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irish44j MegaDork
6/28/19 5:59 p.m.

stumpmj350 said:
Goal is to have my commute be a bit entertaining and be able to haul mountain bikes. I have track and convertible duty covered with a 350Z and Suzuki Cappuccino covered. I've driven the Fiesta ST, Hyundai Veloster, and VW GTI. The top contenders are the GTI (S trim with no options) at about $24k vs the Veloster (turbo R) at about $21k. Either one with the 6 speed #savethemanuals

Leaning towards the GTI since it just seems like a better car especially with massive discounts being dangled in front of me plus the limited slip. The only real downer is that it's just boring looking on the outside ( but the plaid seats!) and I already have one German car to maintain (the wife's Cayenne).

Thoughts from the collective?

I did a pretty extensive GTI review for my '18 over the past year, may be worth giving a read: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/2018-gti-initial-thoughts-after-a-week/143511/page1/

Cliff notes (and mine is an SE, so make the appropriate assumptions regarding bigger brakes, 6MT, and LSD):

- it's very good at everything, well-built, comfortable, handles and brakes well, is reasonably quick and overall is a very, very good car.

- as good as it is, it doesn't really "excite" me the way my prior WRX did. The WRX had 100+ more horses and AWD, and was not nearly as good in any other subjective way, but it did have more character. The GTI is as "German" as it gets: teutonically excellent, but without the character that you get in some other cars, I guess.

I'm at 12k miles and it is still very good, and has been trouble-free. There is still nothing I really dislike about it (other than the meh-sounding engine noises and the excessive brake dust from the huge front brakes). It still has a monster warranty as well - one reason I'm not tuning it to try to make it more exciting.

In short, it's well worth the money, and with a warranty that makes you worry less about "it being a VW"

docwyte UltraDork
6/29/19 12:34 a.m.

In reply to irish44j :

That's one of the main reasons I ponied up the cash for the R. I want to try and keep the warranty intact and the R has ~75hp more, which should hopefully keep me from wanting to tune it. Huge power gains are available if you do, like 70hp and 80ft lbs on a stage 1 tune.

I plan on deleting the center resonator on mine to give the exhaust a bit more growl and perhaps do an intake to get more turbo noises. Neither should impact the warranty and should give the car more personality.

stumpmj350 New Reader
6/29/19 1:12 p.m.

Well I'm standing at the dealer picking up a new GTI S. So decision made!

As an FYI if I didn't already have a sports/track car I'd have gotten an SI. Telepathic steering, good power, and it just drove like an eager puppy. It was just a little more than I was after as a daily driver.