet, quick, comfortable. It's so refined compared to the above. Having never driven the Touareg, I can't compare, but it's a car I can recommend above all others in a similar class.

[Jonny G60]

Thinking of buying a MK6

Hi,

Thinking of buying a MK6 GTI and was wondering how any of you current owners of this car have found it? are there any issues i need to look out for when buying? will probably be buying from a dealer, as i need to do a trade in on my Toerag V6. any feedback would be graetly apprieated.

Thanks

John

[jwastrel]

One more for "The Bad" (on 3 door GTIs only)

The very user unfriendly seat sliding mechanism. No one who gets in the back can ever figure it out. I actually thought it wasn't working till I found this...

Volkswagen of America

Apparently this is the way its supposed to be. Other than that, great car!

[MaxMo]

This thread is areal treasure trove of information. I reckon it's better than reading the manual. That side mirror not dipping on reverse perplexed me for a while but I've figured it out now!

[entice]

enabled via VCDS.. just like teh static cornering lights, the needle sweep emergency brake flash, auto window/roof closure on rain.. etc etc

[shaq]

one press, drivers door. you need to have 2 presses in quick succession (ie no pause) to unlock rears.

at least that's teh case in mine.

I like having the alarm chirp and "pre-locking" the car prior to closing the doors.

close the doors and then you hear it chirp. excellent for when u have to cart kids out of a car and want to lock it without fumbling for keys whilst holding child(ren)

This might be a dumb question entice, but how did you get the "Chirp" when locking and unlocking the car? How did you do this? Unless you have an alarm installed other then the factory alarm? Thats understandable? LOL I don't remember reading any chirps in the manual LOL apart from the Ding when resetting the tyre inflate sensor or having the alarm on when the windows are down and you sticking your hand through it O_O

[starionx]

Ok... I've had the GTI for a few days now. First impressions... it's not a 370Z. That's neither good or bad, they are just different beasts (but we all knew that ).

The good -

The GTI is very user friendly (lot's of options you can change through the Multi Function Display, lights display, remote control, the display itself etc)... the Z is pretty rubbish in comparison.

Obviously lots more (usable) storage room inside.

On the highway doing 110 in 6th, fuel economy was well below 7L/100kms. The Z, I could never get under 10L/100kms.

The bad -

I kept feeling I was going to topple over going around corners. After driving a Z, this is understandable.

Got to get used to reverse being 'under' 1st gear, not 6th like the Z.

The gear selection display constantly shows you what gear it thinks is 'best' for the car, rather than what gear you are in. WTF??
(is there any way of changing this??).

The ugly -

I will NEVER get used to the blinker stalk being on the right hand side. I'm constantly turning the wipers on instead of the indicators. It is much more convenient to use your right hand to indicate and the left to change gear... especially when you want to change lanes quickly. I guess this is the price you pay when you buy a car that is made for left hand drive regions and changed for the few RHD regions around the world.

In summary, the 370Z is hands down the better car to drive (it's no contest really), but for everything else (user-friendliness, storage, fuel economy etc), for me, the GTI wins.

As I tell people, the 370Z is a great car to drive , horrible car to live with.