if the idea ever presents itself sometime before i go to college for me to get a different car than my current daily driver, the 1996 legacy wagon (sedation wagon), ive been looking around, and ive come up with an idea. im looking for unbias opinions, i know that will be impossible for some people... (clark) but whaddya think? ive linked below to an example ad.

2001 GTI

Ive always liked the 99+ plus golf styling, the 1.8t packs a decent punch, i love small cars, and theres plenty of tasteful work that i could do to a GTI. thanks for any comments.

The newer you can go the better...the '99s and '00s had a lot of problems and were saddled with the less desirable AWD code 1.8Ts. The '01s are an improvement, thanks to their better AWW engines and their general lack of problems...not until you get to 2002s do things really start to look up (thanks to the edition of the 180 HP AWP engine); especially later on in the production schedule...the 2002.5s seem devoid of pretty much all of the chronic problems that are found in the older GTIs.

If you're looking for a car that will last forever without any problems, an older MkIV Golf/GTI/Jetta is not the way to go...it took VW many years to iron out all the problems with these cars, such that the only cars I would consider worth pursuing for the purpose of a daily driver would be the '02s and up.

Now how's that for unbiased!

I am fairly certain that quality took a huge slide once the Golf started being assembled in Mexico. (instead of Germany)

Clark - Are all Golfs being assembled in Mexico now, including GTIs ?

Note - if the VW you are looking at has a VIN# starting in "W," then it was manufactured in Germany.

alright, how is the gas mileage on the GTI?

No, GTIs are not assembled in Mexico at all...only New Beetles and maybe Jettas (not sure about the Jettas).

GTIs and Golfs are built predominantly in Brazil nowadays, although they still build a few in Germany, but those are relatively rare compared to the Brazilian ones. However, all the engines are german built...transmissions come from various sources (mine, for instance, came from Tokyo...how odd )

And to bankie: My GTI averages about 23 MPG; although I managed 29 on a long trip once. Supposedly, though, the stick shifts are good for an additional 2 MPG or so on top of the automatics.

ok, better than the 17 or so i get with the sedation wagon when it isnt getting the preverbial shit kicked out of it by my throttle happy foot. they told us that the manual of the WRX was good for another 2-3mpg too. interesting fact.

Well, sticks are inherently more efficient than automatics because they use dry clutches instead of torque converters...more of the energy of the engine gets soaked up as heat in a torque converter than in a clutch, hence, lower performance and lower fuel economy for automatic cars. There are however, expceptions...for instance, the Audi S4 gets 17/21 with a stick and 21/23 with an automatic, but nonsense like that is rare.

I see. do you know of any good websites on which I could browse GTI performance parts?

www.ecstuning.com is my personal favorite (they're an Ohio based APR dealer). ECS has the best (in terms of price and looks and performance) brake kits for VWs, and they sell chips and stuff too.

And then for wheels/tires/suspension, there's good 'ol www.tirerack.com

And for exhausts, I very much like www.milltek.co.uk

And then there's www.parts4vws.com

And finally www.newdimensions.com, which is my local VW performance place.


And btw, here's a good site that explains VW's VIN codes...so you can see if you're getting a Brazilian or German car and all that good stuff. http://www.sportcompactracing.com/vbulleti...ead.php?t=17163

I'm with Bankie here, I love the styling of the 99+ GTI's. I never really cared too much for the previous gen's because of the interior. But I love the current styling very much

OMG, you've made me remember the most beautiful GTI I've ever seen...*goes to get pics*

EDIT: Got 'em

omfg... drool that is the best car ive ever seen! im gonna get a gti at the end of the summer now!! lol

You better hurry...this one's gonna go quick. (it's for sale right now for a "reasonable offer". A guy who offered $11k got slapped via the internet...)

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1356104 <--

awww damn, thats higher than my limit! and im gettin a car at the end of the summer. cant do it now cuz no $$

If he accepts Monopoly money, I'll buy it for $15k in cash

Yeah, my Cabriolet is VWV.
WVW is germany, 1VW is USA, 3VW is mexico, and 9BW or 9VW VIN is brazil.

In my experience, and other peoples experiences with a vw built between 1998-2001 the electronics, sensors, rattles, suck. Now they're good, like Clarkma said. I think, if VW's engines werent' so electric reliant these days, the vw would be a very good car, and you could work on it yourself more often, but since the electronics on the engines are so crazy, you have to take it a dealer. God damnit, car companies are trying to get an monopoly so we they fix it, not us.

You are 100% correct Redline about the VIN codes and the 1998-2001 problems

But holy fuck, does the GTi offer a lot of stuff for how much money. Like, what car has a nicer interior in its class?

I think the GTI has spoiled me in terms of bang-for-the-buck...for about $20k even it outperforms a basic RSX and runs with a Type-S with an interior that i prefer (although both are good ergonomically with high quality materials), and the GTI has 4 real seats and a large, upright, wagon-like storage area... all for less or the same amount of money for any other hot hatch! Damn! if they could only sort out the suspension better it'd be a no-brainer, but even in its current condition it's respectable compared to its peers.

VW's are easy to hell to tune too.

Damn you guys are making me want a GTI more and more...heh

I think the 6 speed is geared lower...?

That's probably the case, b00st...I can't claim that I looked up on it much.

I still want one ;(