Wife has a new job that comes with a 4 year apprenticeship/contract. She loves it but, sadly, it's a 75 mile round trip commute.

We love our GD Fit, but it's not a quiet highway commuter and it's getting worn out with the new job. What to do?

Buy another car! After test driving multiple options and researching everything, we ended up with a VW Golf Wolfsburg edition. It simply has the options she wanted in a quiet, affordable, hatch package. She is deeply saddened that Honda does not make "this" vehicle since she is a life long Honda gal. Her Dad retired as Chief Engineer of the Honda Marysville, OH plant and she's been around/owned Honda's her whole life. A Civic Hatch would fit the bill if you could get a manual with more options or a Civic Si would fit if they made it as a Hatch.

Without any more excuses...on to the pics...









What's that peaking in the background? Our Fit of course! It's not for sale!





Here's a shot of my daily. Yes, it's an old man's car. Comfy, quiet, tons of amenities. Oh, it also runs 12's :)





Not pictured is our fox body Mustang that is sleeping in the garage.

I will try to update this thread as the miles pile onto the VW. We'll see if it's a dependable ride. So far I can honestly say that it drives better than anything I've been in short of other European cars. Acura and Lexus models truly do not drive as well. The VW was the first car I have ever detailed that made zero noise when hitting it with a high speed buffer. Not a squeak, rattle or vibration. The darn thing is that solid. The Fit sounds like a box of cracker jacks. Lincoln makes thunder sounds from the panels flexing.

 

nice picts GAFIT!

not sure if this is any consolation or adds confidence, but ive had no issues on my GTI, which i believe is the same plant they make the golf wolfsburg edition? unlike my mexican made Fit, my GTI is honestly well built.. better than my Germany made R.

if you encounter rattles coming from the doors on a hot humid day, try this stuff along the door frame. Gummi Pflege Stift

https://www.carcareproducts.com.au/i...s/txy7wuy8.jpg

 

As usual, you are a wealth of information! I will keep that in mind! Thanks!

 

I should add that, buying my wife a new car, means I get to drive the Fit more!

Been using it the past few days and started referring to it as "my car." That comes with a scowl and a "our car" from the wife. Started collecting parts for it. It's going to get bigger front brakes, rear discs, and coilovers in the very near future. 190,000 miles on it and it's time for round 2 of upgrades. Round 3 will include a large increase in power. Not sure yet if it will be a K swap or boost.

 

That is a good choice. I had a newish Jetta when my Fit was waiting for a new airbag last year, the way that thing ate highway miles blew me away. Such a nice place to spend time on the highway.

 

Thanks! That was our main goal. It's hard to find smallish cars that can eat up highway miles in comfort. My Lincoln does it in stride, but it does it while getting 25mpg and chewing through premium fuel.

A Jetta would have been cheaper, but the wife just loves hatchbacks. I would question her taste, but that would be indirectly insulting myself.

Tune only on the Golf adds up to 80 hp. That will be in it's future. Not before window tint though! Trying to find a shop that will order me in some decent tint. Every shop in my area only uses cheap junk tint. Side effect of living in a small town.

 

Congrats on your wife's new, and your new car! Let us know how the maintenance costs are compared to the Fit. I've been tempted to drive a European car, but I hear the maintenance can get pricey.

I was surprised to see the SI would only be in the coupe as well. What a let down as I was thinking an SI HB would be my GK's replacement in a few years. Maybe by then it will exist...

I do about 85 miles roundtrip on my daily commute with the GK. It's not the quietest but I did add an HKS exhaust to drown out the road/wind noise. Between the HKS and music, it's not bad and I get lost in my thoughts. Fit is not the best long distance commuter, but it gets the job done and the mileage is awesome. I routinely get 40+ MPG, last tank being 44 and my monthly gas spent is less than $70.

Oh and I spy a kitty sneaking about as well, lol.

 

Isn't a picture without a cat photobomb. Right?

I agree about the maintenance concerns. If you're a "take it to the dealer" person, VW is not the cheapest option. We had a 1999 Jetta tdi in the family and each dealer visit was a bend over experience. Bills that left you scratching your head. Like why did they bill separately for washer fluid, coolant top off, disposal fees, shop time, etc when all other places lump that into the $29 oil change. Instead they'd supply an itemized bill that amounted to a $200 oil change.

That being said, VW only calls for service every 10,000 miles so, they won't hit you up all that often. Just be prepared when they do.

I'm a dedicated DIY'er though so that part of the car purchase was not a factor for me.
My neighbor tells me that Honda isn't so bad. His bills are always reasonable. I can't say because, other than the 3 recalls, our GD Fit has never been to the dealer other than to pick up oil filters or misc. parts from the parts department.

Our Fit has the HFP exhaust and the GD's have even more road noise than your car. No joke though, after 9 years of commuting in the Fit, my wife's hearing has suffered. Maybe it would have anyway, but I wonder if the 2 hours a day of near concert level noise hasn't had an affect.

Our GD has averaged 33/34 over its lifespan. That includes some city traffic and lots of mountain roads. Trouble with the GD's is the 5-speed, small diameter tires, and gearing add up to a car that gets real loud and thirsty above 70mph.

