Crossing off GTI due to reliability/service concerns?

Hi all:

I thought I'd get some relatively good answers, please try to keep your opinion somewhat neutral if possible. I've narrowed my purchase down to an 06 RSX-S or a new GTI, I test drove the Si but decided it's not for me and I'd gladly take either car mentioned above over it. Now I've test driven the RSX-S 4 times and the new GTI twice.

I like the RSX-S very much, in fact, in the past couple of weeks that I've been researching I've thoroughly considered cars from Scion tC to a base model 350Z or RX-8, there were good thing about each and every one of them but I find myself coming back to RSX every time, I've even crossed it off the list after test driving the WRX but somehow it came back after a few days, that's how much I like it.

But after test driving the new GTI I just think that it offers everything that the RSX offers but does them a little bit better. More interior and exterior features, a little more variation in styling, steering wheel is a bit better, brakes are a bit better, ride is a bit better, space is a bit better etc etc etc. It's just an overall more complete car, I liked the car a little bit better in every aspect, well, maybe not EVERY aspect, because it's still better to have the 8100rpm redline of the K20 engine, it's just completely insane when you get up there in the revs, feels like a little serious racer.

What's stopping me from buying a GTI, however, is the concern with overall reliability and dealership customer service. My projected time frame of ownership is AT THE MINIMUM 5 years and really planning to keep it for about 8 years, roughly in the 100~130k miles range. Now with the Acura I'm pretty certain it will offer me relatively cheap and trouble-free motoring for the time that I plan on keeping it, but with the GTI, I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure it will properly get me to my finals on time, I'm not so sure it's not gonna leave me stranded half way to my first job's interview, I'm not so sure it's not gonna make me call a tow truck when I'm on a road trip. Due to Volkswagen's recent history I just simply CAN'T be sure, this will be my only car so I NEED it to work all the time and every time. And the dealership service as well, als from recent history and reports, apparently VW service is among some of the worst in the auto industry, well at least here in the US. Having problems or the need for maintenance is one thing, having problems while dealing with a dealership's service apartment that just doesn't give a damn about your stupid little car is just double the frustration. That is the other major concern I have over the future ownership of a GTI if I choose to purchase it.

I liked the GTI quite a lot, it offered the perfect blend of performance, luxury, sophistication and styling and just enough spunk to set it apart from the crowd. But that's the impression I got from driving two brand spanking new vehicles with less than 20 miles on the odometer, what about when that reaches 2,000 miles? what about 20,000? What about 120,000? I can't help but wonder.

What do you guys think?

This is one of my major concerns while I was at the dealership the other day. I'm still thinking it over.

On some other fora there are guy's who already have their GTI for more then a year and I haven't heard any serious complaints from these guy's so far. Those GTI's where extensively tested before the launch of it

This is my biggest concern as well. I feel the Consumer Reports reliability ratings are the only objective source of reliability information. According to them, the volkswagens are well below average for reliability. We will always hear stories about someone who drove their VW for 1,000,000 KM with no problems but that doesn't mean they are reliable because that is only one of many experiences. It is similar to the person who smokes a pack a day but lives until they are 105. Does that mean that smoking isn't bad for you? Of course not. With large numbers of people it is clear that statistically smoking is very harmful. Same with the VW. Stastically their reliability is poor.
I agree with everything you are saying about the RSX-S and I agree that I like the GTI just a little bit better in almost every way. I may infact buy a GTI for those reasons but I am buying it knowing that I am probably looking at some frustrations with the dearership and some reliability issues. It is like choosing to smoke but knowing full well that there will be a price to pay. Hopefully it will be one dam tasty pack of smokes

Sorry I cant comment on the Acura as they don't have them over here :iono:

In therms of the MK5 GTI mines just past its first birthday with just over 7000miles on the clock.

