Pretty much all the German automakers have been tarred with this brush, though VAG certainly got the most opprobrium, and deservedly so. I haven’t looked at the sales numbers in the US for VW since Dieselgate, but anecdotally the crisis has resulted in lower prices as VW attempts to sell cars to people who now view them as wretched eco-terrorists.
That hasn’t been the case for Audi, though, even though it’s the same company with the same tech. They still gouge the hell out of you like always.
Recently I found a good deal on a 2016 GTI and decided to pull the trigger. The VW dealership was 100 miles away so it was no small trip. My wife and I drove up and it was being serviced due to minor body damage. Wankers did not tell me about any body damage in the week prior. So I test drove a new one and liked it but was not blown away. But I still wanted to see the used one and they rolled it out. I got a good look at it and found that the bloody frame was bent!!! You are not going to sell me a car with a bent frame. So much for the clean CarFax too, that is bloody worthless.
So while in the area we decided to see if the biggest Subaru dealer had any used WRXs on the lot. They did not but they had 22 new ones. So we test drove one.
We now own a WRX Premium and it is ace.
Good job VW.
Lol
You are obviously crazy. :) Congrats on the new car though!
I still adore my GTI. I was thinking today as I drove it, is there anything it doesn’t have that I miss/want (that I couldn’t have gotten in the Autobahn trim)? Only thing I could come up with is digital gauges. Analag gauges seem antique and inadequate today. I do still love the way they go to max when you start the car though.
I have seen a couple of Rs lately, they really do look slightly reserved compared to the GTI. Does the red stripe stand out that much more? Not sure I liked the wheels, maybe that was it?
I was following a big blacked out Mustang the other day. He wasnt going fast or anything, just normal driving. We got a red and he floored it when it went green. So I did too. My traction control activated, but we were neck and neck. A few seconds later I look down and we’re doing 80 in a 40 and it hit me how stupid I was being. The car still amazes me how fast it is for $32k car.
I had a 2002 Rex and it was a hoot. Crap interior and noisy, with a ride only a chiropractor looking for business could love, but it was really fun to hoon about, shifting and drifting on dirt or snow or whatever.
I don’t blame you for not buying from that VW dealer. Regardless of the car, a dealer trying to pull that kind of crap sets off red flags for me.
I am curious, though; what about WRX itself impressed you more than the GTI? It has more power and AWD, and arguably it has a more pronounced look to it (albeit not one I prefer, but it’s aesthetics, so YMMV), and I know Subaru has improved the interior a lot.
One of the consistent topics of discussion among R owners is exactly this, whether the R is too restrained. Some folks find the stealthy nature of the car appealing, others want a bit more visual pizzazz. The blue strips and lighting are definitely less prominent than the red, and the visual cues on the outside are more subtle, except for the four honkin’ big tail pipe outlets. And people are very divided over whatever set of wheels VW puts on them each year.
Me, I started in the camp that really likes the understated nature of the car. Now, though, after a GTI and 2.5 years of my R, I actually kind of want something more, um, I’m embarrassed to say, flashy. I want a two-door coupe, really, as I have no kids, no need to to haul more than one other person usually, and my wife has an SUV for lugging cargo. I do appreciate the immense utility of the Golf platform, and the driving dynamics are excellent, but I also would love a more, dare I say, upscale interior too. Problem with the R is that it’s an apex predator on a dead-end evolutionary branch. There is no where to go but down, or jump to another tree and pay through the nose. I literally cannot find a car suitable as a replacement (something I’d choose, not something I’d have to get into in a pinch) for under fifty large now. Everything thing else is either RWD (not an option), too big, too “family,” not as nice inside, or nowhere near the R in performance.
The universe of small, AWD, performance luxury or near luxury cars is not that huge, and it’s very expensive sadly.
I can address both you and LeeAbe in this post. The GTI was okay. Do not get me wrong - we both liked driving it and considered buying it. There were a number of factors that led to that purchase of the WRX over the GTI.
(1) Both my wife and I commented on how loud the road and engine noise was in the GTI. Neither car is particularly quiet but the WRX simply had less noise.
(2) Both my wife and I noticed that the GTI’s ride was very stiff. This was on FL streets so there are fewer potholes too. While this can be good to “feel the road” it makes driving less pleasant.
(3) The GTI has 220 HP. The WRX has 268. The GTI is lighter by about 300 pounds but that does not make up for the difference in HP. The WRX was noticeably quicker and both corner exceptionally well. But there is also something about the WRX’s gearing as well. In most gears you can viscerally feel the WRX telling you “hit the gas, let it go” and if you do it responds. The GTI simply did not have that type of growl in as many paces.
(4) I liked the GTI’s interior a bit better as there are still some trim pieces in the WRX that look cheap. The stock seats in the GTI are also more comfortable. But on the other hand we got the Sparco seats in the WRX and those are very comfortable. The GTI’s dash and interior has been improved in recent years and looks closer to the quality of the VW GTI. Finally, the WRX has considerably more headroom, back seat space and trunk room though you lose the flexibility of a hatchback (which I do not need as we have a small SUV for that stuff).
(5) The VW dealer only had two GTIs on the lot so there was not much to choose from. The Subaru dealer had 22 WRXs on the lot so we were able to find something we really liked.
(6) Finally we owned a WRX 15 years ago and have always had good experiences with our Subarus. So there is some familiarity there.
Yeah, i kind of like the fact that the R is a total beast that looks like… A VW Golf.
Totally reasonable. My only real gripe with WRXs is that, here at least, the drivers of said cars all too often are dudebros whose first act after buying (or leasing) the car, and before they get it repossessed for lack of payment, is to fit ginormous coffee can mufflers and ludicrous do-nothing after market parts to it. Not the car’s fault, though.