The VW only has 980 miles so far, but is averaging 36 mpg doing the same driving. It's also considerably more quiet and near double the actual wheel horsepower of our GD.

Even as a DIY'er I don't expect the VW to be as dependable or have nearly as low of operating costs as the Fit. It's a heavier, more powerful vehicle built with a European mentality vs. the Honda way of engineering a car to need virtually nothing.

It would not surprise me if the Fit doesn't get used as a back up when the VW has more miles on it. I can see the Fit out lasting it despite the 190,000 mile head start. LOL

 

dang 36mpg on your Golf! i can only do 27mpg on my GTI at best. haha i do push the car quite a bit when traffic opens up though. :p
oh yah, the stability of the Golfs on the highway is incredible. no crosswind issue at all like on the Fit!

does the regular golf have the oil filter in the engine bay? i did the oil change on my GTI last year and it was literally the easiest car to do an oil change. nothing to remove below, plastic plug and all i needed was a screw driver for the plug and a 36" socket to do the oil filter canister.

im sure u already know but shopDAP has an oil change kit for the GTI/R, should have one for your Golf too? :D

 

Yup! Filter up top. Ours takes a 32mm socket I believe. I need to see if I still have the one from the families tdi. I think it was the same size.

If you ignore power output, interior materials, and amenities, this little Golf honestly drives as nice as my $52k Lincoln. I'm impressed with the overall manners. I hope it holds up.

I bought a set of seat covers for it. Not a big fan of the Leatherette or whatever VW calls the vinyl seating. It's soft and I'm sure will hold up well, but it's hot compared to real leather. Especially the leather in my Lincoln that is also chilled :)

 

you're right! 32mm socket, not 36mm. my head was completely off

sounds good on how well the car drives! and nice choice in color too.
GL on the seat cover install. :)

 

We did the same and for the same reasons, buying our '17 Golf Wolfsburg 5-Speed stick in late May. That l'il 1.8 Turbo provides great torque and HP, and is a lot of fun to drive. At 65 MPH, we turn ~ 2000 RPM and at 80 MPH ~ 2200 RPM; a 6th Gear isn't needed with the manual transmission powertrain. We're matching your fuel economy, also getting 36 MPG with regular octane fuel. It's a practical package that your wife will enjoy. We kept our Fit, passing it to our young driver.

Here's ours:



2017 VW Golf Wolfsburg 5-Speed

 

Very nice! Great picture!

We'll have to compare notes on long term reliability. Ours will get miles piled on it with the wife's commute, so we should know within a couple of years how well it holds up.

Been looking at Unitronic's tune. +84hp and +108tq with nothing but a flash is really hard to turn down.

Tune on my Lincoln made it into a whole different animal.

 

very nice Alco!

i run JB1 cause i can tune the psi to match my mods. do they have one for the Golfs? flash is definitely cool too if you can do it at home.

 

So far everything I have seen available for the GTI is available for the 1.8t.

The old GTI's were 1.8's. I'm not sure if our new 1.8t shares architecture with the new 2.0 or the old 1.8 or neither. But, seems that all the same parts are available for either current motor.

 

A quick search and I found that the new 1.8 and 2.0's share a lot, but also differ quite a bit. They share all except stroke as far as architecture, but the 2.0 has a forged crank, and variable exhaust timing/lift.

1.8 also gets a one size smaller turbo for less lag than the 2.0, but also less total power output.

Biggest mechanical advantage of the GTI that I see is the limited slip. After having a front drive car with a limited slip, it's hard to want one without.

 

Thank you on the photo and yes, we'll compare reliability notes later on. We sold our '10 VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI (diesel) back to VW and it was an extremely reliable car with 110,000 Miles on it. We're hoping that our Golf will provide the same happiness for us.

Deutsche Auto Parts is a VW/Audi parts supplier that's located just north of Charlotte, NC and they offer a ton of maintenance and performance parts.

Deutsche Auto Parts | Specializing in Volkswagen and Audi Parts and Accessories

The Owner also has a very informative YouTube channel. Yes, there are a lot of GTI parts that fit the Golf.

 

sounds good GAFIT!

yah, the LSD on the GTI is quite impressive.. :D. but then again i'm not sure how often your wife would be taking the corners at the limit? haha

yah shopDAP is that exact store i posted a few up. they're very good.

also Alco- you mentioned your Golf is MT. did you mod your gas pedal at all? i made a spacer for my R and installed a Sparco pedal over it to better match the brake pedal height for street driving heel and toe. i might end up swapping the other 2 pedals later on.

 

you guys rock OBDeleven? very cool to have! :D

 

I have been shopping OBDeleven and Ross-Tech. Haven't purchased either yet.

With OBDeleven, do you have to buy the dongle and Pro package to have both the software and hardware? I see DAP sells it also for $79. Guessing that includes both.

Thanks for the tip on the oil change package from DAP! I will purchase his Castol package with magnetic drain plug.

Already bought an oil filter at the dealer, but that can go into inventory for my next oil change on it.