I was having issues long before I went stage II, and honestly, I may just stay at stage I. I'm happy with that amount of power, and no low end loss.
Maybe you're just a shitty manual driver? No offense intended, of course. Perhaps your driving style (read: clutching style) is just not proper and YOU have caused premature clutch wear? We all have our quirks and weaknesses, maybe yours is driving a manual. My buddy had the same issue and went back to an auto because he just couldn't "get it."
It's not about the $ at all, it's the principle. The quality is completely hit and miss, and you guys are assuming my clutch would be fine right now if it wasn't tuned. I'm not so sure of that.
And by your above statement, you're assuming that the clutch WOULDN'T be fine without a tune. Maybe it would have been. You tuned at 1000 miles, the car was brand new. You have no clue if the stock clutch would have lasted if you didn't tune your car. Don't act like you know something you don't. While you say there is plenty of evidence of stock clutches lasting with stage I and II, there is also plenty of evidence of them NOT being able to handle stage I and II power. You're fighting an uphill battle. No one person clutches and applies the throttle like any other one person. Maybe the people who have stage I and II with stock clutches baby their cars. Now, the definition of "baby" is subjective. Maybe to you, you baby your car. To others, you may drive like a racecar driver.
I want VW to lose money on this. They released a cheap product that's completely under-engineered, and they should have to pay the price for it. But the funny thing is, some don't appear to be under-engineered. Where is all this variance in quality coming from? They've wasted a lot of my time at this point (I've been to the shop three times already!) and they're not reimbursing me for that.
What?!?! How does VW know if you have abused the clutch or not? There are plenty of people who burn out their clutch within a few thousand miles because they simply don't know how to operate a manual car correctly. Stop whining. You're tuned, there is PLENTY of evidence to support the fact that the stock clutch cannot handle stage I, let alone stage II. Quit blaming VW for an "under-engineered" product. Maybe the clutch was a dud, I'll give you that, but you can't change history. You tuned at 1000 miles and therefore had minimal experience with this clutch at stock power. You have zero room to accuse VW of shoddy QC or a bad product. Now, if you weren't tuned or didn't tune at 1000 miles, I may feel otherwise.
Obviously you don't have any idea what you're talking about, 61% of the the failures on this forum were at stock. Do some research before you post. GTFO of here is you have nothing productive to add.
So now you tell the guy to GTFO because you don't like what he said? See my comment below...
I'm not going to lose any sleep over this, but I'm definitely going to try to get another stocker. Worse comes to worst, I go get an aftermarket clutch like I was planning, but I should at least give VW a chance to fix their mistake first.
Arrogance at its finest.
ETA: I am not the typical VW/GTI fanboy either. There are plenty of posts on this forum backing up the fact that I don't think these cars are the end-all-be-all. I just honestly think that you aren't owning up to something that you could have caused. Instead of being open-minded, you immediately blame shoddy QC and/or a shoddy product. You have no clue.
