Guess it's time to quit lurking
New member, avid Japanese vehicle owner, current SER-Spec-V pilot, possible VW MKV convert.
Greetings all.
.I test drove a New GTI MKv a few weeks ago….one hell of a nice car overall. I went to catch up with an old high school buddy, Julian, who happened to be the Finance manager at a VW dealership up in Ft Lauderdale. Figured I’d kill two birds, etc, etc… He was the first cat to introduce me to the wonderful world of mods, although we always had amusing garage conversations at 16 years old, about which rides were better the “new ( 1896) Civic SI, hatch, or the “new” Jetta GLi his old man had just bought him. Anyways, here we are, 16 years after I’d last hung out with him…and we’re back to the same conversation, while running our cars to the limit, talking smack. But I digress...
He set me up with a 6 spd (because the DSG can take a hike. I don’t care how high tech and fast it is, I’d rather eat glass and chase it with grain alcohol than have the car do the shifting. A man has to have some convictions.) , with the 18 inch w/t package and a sunroof. Being a semi-pro racer (SCCA, IM (?) and real close to becoming a CART driver until marriage intervened), and lifelong VW fanatic, Julian threw the thing around through a little back road “course” he’d set up and I must say, I was duly impressed. The car handled corners and turns that would have seen the Spec, and us, owned by the rear beam axle. MY perceptions, after I took over:
HANDLING: A bit more body roll than I might like, but grip for days on end. Especially when tossing it through some right/left/right transitions, (like, from the street, to the dealership access road) a stretch that should have been taken at oh…15 MPH, which Julian took at speeds closer to 40, something I, not being familiar with that car, chose not to attempt. On 15 mph, 45 degree turns on the VERY empty access road, which we both took at about 60, the car seemed to run on a set of rails that magically appeared from the ground. (A little side note: the ESP can be switched off completely via a console switch. I’m not sure if it kicks back in automatically, but we were able to act the damn fool with it off, and I felt no intrusion from it, as I did when we ran with it on. What IS interesting is the EDL feature: apparently, an Electronic Differential Lock that functions similarly to an LSD…though VW doesn’t push it in marketing. I believe it switches off with the ESP, but I’m not too sure. end of note.)
Braking is strong and swift. Verdict….I think the Spec powers out of corners better, due to the helical LSD, but the GTI owns in overall handling, steering feel, and driver confidence.
POWER: Well…it’s a 200 hp/207 lb/ft FSI turbocharged engine. That’s been suspected (and now being confirmed on VW forums members’ dyno results) as being underrated by as much as 25 bhp. It’s really, really quick. The extra 330 lbs it has over MKIV kinda prevented it from the major kick in the arse that I had expected, but it also delivers its power in a very linear, lag free fashion…it just builds and builds to ludicrous speeds…with a right lovely exhaust note. What’s CRAZY is the ability to start the car, sink the clutch…and take off without giving it ANY gas whatsoever…just let ‘er out, and off she rolls…you can start from a roll in 4th gear..roll on the throttle, and be up to speed with no bog or shudder….a testament to damn near full torque available at 1500 rpms.
Verdict….still a winner, although the added heft has a negative effect.
INTERIOR FIT/FINISH. Carrying on the VW tradition, the car means business. Driving business. Ain’t nothing extraneous, it’s all about a DRIVER ORIENTED ENVIRONMENT, which works for me. The tach is weird; instead of single digits, it’s numbered in tens, with makes it look…a lot like the speedo, which can be a little off-putting first time out. Also a LOT more hard plastic than I expected, some in places that made sense (grab handles) other where aesthetically I thought did not belong…( upper door panels, on the dash, where an errant knee may bump into it…the entire center console.) Also, not much in the way of storage space. I don’t carry much, but I’m not a card carrying member of the IPOD generation yet, and I do lug around quite a few CD cases, so I would have liked to see some depth to the center arm rest pocket. Yes, there are cup holders. Somewhere. I didn’t give enough of a damn to look. But truthfully, the interior is overall ridiculously upscale and well put together. One thing I found funny…the (standard) Recaro seats with the original GTI plaid seemed mouse-furry, while the headliner material was a similar fabric/pattern to the Spec’s back seats. Yeah…weird.
Exterior. IMHO, the perfect evolution of the hot hatch. I really like it, especially the corp. VW front end with the blacked out grille, and the non painted bumpers, which I think look great on the White and Red GTI’s…not so much on the Silver and United Grays, and of course, are utterly unnoticeable in Black. What WAS noticeable…the plethora of drivers who damn near twisted their heads off trying to get a look at the car in traffic…it was pretty crazy. Men and women…(LOTS of really hot women) were checking us out in this puppy (Reflex Silver, btw) which for a Spec driver is really unusual.:tongue: One dude at a light, in his brand new BMW 330I was staring at the GTI for so long, he almost missed his turn light. And did I mention the chick love? THAT was different…but it wasn’t all that bad :biggrin:
Over all…I thought it was a pretty wicked ride. MSRP as I had it was $23,990. I left with an unsolicited “just-in case” offer of….substantially less than that. Did I throw caution to the wind and roll out with it? No, I’m a bit more practical than that. Although VW has switched parts vendors to improve build quality and reduce its previous atrocious reliability record…it still has a long way to go to recoup the losses of older and potential new customers. But it’s still on my mind 3 weeks later…and I’ve been perusing the European forums, and US GLI/Jetta forums as well, and things seem to be running right….SO far. And I’d probably take a small loss on the Spec…which ultimately, I don’t really give a damn about, as I earn more than enough to NOT give a damn about it having any effect on my financial bottom line whatsoever. So I’m still rolling in the old 04 Spec V….but I’m still smiling about my GTI experience…and the more I think about it, the bigger the smile gets. And like Julian said as I left. …"don’t worry too much about it….your deal stands, and we’ve got plenty.” So I'm going to give it a couple of more runs, with the significant other this time, to see if maybe she'll fall for it as well, continue to monitor these forums ( a GREAT source of info, once one has sorted through all the extraneous stuff), to see about any major reliability and service issues, and see where that leave my mindset come June-ish.
And that, as they say...is that.