So... I heard that the new GTIs were starting to show up at the dealerships. Naturally, I wanted to check it out for myself. I drive up to my local dealership, park my car and start walking toward one of them. The salesman, that I bought my car from comes out and hands me the keys "Take it for a spin, just don't crash it!" Who would resist this offer?

First impression. So anyway. I get in the car. Mine was the 2 door with plaid seats. Immediately, I notice that the interior is much better; it just speaks quality compared to the MKV. The base seats are very comfortable, soft but yet supportive. The driving position, as always with VWs, is just right. The instrumentation is much more pleasant, the mirror control/ window switches have nice detail to them, i.e. chromed tips. The stereo is pretty slick, it was the full screen non-nav unit. The steering wheels is awesome, even with the shape from the MKV; the red stitching looks great. The only let down were the the HVAC controls; they felt cheap and flimsy.

Driving.
Well it drives like a stock MKV, minus the engine feels like it has a bit more torque. The steering feels a little bit better but its not significant.

basically its an MKV with better interior, and different exterior. I did not see enough difference to want the new model but to anyone who hated the MKV, this provides a great alternative...

I think the MkVI is going to offer sharper on-the-limit handling than the MkV thanks to the XDS system, it's going to be cheaper to VW to produce because the MkVI has removed many of the inefficiences of the MkV on a production-level, which I think also means we're going to see yet another major jump in quality and reliability. Plus the EA888 is a cleaner, gruntier engine, and as you mentioned, the interior is a big jump up...which is important because the MkIV -> MkV transition saw the interior take an unfortunately nosedive IMO.

the TSI Motor is less maintenance intensive also... MKV was much better reliability wise, especially 2008 and on models.

This just in: GTI owners love GTIs

that's like saying: Porsche drivers love Porsches... what's your point?

shit i just sounded fanboish... sux

This not just in: this R32 driver hates GTI drivers.

This just in: R32 drivers hate when they're beaten by modified gtis

This just in: Non-historical VWs suck in general. Enjoy your sterile culture.

thank god I have a historical GTI

This just in: Mod all they want, it's still economy-wheel-drive!

You guys are all idiots. It's a sporty hatchback, not an object of worship...just a car that's a couple notches better than something boring like an Accord for under $30k.

This just in: FWD+Stick > AWD+Automatic

this just in...



YOU'RE ALL TOOLS!!

its funny how many threads turn to: let's give razor shit

wut, no

Any day my friend, any day.

You have front wheel drive... you own a fucking tricycle.

I'd take a MT Jetta over a R32 any day. If I wanted AWD I'd get MT WRX.

I've seen a maunal STI wagon today... do want... a lot.

One of my best friends got a WRX at the beginning of this past summer. I'm pretty much a german whore when it comes to cars, but I really like that car.

I would agree with this statement for a car that is a cheap daily driver.

MKV/VI GTI > MKV R32

I see what's going on here. All you tricyclists can't stand my two clutches!

^ Even as a manual, the MKV GTi was so competent, the R32 had relatively little to add, unless you really wanted that V6 (an emotional decision) or absolutely needed the AWD. I've held that belief for a while, and I think we've discussed it before.

SRT-4 IS still the fastest of the lot.

Yeah, truth. Noting my current location, you can see why I'm going to love having the AWD. Hell, this morning I scraped thick ice off of my windows before 6AM crew practice. Snow is imminent... lots of it... and it's not even October.



Truth as well.

If you seriously think AWD is required to drive in the snow and not die then you're far far far far more retarded than I thought. Gee, guess what, Razor? Vast majority of cars on the road are 2 wheeled drive! OGM!! they might slide and crash into you because they didn't buy "top of the line" snow tires and lack AWD!

/Canadian winter

Do I think it's required? Fuck no. Where did I say it's required? I said I'm going to love having it, yes. My dad's old 560SEL was terrible in the snow, nearly scary in certain instances, but it still worked, even if he did have to back up the driveway on certain occasions.

This just in!

You guys are all dependent on vagcom, and are therefore vaginas.


Start wrenching niggaz.

Bullshit! The only thing I've ever used it for is to disable DRLs.

Real men disable electronics by cutting and splicing wires, followed by electrocution, and then 3 other problems arising from the previous action.

hence the reason your car dies on you.

How are you liking DSG? My girlfriend has it in her car (VW EOS) and in her car it can get pretty retarded. It never knows what gear it wants to be in, its constantly changing gears and the RPMs jump all over the place. I'm all up for technology, but I really don't think anything can beat a good manual transmission. I love my car to death, but the automatic transmission in my car makes me hate it sometimes. I really wish I had a chance to grab a 6MT...

I'm not 100% familiar with how it works in Auto... I'm in manual mode 90% of the time (parking lots, slow roads, and traffic make up the other 10%), and manual mode's phenomenal. Upshifts are always instant, and to get it to downshift with absolutely zero latency, you can tap the brake very lightly and then downshift. My friend who has a manual A4 is always surprised how seamless the gear changes are.

Apparently, the DSG is supposed to learn the driving style of the driver in automatic mode (more specifically it tries to learn to distinguish whether or not you're driving in a 'spirited' fashion). For instance, when my dad drove my car down to New Jersey two weeks ago, he was having issues with the DSG I never have, as he likes to just step on it hard on the fly to pass, but I generally start depressing the pedal slowly and add more rapidly. His driving style did indeed induce the RPM-jumping behavior you were talking about.

I figured that might be the problem, we do drive completely different. Its good to know that I'm not the only one whose always in manual mode with their transmission. I was the same way on my beamer, its funny because even in traffic I'll drive in manual mode.

so why didn't you get a manual ?

None of the dealerships were receiving any manuals for a couple of months and the ones they were weren't with the options I wanted nor did they want to negotiate on the price of the car. I was able to negotiate about 4,000 off MSRP, which allowed me to get the car.

so anyone else drive this wonder of engineering?

It is no more a wonder of engineering than your car, so stop playing it up like it is. It has a better interior, that's all. The new R will be a 'wonder of engineering' over my car, though.

The VI DSG does accelerate to 100kmh a fuckload faster than the V, track-wise it's a little quicker than the old one, mainly through acceleration though, apex speeds are fairly similar to the V. In town driving though i can't stand the DSG - in order to get their claimed fuel usage figure the DSG changes to 6th gear as fast as possible so as soon as you want to accelerate again it has to change down 3 gears again - hence driving in manual all the time.

1 more thing though, if you don't have the VI ready to launch it'll get beaten by a Focus ST as we found out.

I was being sarcastic...

Focus ST has 300HP?

Nope, 225.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Focus_(i...ional)#Focus_ST

oh my bad I was thinking Focus RS

I like the ST so much more than the RS.