Project? Nah... Prolly Not: Mk7 GTI

[Apoc]

I wouldn't be changing the lights for any other reason than looks. I don't have visibility problems, as everywhere I drive has street lights. Daylight here is like 4 am to 10 pm, so I probably haven't had my headlights on in a few months. That's really the reason why I'm having a hard time justifying the cost at this point. 

Speaking of city living, this is what it looks like when your DOT says "screw you" and paints lines with your car parked a few inches away. The wheel position doesn't match because I noticed it the next day. Recommendations for getting the paint off? Is acetone really best option? Seems harsh.

[davej]

Call it in to your VW wheel warranty, duh.

[Sijray21]

Well, that sucks...

I assume some clay bar should take it off? I'm not sure, but I'd try that with some polish afterwards.

[ViPER1313]

Goof off may do the trick.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Paint? Scrub hard with warm water. Acetone seems way harsh. Worst case scenario some brakleen sprayed onto a towel and then wipe off paint.

[Senor_Taylor]

Call it in to your VW wheel warranty, duh.

..... :/

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[Apoc]

So I've now shown up for service at VW twice when I didn't need it. The intervals are every 10k miles, but they don't really say anything about timing. I did 2400 miles the first year, then another 1400 over the next eight months. Given I drive so few miles, I've chosen to honor the oil change indicator because it "feels" like the right interval.

The first time was about six months into ownership; they said it was probably counting time from manufacture date. Then I got the oil changed at the one year mark, but I can't remember if the indicator came on... I would think so. It came on again recently, so I made an appointment. While there, the service guy tells me I'm not due for another six months because it's a 12 month interval. We agree/hope that they just forgot to reset the time when they changed the oil at the one year mark - since it was about one year when it went off mistakenly before. They reset it and sent me on my way. I'm supposed to go back in February for the second oil change, but the service advisor doesn't think it'll tell me. He said to call and speak with a service advisor before booking anything.

I can't imagine six months is the right interval, given it's 10k miles. The logic of 12 months makes sense to me, so I'm electing to believe the dealer for now. WIth such low mileage, I'm not sure it really matters anyway... but it does put that "VW gremlin" question into your mind.

[ViPER1313]

The Mustang’s oil life indicator goes off after 12 months if you don’t drive much.

The 540’s must ignore time or allow it to go for much longer than 12 months; I reset the service indicator light and it has been 10 months, but I have only lost 1 bar of oil life...

[Sijray21]

I change mine every 5k and that's about 6 months for me. I can't imagine that 12 months is too long, but it's an oil change, so not a huge expense for a little extra preventive maintenance.

[Jake]

The 540’s must ignore time or allow it to go for much longer than 12 months; I reset the service indicator light and it has been 10 months, but I have only lost 1 bar of oil life...

BMW claims it will drop based on time, mileage and driving conditions. How much have you driven it vs it being broken down in your driveway?

My F150 will do it based on driving style and miles, both it and the 2011 seem happy asking for new oil every 7k. Given my sudden lack of driving, that may be roughly once a year or so.

[ViPER1313]

The E34 has gone ~3k miles and 10 months since I reset the light fwiw. The Mustang seems to take age of oil more seriously than the BMW. When I was driving the Mustang 120 miles a day, the OCI would stretch out to around 10k miles of highway driving if I followed the monitor (I normally changed it every 5 or 6k). Now that I drive it 300 miles a month, it goes about 3500 miles and 12 months.

[Apoc]

I'm 1.5 weeks away from two years of ownership and will probably come in around 1800 miles over the last year (+ 2400 in year one). I've noticed a very soft rotational squeak on left turns in parking garages. I think it might be coming from the front left, but it's so faint I haven't tried to chase it. I'm coming up on a service next month, so I'll drop the car off at the dealer and have them take a look at it. 

My original complaint about the bolsters being too narrow for fat people is non-existent now. I think the bolsters just needed to soften a bit and there's no visible distortion from my fat ass sitting in it for two years. I have no other complaints about the car. Sometimes I wish I had a sunroof or a motorized hatch (F31 spoiled me on this), but there's nothing else I would drive up $30k at this point. If I'm being super nitpicky, it annoys me the reverse lines don't bend with steering wheel turns like the F31. #firstworldproblems

I wouldn't want a GTI as our primary family car, at least not with a baby/toddler, but it's fine for our second car. It just wouldn't be big enough for family road trips or camping. I keep this car seat permanently installed and just move the front seat forward/back when needed. You can have two at the same time, but it's not optimal for either my kid or the front passenger. We rarely have three people in the car at the same time, so it's never really been an issue. The exception to that is we're going somewhere with only street parking, as it's much easier to find a spot for this than it is the F31... although I'll say the F31 is actually easier to parallel park.

