The turnover amongst the service advisor staff at our VW dealer is ridiculously high. As soon as we identify someone who has genuine knowledge, they're gone and a new face is in the role. They must incent staffers to book unnecessary work. When we brought the Golf in for its 10K Mile Oil Change, the "Advisor" piled up an entire menu of expensive services. Aghast, I chose only an oil change and tire rotation at something like $90.

The one thing that we are bothered with is the grooved rotors and man, you can really feel it in the pedal when you hit the brakes hard. My wife asked me if it was the ABS kicking in! And all this with a cautiously-driven car with only 18K Miles on it. I asked to talk to the Service Manager and he insisted that they were "in spec". I think VW used crappy parts. At some point, I'll shop for better rotors and pads. I doubt there's much point in having them turned.

 

You got out of there cheap! My total for oil and tire rotation is closer to $110 at my dealer. That's with a coupon.

Our rotors are 100% JUNK! You can imagine what they look and feel like at 40k miles. VW still says ours are in spec as well.

Our current service adviser is the third that I've made friends with. Others have come and gone all within a year.

In comparison, the Ford dealer I go to still has the same service advisers from 2005 when I started going there.

VW makes some good cars, but I think they are a pretty shitty company and probably even worst at the dealer level.

 

I called my local dealer twice to get a quote on possibly doing the problematic timing chain tensioner and they never returned my call. Found a PDF so I'll do it myself. I still need to pull the inspection cover off and take a look as mine might be updated since 2013 is a border year. I did have to go to the dealer to get a crush washer since it is not the same as my 14mm Honda crush washer. It has some kind of blue gasket inside of it and its rounded. Also got a new drain bolt with a regular hex head instead of the stupid T45. Only $5 for both so the prices are at least decent.

Ok so it's not just me lol. I have only owned Japanese cars and 1 or 2 Ford's. I know there is a learning curve and once I get more familiar it will be better but still.

That will be kick ass!! I should have looked more at a Golf instead of going straight to a GTI. The better MPG and being able to make it like a GTI are really great.

Absolutely!

I am curious how the new lights do. The GTI's are leaps above the Fit's but still could use some extra umph. On a side note I added red LED's for the foot well lights and it looks awesome lol!

 

You're probably better off with the GTI. Improved handling and braking come along with the extra power.

For us the Golf is a long distance commuter and travel vehicle so it actually made more sense. It rides quite a bit smoother than the GTI and runs less expensive tires.

 

GolNat, the MK6 Golf comes with a 2.5 5 cylinder NA engine. That engine is not a stellar one. The MK7 Golf is better in every way. Be glad you bought a GTI it's such a nice package.

 

That does make more sense for you and less for me as it is my back and forth to work car.

After looking at Golf's just now the GTI was the better choice for me. VW did a great job at balancing everyday comfort with fun and I do love my plaid seats :)

 

I love those plaid seats too. A nod to the past that really does it for me. The GTI is an incredible mix of fun, practicality & comfort. Although I cheated & went to 17" wheels to make my tires live on our bad Midwestern roads.

 

so after the store stepped on my face which i thought was a reasonable offer on the borla the explorer cbe, i checked out the magnaflow and invidia catbacks again for my Golf-R since they're readily available and cheap. the invidia's like less than half the price of the borla the explorer and nearly 1/3 of the milltek i was looking at.

... meh the only reason why i dont want to pay full price on the borla the explorer are the fugly.welds. im too use to JDM-quality super clean welds and these exhausts all look like shit (invidia welds are actually clean). even my cheap muffler deletes i got this week for my STI (by GReddy) have super clean welds. sigh..

guess im going to have to bite the bullet on the fugly.

 

If I was going to change exhausts I'd sure go for quality. Milltek makes some nice stuff. Man I love spending other peoples money. Although if I had an R I'd keep it running in stealth mode. Just my .02.

 

yah, i had a milltek before on a previous car and i liked the sound although the welds looked like crap. milltek to me is not high quality. its UK quality.. and that is not really a compliment. Prodrive makes good gear though. im pretty sure im going with borla the explorer.

i do agree a car like the Golf-R should be stealthy..

 

ash - btw, im not trying to put down ur suggestions or anything. i have this concept in my head of a sports hatch and the theme is to have a dynamic and fun drive.

cause i travel so much for work i get to drive all the boring cars out there (rental cars). lol

 

Heck Ken it's your car do as you see fit. Remember my posts are for entertainment purposes only. LOL!!! ;-)

You & your son should build a spec Miata & go racing. But that's just my thought & worth what you paid for it. Remember my posts are for entertainment purposes only. LOL!!! ;-)

 

lol! oh okay, cool. just didnt want u thinking i was being an arse or anything like that. yah, you know if i had more garage space i would like to have a track car.. i have to work on the house first.. been looking at open lots with my wife to build a new house on but mang, not sure i want to go through with all that as i am really NOT a house person. i just dont care for them and decorating and landscaping and all the associated BS. i just want more garage space. lol

i might end up getting a small office with warehouse and use that as my play room and extra garage space. might even do some trading too on the side. my wife has her own company doing IT services so i guess she can pitch in to use some of the office space and conference room i dont use. just still an idea but this might be more realistic for me.

 

I just found that all U.S. 2019 GTIs with the DSG will have automatic engine stop/start. Sigh. I asked about it on another forum and a helpful person responded to say that the "feature" can be defeated with each start cycle (though I don't know the process) or with aftermarket software.

This is a bummer, as I've never fancied these stop/start systems. Just seems like extra wear and tear, and an opportunity for critical failure when it goes wrong. Plus, if I want to have some fun, I don't think the engine would be happy going from zero RPM to abrupt acceleration.

I'd pretty much decided upon the DSG, but now I'm rethinking the manual if and when I buy.

 

 

Yeah, probably a CAFE enhancement. Being retired and having no commute, MPG is no longer a major concern for Alco.

Of course if the stock market continues to wind down, my '06 Frontier remains a proven and reliable choice! <grin>

 

yah, ive encountered several near lux rental cars with auto start/stop during my biz trips and they can be annoying. but for the most part they do start up right away and being MT drivers we tend to pay attention to when the light turns green (or about to turn green) so hasnt been an issue for me. i think best you give it a try to see if it bothers you or not. and i believe you can turn the feature off manually after engine start.

 

I've driven one car with auto-stop other than my Bugeye Sprite that had auto-stop, but not restart. It was a 2016 MINI Cooper S, it was pretty transparent in its operation, but I agree there has to be extra wear & tear with so many extra starts going on. There were many things that kept me from buying another MINI, but surprisingly the stop-start wasn't one of them.

Alco I have read than the stop start can be coded out. I'd have to do that if & when I buy a MK7.5 or 8.

I recently read somewhere about the amount of fuel those start stop things save & it ain't much. If I can find it again I'll link it to this thread.

Merry Christmas to all you good folks!!!

 

hope you all had a great xmas! 5 more days till 2019!!

 

Maybe I'll stop by the VW Dealer and ask a salesperson about the procedure to cancel the auto start/stop with each start cycle.

A happy and healthy 2019 to all of you!