Faults to date have been :-

1: 6CD packed up (replaced under warranty and I suppose this could happen on any car) Its now replaced with a VW Ipod prep so it doesn't matter :wink:

2: I have had a whole set of injectors in my car replaced at only 6500 miles. It was back into the dealer 3 times with a really strong petrol smell before they finally diagnosed the perforated injectors and now all is well again

Has any of the above put me off my GTI ? Not one bit I love the thing to death. My last 5 cars have all been VWs or Audis and I've had no real long term reliability problems with any of them :headbang:

In summary if you want a car that stirs your emotions EVERY time you drive it then buy the GTI. If you want 100% reliability then go for the Acura (which I'm assuming is a Jap origin motor ?)

the way i see it is any seriously problems this car may have had are probably fixed by now as it was in europe for a full year before it came to the states...

all cars will have their little gremlins in them no matter what, but i doubt the gri will have any serious problems...my bmw dealer probably has some of the best service in the country, hell they installed a new floor pan for my car (a $5000 job) because my diff mount cracked and it should have never happened on a generally stock car, and my car was 3 years out of warrenty....

hoping the vw dealer by me, which i hear VERY good reviews about from friends that bought cars there gives good service as well, they sell dodges too, and my friend had a stg 2 srt4 and they always fixed the car under warrenty even though he had some work done...so in my case specifically i should be just fine, hope dealers out there on the west coast are just as nice

when talking about reliability with a car yea sure you have to be concerned and i understand that but u gotta think... all cars have many little things that could go wrong because there is no such thing as a perfectly made car... i say just buy the GTI and have some fun!

It's not entirely about the car in itself... it's about customer service at the dealership as well. I've heard numerous comments about how some dealerships aren't exactly the most user-friendly places to take your Vdub.

So that's what the original poster was wondering about, as well as how reliable the GTI would be (hence the thread's heading....).

So your basing your car buying off of the service you will get AFTER you get the car. Every car has its problems. The better you baby your car the more it will last. If you don't like the dealership go find a mechanic soon as your warranty runs out. As for me I have my own shop I never go to the dealership.

I was about to get the Acura RSX, but then the GTI just blew it out of the water in almost all aspects. The new generation GTI are made in Germany unlike the older, so they will most likely be better. Plus, I believe the warranty is better for VW than Acura anyways.

Apparently the reliability of the Mk5 Golf (and hence the GTI) is better than that of previous VWs. Just what I heard though (I've had little to no trouble with mine and I'm at 26k miles now, though as someone pointed out it's just one experience out of many).

The dealerships are really hit or miss, I'm lucky enough to have 3 great dealerships within 30 minutes of me.

As far as long term reliability goes, the problems with the last generation GTI's I believe were blown entirely out of porportion, they did exhist, but not to the scale that it was said to be.

Someone who buys an honda or acura, is entirely less likely to complain about problems because to most buyers of those marquees, the cars are tools, point a to point b, so they treat them as such, and when something happens, so what, its a tool.

I know it sounds cool to have such a high redline on the car, but in every day driving situations, you're rarely going to be in a situation where you have a decent ammount of useable power, where as the GTI has its peak useable torque (207 lb-ft) at 1,800 RPMs, as opposed to the RSX's 140 lb-ft at 7000rpm, how lame is that? Peak HP also comes at 7800rpms, and its a modest 200 at the crank (same as GTI's listed HP, but GTI's dyno an average of 190 hp at the wheels, which equates to 220 at the crank or so).

VW as a company has redone almost all of there management. Our new head of VWoA is not like the old guy (ousted from VW, then from Bentley, and currently head of Kia). The dealership are undergoing over hauling. As far as the car itself. If there is one thing you can count on is that all cars are crap in one way or another. They are all design to break. If that wasn't the case, I would have a job. True, the Acura's part as less expensive. But the MKV's are one of the safest best built cars on the road. If you are keeping your car for 5 years it all comes down to which dealership do you want to spend more time in while your car is getting fixed. :laugh:

I have no problems with the reliability of the VW's. My dad has had a mk 2 Golf for almost 15 years and drove more than 100K Miles and he never had any serious problems. Now we have a mk 4 golf from november 2001 with 40K miles on it and still haven't any serious problem

I know what you mean, I had Fox (don't make fun) and sold it with 150k. My wife drove a Jetta GLX when we met and we sold that with 200k. It just goes to show that if you take car of a car it will take car of you.