I actually wouldn't mind handing this car down to my kid... but there's no way it lasts another 14 years. At least, not in my household.

[Apoc]

First proper road trip with the GTI - down to OR for a rafting trip and back - https://goo.gl/maps/4YbsZbd9eKMgAVfq7

The car really traveled better then my expectations. It was two adult humans and some light camping/rafting gear; tons of space leftover. This part of WA is mostly long, flat stretches, and rolling hills/curves. The speed limit out there 65 or 75 and it's not uncommon for whatever marginal traffic you encounter to move faster than that. I had cruise control set *high enough* and did get see where the horse could take me when passing a few cars in passing zones. I thought I got popped once, but he was actually pulling over a buddy a few cars behind. He was doing 84 in a 65 and got off with a warning. 

 Anyway, the car was great. The seats held up really well and the thing is fun to drive at highway speeds. You can put it pretty much anywhere and it's more stable over rough road than the BMW. I tried the whole downshift manual thing... it wasn't any more rewarding than mashing the peddle and waiting for the downshift. Maybe I should practice or something. All in, it was about nine hours of driving and I never felt the desire to switch places. Fuel economy was good - even with those healthy speeds in Sport mode the entire time, I saw about 30 mpg.

Oh, and I hit 5,000 on the way but missed taking a picture. 

[Sijray21]

Wow, 5k miles. Barely broken in. It'll have good value when you eventually get rid of it.

[Apoc]

I've only put about 1,000 miles on this car in the last six months - mostly because I haven't worked since August. It was overdue for its second oil change, based on time, but at 6,200 miles I wasn't stressing about it. The car hasn't had any issues, except the rear camera cover was stuck in the open position when I picked it up from the dealer. Shifting into R then P fixed it, which seems like a total VW thing. You can't open the rear hatch if that's stuck open, so hopefully it doesn't happen when there's groceries back there. Eh, who am I kidding, the only thing I go to an actual store for is booze... and weed. My warranty is about a month from expiring, so everything sounds about right.

Anyway, I got this recall notice like five days after the oil change. I'm kinda annoyed they didn't say anything when I was there, even though I specifically asked them to look up the vehicle history.

https://www.consumerreports.org/car-reca...away-risk/

At this point, it doesn't make any sense to flip the car because of the warranty expiring. I never thought I'd be the guy to own a VW out of warranty, but there you have it. It doesn't hurt I drive <2500 miles/year, I guess. The car is paid off, so we're just gonna hold onto it for the foreseeable future... unless we end up moving somewhere. It's a perfect +1 car and is very capable as a day-to-day kid hauler. The wife will actually be shuttling the kid around in it for the next few days because apparently the BMW's registration expired in April and neither of us noticed until she got a ticket yesterday.

[HAULN-SS]

You doing that retired millennial thing?

[JPolen01]

I thought you were the resident food gramer' at Google?

[Senor_Taylor]

The 2 years of that crazy 7 year warranty were the golden years. I should have kept mine.

[.RJ]

the german celwagon cant break if you dont drive it

[Apoc]

I think FB people know the work story - suffice to say it's complicated. Long story short, I've been on short term disability since mid-Aug. I've spent most of that traveling, going to doctor appts (usually take the bus), having the flu (unrelated to disability), and doing a lot of paperwork. I'm still employed by Google.

Being off work has made me seriously wonder, more than once, whether I could retire right now. If we didn't have a kid, definitely. If we wanted to spend the next 30 years in Smalltown USA, probably. Unfortunately, neither of those things work for us and we really like spending money on travel.

I have to admit I'm disappointed the general warranty is only three years. I know I got a bottom dollar price on the car, but I'm used to buying CPO that are 1-2 years old and having ~5 years left. Only getting three years on a brand new car is lame. I think my Legacy was five. Three years went by in a flash... maybe because we had a kid four months before I bought it.