No one likes paying for service on their German car. When I bought my GTI I knew what the costs were. Not cheap for sure, but as long as you DIY what you can & pick what you want done for you a la cart it's not terrible. Those people who bring their car in for the "40K service" will have their wallet hooked to the vacuum & sucked dry. Coming from owning a MINI this VW is cheap in comparison. Although the 40,000 mile DSG service hurt a bit.

GolNat- A stage one tune will be nice, but be prepared to replace the clutch. The clutches VW uses don't seem to be up to adding more HP & torque.

 

 

borla or magnaflow.. dat is the question..

 

 

I've owned both. I prefer Magnaflow in general. Borla has a rasp sound that reminds me of the old cherry bomb glass pack mufflers from the '70's.

Both are quality for sure and I'm sure it depends on application for sound.

 

Service adviser took good care of me today. I can't complain too much.

He and I get along pretty well. He's a Honda guy and not going to change anytime soon. His daily is an Accord, wife drives an Odyssey and his toy is a '96 Civic hatch. He thinks VW maintenance is ridiculous as well....AND he works there!

Like Ash, I knew this going in since I had a '99 Jetta tdi. It's just part of owning a VW. Driving in the rain at high speed in bumper to bumper to traffic on the way home reminded me why I like the Golf. Does it with zero drama. Same situation in the Fit or the Civic we owned before the Fit and you feel like death is imminent rolling down the interstate in a tin can. The Golf feels perfectly at home up at speed.

 

golnat- haha, yah, i listened to the magnaflow for my car and it sounds too stock-ish with the resonator removed (which is my current setup) so going with borla. my original approach was going with milltek but they keep delaying production and everyone is sold out in the USA. while they sound good, weld quality looks like crap so will give borla a try. ive never owned a borla exhaust so will see. at least for my car its not like a puzzle with many pieces and clamps. i put in an offer to one of the stores carrying it tonight.

i run JB1 with 034 CF intake since Cobb did not have a AP at the time. if i was to do it over, id get the AP with their intake aka Stage1+.
i run AP stage1+ on my WRX, and AP stage1 (stock intake due to boost leak issues i read and heard about) on my STI.

gafit- yah, the borla does have a higher pitched sound.. honestly the Golf-R never sounded all that great to me as it has like a muffled note so this opens it up quite a bit. good to hear VW took good care of u today.

 

Having a good adviser makes a big difference.

I preferred the more raw sound of the Borla over the Magnaflow. After it's tuned I'll see how a res delete sounds and go from there. With a down pipe and res delete it might be right where I want it. Cool hopefully its as nice as it looks.

I like the JB1 but not available for MK6. My brother runs COBB on his WRX and loves it but i was looking at going with the guys that have been in the VW game longer like Unitronic and Eurodyne. Both offer self tuning and flash back to stock features. I have not decided yet but still researching both.

 

 

FWIW, I've been shopping Unitronic for our Golf. Pretty sure that's the route we'll go when the warranty is gone. That should be in about 6 months at the rate we're piling on the miles.

A Unitronic tuned Golf is no joke. Picks up a TON of power since it's more mildly tuned than the GTI from the factory.

 

My problem with APR is the way it's sold/distributed. You can't buy their tune and go back and forth at will. You're stuck using their "authorized facilities" every time you want to make a change. That doen't work for me at all.

 

Good call on making friends with the service adviser at the dealer GAFIT. I treat mine well he takes very good care of me.

I'm not tuned yet, but I think I'd go Unitronic if I decide to tune. My GTI ain't slow, so spending money on a tune doesn't seem like a good use of funds. If I still was doing track days I'd be all over a tune. Heck I'd probably spend that money on more camera gear.

 

yah, agree. i HATE having to have to rely on some 3rd party to do these flashes and they're not even custom tunes.. so silly.
definitely into the flash-at-home approach too for ots tunes.

 

funny how these non-Fit discussions are more fun than the rest of the entire forum.

 

Unitronic is having a sale. Don't think this works on Honda Fit's.....

Unitronic tune sale

 

Yes a tuned Golf is such a sleeper. I de badged my GTI but the duel tips give it away to people that know the car!

Well seeing as y'all like Unitronic that makes me feel better about going with it. I don't like APR for the reasons stated and the nearest dealer is an hour away. I don't have a PC so ill have to buy one of them too but they are cheap!

Lol, it's meant to be then. It's nice the sale goes till Jan also! I would like to ask them if I buy a Stage 2+ do I have access to all of the stages before that? This is how Eurodyne is and it saves some money in the long run. You can start on Stage 1 then when you get the extra parts needed for stage 2 you already have the software. Unitronic does not seem to be set up this way and some info on the forum have been conflicting.

 

Everything VW is confusing. I would call and ask them directly.

As soon as our warranty expires in a few months, I'll buy the 1+ Unitronic and not look back. That gives our base Golf more power than a MK7 GTI and should be quite interesting now that I've found real tires can solve the traction issue. Granted...adding 85hp may change that, but I'm totally willing to live with that.

Believe it or not, our Golf isn't slow even in stock form. That's coming from someone who's normal daily runs 12's in the quarter and has a 10 second car in the garage. It's not bad, but everything always needs more :D Once tuned, I'll get it to the track and see how it does.

 

I also ordered a set of the Phillips RacingVision headlight bulbs for the Golf. The crazy bright LED reverse bulbs solved that issue. I'm hoping that the better headlight bulbs can transform the halogen headlights into something a little more usable.

The stock headlights are way, way better than our Fit's even with upgraded bulbs, but they also aren't so great. I'm hoping that better bulbs alone will make them livable. I'm thinking they will since the housing are honestly pretty good for what they are.

I will try to remember to get some comparison pics.