2010 GTI

[Mike]

those wheels aren't that blingy and morons don't know a real badge from a fake one, but i suppose a badge is a badge, and THAT MEANS RACING.

[WRXtranceformed]

Badges add street cred, everyone knows that. You wear the badge, you live the life

[Mike]

a quarter mile at a time.

[SlimKlim]

So, have the car for just over two weeks now. Initial impressions:

Pickup is great, although the transmission can be a little annoying to get it going quickly off the line. Seems like it's either slow going or spin the wheels (which is an adjustment for me, can't remember the last time I did that). Can't find that happy medium yet. The Ralliart (also twin clutch) allowed me to kinda feather the throttle a bit before the clutch(s) engaged so I could give myself a little oomph off the line, DSG does not allow that.

Gas mileage is AWESOME. I can drive "spiritedly" and still average about 28-30 highway and about 18-22 city. I was lucky if I got 24 on the highway WITHOUT any shenanigans in the Evo. Very happy.

I don't know if it's actually quicker, but I short shift first when I'm trying to bolt from a stoplight. I give it like 60-70% throttle to like 3500rpms in 1st to minimize wheel spin, then go full throttle in 2nd.

If you turn off traction control and put it in manual or sport, then hold your left foot on the brake, it goes into launch mode and you can rev it all the way up to 3500 rpms and launch it. It's pretty pointless on my all seasons, all I do is generate a ton of wheel spin.

[Ken]

Couple months in and everything has been great. If I really take it easy and the weather is fairly cool (nights) I can see just under 34MPG which is fantastic. Car handles well enough, would still like to look into some sway bars, but is definitely fun to toss around. Have taken a couple of road trips and it's just great to throw down the back seat and just toss crap in.

Yesterday however, I noticed my first little hiccup. Under heavy acceleration in 3rd and 4th the car "skips" for a second and loses forward momentum. Similar to when the Evo hit fuel cutoff but much less scary and a much shorter duration. I'm thinking it's misfiring, so perhaps plugs and coils? Should that be an issue for a car at about 35K miles? Either way I'm going to check with my brother today to see what the extended warranty is supposed to cover, if this falls under it then I will bring it in. If not, i'll look into how hard this job is for me to do (assuming it's plugs and coils).

[WRXtranceformed]

Your brother is the one who bought the CLA AMG right? How is that going for him?

[SlimKlim]

Mine started misfiring hard right after I got it tuned and it set a temporary code for which cylinder it was. I didn't replace the plug because I did them ~10k ago.

If it's not a warranty item then just keep driving it and wait for the CEL to flash. Mine wouldn't let me go above 25% throttle without stuttering hard though, yours sounds like it's playing hard to get.

[Ken]

Your brother is the one who bought the CLA AMG right? How is that going for him?

Loves it so far, haven't gotten chance to get a nice in depth real-life review from him yet though. Had someone back into him at the gas station the other day though which is definitely frustrating. Not that major of damage but I would imagine that panel will still have to be replaced.

[Ken]

Mine started misfiring hard right after I got it tuned and it set a temporary code for which cylinder it was. I didn't replace the plug because I did them ~10k ago.

If it's not a warranty item then just keep driving it and wait for the CEL to flash. Mine wouldn't let me go above 25% throttle without stuttering hard though, yours sounds like it's playing hard to get.

Just got back from lunch, stomped on it 3 through 4 and it didn't do it. So it must be reallllyyy minor if it is failing. Guess i'll just see what my brother says and if it's not just wait until a real CEL is thrown.

[Evan]

just keep driving it and wait for the CEL to flash.

So, normal vw ownership?

(Totally never gets old)

[Ken]

Well, as per the above, the CEL started flashing occasionally on the drive down to JMU under heavy throttle. Finally after one specific time it shuddered pretty badly, it has decided it will stay on now.

I have a friend who works as a tech at an Audi dealership here, so I just have to call the warranty provider and file the claim and then bring it there. Hopefully this will be a relatively quick process.

[SlimKlim]

I'm still guessing it's a bad coil, should be extremely easy to replace, you probably won't even have to drop it off if that is the case, they can just scan it, replace the bad coil and clear the code while you wait.

[Ken]

So I brought this guy in finally to get serviced. Since the warranty can be applied anywhere I decided to go to an Audi dealership by me since my friend works as a tech there. So if he fucked it up, he'd have to look me in the eyes later haha.

Anyway, it was exactly what I(we) thought it was, coilpack which failed on cylinder 4. They only replaced that one since the others were "okay." Warranty company's call, not the dealership since it makes more sense to replace them now. My friend felt bad since he assumed that the company would require a printout he said it was one failed coilpack, they didn't wind up needing that so he could have just said all 4. Oh well.

If the others fail relatively soon I'm sure I'll have a case with the warranty company to not pay the deductible again. As it was it would have been $200 for this without it, I paid the $100 deductible which I am okay with.

[Sully]

Idk much about cars or how serious the warranty company is but that would seem somewhat suspicious if all four had failed. At that point, I would feel a red flag would go up if no other parts were replaced like an ecu or something. But that's just my view. They may not look at warranty claims that closely if they are below a certain $ amount

[Sijray21]

if this happens again forego the extended warranty ($100 as a deductible is a lot for a single ignition coil replacement). the r8 coils seem to be more durable and they're cheaper than the standard coils (or so the internets say).

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[Ken]

So, the inevitable occurred rather quickly. This past Wednesday I was chugging along when it just crapped out. Engine was misfiring so badly it also threw a CEL for the traction control. Brought it back in and my friend did me a favor and stayed late this past Saturday and got everything knocked out, even replaced the spark plugs. No charge since it's the same issue.

On a somewhat related note, I'm not thrilled with this car. It does everything great; just not in love with the thing. I'm probably going to test drive a Fiesta ST sometime soon and compare. At this time, if someone threw me 16.5K for this, I'd let it go.

[SlimKlim]

The Fiesta probably won't flip your light switch compared to the VW. They're super fun to drive but the VW (with your tune) is definitely faster, and also bigger, rides better, more comfortable and more practical. Also, the DSG can occasionally do annoying things which is a problem some of the time, but the Fiesta has a clutch pedal, which is a problem all of the time.

How much life is left on the extended warranty for the VW? Sort of want.