Any AWD performance car, in my opinion, is going to out perform a FWD car; the Civic Type R is an exception, but it is such an outlier that it sort of doesn’t count. The only way to get a really compliant ride in a GTI/R is to get the adaptive suspension, the DCC option, which is only available for the GTI I think on the Autobahn trim–which pushes the MSRP into the mid-high thirties anyhow. My R does not have it, as the '16s still had a base model which I got, though the '18s all have it (and it’s one of the very few things the new models have that I really wish I had).
I’ve never actually sat in the back seat of a Golf, I think, as I’m always the driver.And I’m pretty short, so headroom doesn’t matter!
This is easily the most common complaint, but it’s not really fair to the car.
Just because time of assholes but that car doesn’t mean everyone who does is one, and it doesn’t detract from the fact that it’s an awesome car.
It just means that folks who have one are generally going to be either dude bros, or people who like cars.
Or older people looking for a fun but safe ride.
I think that falls into category 2
Hey, I already noted that it wasn’t the car’s fault! And I hear that in parts of London, the Golf R is the preferred car of white, drugged-out gangers, so there’s that.
Really, the reasons I wouldn’t go back to a WRX at this point is one, the tech in the car especially the engine is old and in dire need of refreshing/modernization, two, the interior, while miles beyond the one I had in the early 2000s, is still not my cup of tea, and three, I’m not a big fan of its looks. I’m also concerned that Subaru will, in the future, force everyone into that damned CVT, as it seems they aren’t terribly committed to the manual transmission and they have no other automatic for the WRX that I know of.
I wouldn’t even consider an WRX before: no CarPlay. Looks like they finally fixed that for 2019 models.
I have an Android phone, and I installed Android Auto, but I don’t use it. I don’t actually see much use for it. My music is on SD cards, and I don’t need nav as I never drive anywhere but the same roads within a twenty mile radius of my house!
The engine tech for both the GTI and the WRX is old. Both were revamped about 2013-2014 and both are in need of newer engines. The EJ Subaru and the EA VW engines are both a bit dated but exceptionally solid plants. I do not mind old tech if it is solid. New is not always better. Both cars will likely see new engines in '20 or '21. That is why originally I was buying a used one since the models from 2-3 years ago are largely the same and I will probably take a sizable depreciation hit when those models are released.
As for the CVT, all I can say is that the dealer had 44 WRXs between their two dealerships and not one was a CVT. Every single one was a stick. I have no idea why you might think that Subaru will force everyone into the CVT. If they do my car will become much more valuable since it seems that most want to drive this as a stick.
As for the interior I can understand why some do not like it. Subaru has never had good interior design and they always have some really cheap looking pieces that detract from the whole setup. In this case the cup holder area is horribly cheap plastic with no aesthetics whatsoever. The passenger seat is manual. Those are cheap shortcuts that detract from the interior but they are livable for me. I actually like the dash area. I preferred the GTI interior but the WRX is considerably larger in head space and back seat room and that is more important than the interior styling to me.
Oh, I think the WRX is a great car; just not the car for me at this time. I loved the one I had. I’d disagree a bit on the engines. The EA888 is used across the VW group line, and is widely regarded as a very good engine, maybe one of the best overall designs out there. I have seen people asking for a new Subie engine a lot more than anyone asking for a new VW/Audi mill, but admittedly, the WRX motor is more reliable than the one in the STI, for sure.
I don’t worry too much about depreciation unless I’m planning to sell my car in three years, which I try not to do, but the Subie will probably depreciate less than the GTI, so you’re better off there most likely.
The CVT stuff I just get from various auto news reports, a lot of it rumor mill stuff, and could be erroneous. I think for a long time the WRX was manual only, wasn’t it? Subaru is definitely going all in on CVTs, and I guess the speculation is that they’ll eventually want to get out of the clutch business altogether. But I hope that’s not true.Though really, my next car will almost certainly not have a manual, as very, very few if any of the cars I want to get into even offer it, at least with their AWD models.
The Golf interior doesn’t have a lot of space, it’s true. If you need space, it’s not necessarily the right car.
I only use CarPlay since I am driving 1-2 hours a day. Podcasts, Audible, music, messaging, and Apple Maps for finding the least congested way home. Looking forward to using Waze on it this fall. It makes such a huge difference I wouldn’t buy a car without it. Toyota and Subaru were two of the last hold outs.
Re the Golf R: one was right behind me, an odd golden brownish color, I am really not sure how to describe it. At first I thought it was just a nice Golf because I didn’t even see the blue line. It didn’t stand out and the wheels were kind of boring. Once I saw the R on the grill I figured it out.
That is understandable. If you spend a lot of time on the road you really want those tools that make the ride bearable. I used to drive quite a bit regionally for work so I was often in the car for 4 hours each day. I could not live without my SirrusXM subscription at that time though now I do not care about having it at all. If I were still driving like that this car would not have been a stick shift since shifting gears in traffic gets annoying.
I ditched Sirius XM after loving it for years. One of the quirks in my Golf is that the antenna for some reason kept losing satellite radio signals, in ways that the one in my old GTI never did. Of course, I live in a state that is mostly mountains (well, hills, if you’re a westerner, but to New England types these are mountains) with tons of areas with crappy lines of sight to, well, anywhere but straight up. I also found that sat radio didn’t sound as good as stuff I simply ripped to my SD cards, but I do miss the variety for sure. Don’t miss paying for it though.
Granath, you say you live in Florida? I’m curious why you didn’t go with a RWD car. If I could, I"d jump at the chance, but for the last twenty years living in frozen Yankeeland, I’ve been pretty much unable to do so.