GOLFMK8
GOLFMK7
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GOLFMKV

so, if you had to do it all again, would you?

brobst

Go Kart Champion
I probably would have saved more and gotten the R in retrospect. But if I went back in time yeah the gti is still my car. Perhaps I do my mod order a little differently but I see the same end product again.
It's been fun

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 

OhioMK6

Ready to race!
I have 117K miles now and I have no regrets. Can't think of another car that I'd want in this price range. :thumbup:
 

gijoewoz

Go Kart Champion
I've only had mine for 6 months, so take this with a grain of salt.

I came from an '05 Impreza RS, no turbo, only 165 hp, but AWD. The Impreza was a really fun car to drive. Since it didn't have a ton of power, or turbo lag of any sort, you could use all of the power, and the Impreza was happy to do it.

I'm really enjoying the GTI, it's put together much better than the Impreza, the interior is much nicer, it's quieter, and obviously much faster. However, I really miss the Impreza, as slow and rattly as it was. Subaru's AWD is great, not just in bad weather, but in dry weather it will pull you around a corner in a way that the GTI just can't do (I'm not saying it's necessarily faster around corners, but cornering is more fun). The problem with the the GTI is the the power and the front wheel drive, you really need to be almost all the way out of a corner before even thinking about getting on the throttle. The power from the GTI is more 'all or nothing" it's tough to go quickly without going too quickly and spinning the tires. The line between "come on!" and looking like an asshole is fine one. Another issue is that since the Subaru was "rally inspired" you didn't need perfectly smooth blacktop. I could drive that car hard, everywhere. The GTI feels like it's going to break with every pothole or manhole cover. As well built as it is, bumps in the road really make it feel delicate compared to the Impreza.

So, after only 6 months and not having driven the GTI through a Colorado winter yet, I would have to think really hard about another GTI. Time will tell, there are some things I love about this car, but a WRX is beginning to look even more appealing that it was when I was shopping in June.
 

aj_law

Go Kart Champion
I've only had mine for 6 months, so take this with a grain of salt.

I came from an '05 Impreza RS, no turbo, only 165 hp, but AWD. The Impreza was a really fun car to drive. Since it didn't have a ton of power, or turbo lag of any sort, you could use all of the power, and the Impreza was happy to do it.

I'm really enjoying the GTI, it's put together much better than the Impreza, the interior is much nicer, it's quieter, and obviously much faster. However, I really miss the Impreza, as slow and rattly as it was. Subaru's AWD is great, not just in bad weather, but in dry weather it will pull you around a corner in a way that the GTI just can't do (I'm not saying it's necessarily faster around corners, but cornering is more fun). The problem with the the GTI is the the power and the front wheel drive, you really need to be almost all the way out of a corner before even thinking about getting on the throttle. The power from the GTI is more 'all or nothing" it's tough to go quickly without going too quickly and spinning the tires. The line between "come on!" and looking like an asshole is fine one. Another issue is that since the Subaru was "rally inspired" you didn't need perfectly smooth blacktop. I could drive that car hard, everywhere. The GTI feels like it's going to break with every pothole or manhole cover. As well built as it is, bumps in the road really make it feel delicate compared to the Impreza.

So, after only 6 months and not having driven the GTI through a Colorado winter yet, I would have to think really hard about another GTI. Time will tell, there are some things I love about this car, but a WRX is beginning to look even more appealing that it was when I was shopping in June.

Once you've driven an AWD vehicle, pretty much anything other than that will have a hard time measuring up performance~wise. Based on what you've said, IMO, if you bought an R, you wouldn't be giving the Impreza a second look. Unfortunately, there's the little matter of the price difference between the GTI and the R...which is also why I didn't go for the R too.

Oh, and just a warning, if you're in Colorado, I suggest you hop on a set of winters. You definitely won't be happy with the GTI trying to navigate a Colorado winter coming from an AWD ride. Winters mitigate that a bit.

As to the question presented by the OP, even considering everything I've dealt with on this car, I would definitely do it again. One of my favorite cars that I've owned and I've had around a dozen of them.
 

gijoewoz

Go Kart Champion
Once you've driven an AWD vehicle, pretty much anything other than that will have a hard time measuring up performance~wise. Based on what you've said, IMO, if you bought an R, you wouldn't be giving the Impreza a second look. Unfortunately, there's the little matter of the price difference between the GTI and the R...which is also why I didn't go for the R too.

Oh, and just a warning, if you're in Colorado, I suggest you hop on a set of winters. You definitely won't be happy with the GTI trying to navigate a Colorado winter coming from an AWD ride. Winters mitigate that a bit.

As to the question presented by the OP, even considering everything I've dealt with on this car, I would definitely do it again. One of my favorite cars that I've owned and I've had around a dozen of them.

The Subaru went anywhere, in any weather with just good all seasons. I've already got some good winter tires for the GTI, but the weather is being strange so it looks like I put them on too early. We'll see how a GTI with good snow tires compares to a Subaru with all seasons pretty soon ( I expect to be safe, but not impressed). This winter will have a lot to say about weather or not I keep the VW.
 

aj_law

Go Kart Champion
The Subaru went anywhere, in any weather with just good all seasons. I've already got some good winter tires for the GTI, but the weather is being strange so it looks like I put them on too early. We'll see how a GTI with good snow tires compares to a Subaru with all seasons pretty soon ( I expect to be safe, but not impressed). This winter will have a lot to say about weather or not I keep the VW.

Of course...not surprising at all. Again, AWD is gold. I had an Audi A4 ultra sport with high performance all seasons that the only time it got stuck was when the snow just got too deep and turned me into a snowplow.

Set those expectations low. FWD with winters is decent and should get you where you want to go, but it's not in the same ballpark as AWD.
 

zef

Drag Racing Champion
Happy here. I bought my mk6 for a steal. Even after dumping tons of money into mods ($4k into the DSG alone), I still am not anywhere close to a new MK7R (or even a MK7 GTI). And at this point in my build, the MK7 GTI wouldn't provide any real benefit since my motor is being built, I have bigger brakes, LSD, etc etc.

Though it would've been nice to have started off with an all around better platform, it was hard to justify spending another 15K on just the price of the car alone. I'd rather build and tailor it to how I want.

Also, a properly setup FWD car can be just as fast around a track as RWD/AWD (as the new Type R perfectly demonstrated).
 

gijoewoz

Go Kart Champion
Happy here. I bought my mk6 for a steal. Even after dumping tons of money into mods ($4k into the DSG alone), I still am not anywhere close to a new MK7R (or even a MK7 GTI). And at this point in my build, the MK7 GTI wouldn't provide any real benefit since my motor is being built, I have bigger brakes, LSD, etc etc.

Though it would've been nice to have started off with an all around better platform, it was hard to justify spending another 15K on just the price of the car alone. I'd rather build and tailor it to how I want.

Also, a properly setup FWD car can be just as fast around a track as RWD/AWD (as the new Type R perfectly demonstrated).

Most of us don't spend a lot of time on the track, and in the real world a powerful FWD car has some drawbacks. I'm not all that concerned about a how fast the car is around the track, I care about how it is to drive daily. I do love this car, but so far it hasn't firmly established itself as better than my older, slower Impreza. Time will tell.

All of this is to help the OP with his/her question "if you had to do it all again, would you?" my answer is: as good as the car is, I'm not so sure it's the right car for me considering where I live.
 

clownish

just clowning around
I must be the only one that is very happy I started on a gti platform instead of the R.

I had a good budget when choosing and chose a new GTI over anything else specifically because I knew I wanted to dump money into it. S0 many reasons.
Among them:
- its a great stock car
- its not a collectible or anything so I can go wild and not feel bad at all about driving it to the fullest
- track expenditures are not expensive in comparison to other vehicles
- with simple, easy bolt ons, a GTI is faster than a Golf R while still being easier and cheaper to maintain
- fwd makes no difference really on a road course compared to rwd or awd for me
- fwd is much more practical on the street in daily situations
 

jay745

What Would Glenn Danzig Do
I had a good budget when choosing and chose a new GTI over anything else specifically because I knew I wanted to dump money into it. S0 many reasons.
Among them:
- its a great stock car
- its not a collectible or anything so I can go wild and not feel bad at all about driving it to the fullest
- track expenditures are not expensive in comparison to other vehicles
- with simple, easy bolt ons, a GTI is faster than a Golf R while still being easier and cheaper to maintain
- fwd makes no difference really on a road course compared to rwd or awd for me
- fwd is much more practical on the street in daily situations



Clownish for president 2020!
 

gijoewoz

Go Kart Champion
I had a good budget when choosing and chose a new GTI over anything else specifically because I knew I wanted to dump money into it. S0 many reasons.
Among them:
- its a great stock car
- its not a collectible or anything so I can go wild and not feel bad at all about driving it to the fullest
- track expenditures are not expensive in comparison to other vehicles
- with simple, easy bolt ons, a GTI is faster than a Golf R while still being easier and cheaper to maintain
- fwd makes no difference really on a road course compared to rwd or awd for me
- fwd is much more practical on the street in daily situations

I can agree with everything except the last statement. I'd rather have AWD, or RWD (as long as the climate is dry) over FWD any day.
 

Uberryan

Banned
Nope
 
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