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I am contemplating buying one or the other, but I am not sure which way I should go. Any ideas? I live in CA so the roads are curvey and in pretty good shape.
Thanks!
If you don't plan to do any upgrading to the car, go with the V6(Better power below 2000 rpm). 1.8T with a chip is slightly quicker in stock form, but throw in a chip (increase to 210 hp) and it'll blow by the V6, not to mention better gas mileage too. I have a 1.8T and love it. I drove a V6 and liked it too, but that boost is addicting when it kicks in.
Hope this helps...
VW claims 7.7 for the 24v, .2 slower than their 1.8t claim, but since no magazines that I'm aware of have tested the 24v yet and VW always has conservative estimates, we really don't know what it's capable of.
Mike
and sorry about the wrong time on the 24V, my memory failed me. The times I believe are from Car and Driver, not sure which issue though. (Separate ones of course.)
A chipped TDI is pretty quick. If you compare the HP output from 0-4000 rpms (TDI redlines around 4200rpm vs 6300rpm 1.8T) of a stock TDI vs stock 1.8T, the TDI actually has the edge. Although its taller gearing will handicap its acceleration vs the 1.8T. A chipped TDI wouldn't be a screamer by any means, but for normal day to day driving, it may seem equal to the 1.8T in acceleration. i.e. shifting at 3000 rpms in a chipped TDI would probably yield better accel times Vs shifting at 3000 rpm in a 1.8T. I don't know if this has been tested, just my 2 cents.
As far as hooking up a TDI - I understand they are easy to get a lot of performance from. Here is a link to the best info I know on the TDI:
http://www.tdiclub.com/
$1,700 is the difference between the MSRP and invoice on the base car. More options mean a larger difference.
As far as styling goes, I myself prefer the Gti's styling over anything else out there. Yes it's not radical, but to me that's good. IMO it has long term appeal in its clean lines.
I agree with you on the styling. It might not be really "in", but I don't think it will ever be completely "out".
Before purchasing mine, I knew of this (from this notice board) and asked the dealer if it had been fixed for 2002. He said adjustments had been made. Less than 6 months later, it happened to me. I have two other friends with 2001 GTIs, and they have had the same problem. Moreover, there is an international parts shortage. I could not get mine in to get fixed for three weeks.
Other than this problem, I LOVE my GTI. It drives great, and I, too, am partial to the styling. I just got it back from the dealer yesterday, and have been remembering what I love about this car. This is just a word of warning that there has been a serious and consistent problem with the window regulators that VW has known about for a long time. So, if I were you, I would ask the dealer if it has been fixed in 2003 models. You can probably find more posts on this problem that can explain it much more eloquently than I can.
--jgz
I haven't had any problems with the regulators on my 02 GTI but expect I eventually will.
Anybody have this yet?
The stupid climatronic piece of crap now decides that when it turns on recirculate (which it seems to do automatically when the AC is on and the outside temperature hits 75 degrees) instead of blowing more air, it blows less. (but it makes a lot more noise)
My guess is that the gizmo be it vacuum or solenoid or whatever it is that opens the inside vent is broken. So it closes the vent from the outside, doesn't open the vent from the inside and does'nt blow very much air.
it wouldn't be so bad except YOU CAN'T TURN IT OFF. If you don't have recirculate on the stupid climatronic turns it on for you and there's no way to override it. So if it gets hot out, I get LESS AIRCONDITION. This has to be at least reason number 6 or 7 why this this is just so broken. I hope the fired the guy who came up with that piece of crap a few times.
So.
Anybody have any idea how the vents are controlled in the mk4's? I don't hear hissing, (but who knows) is it a broken vacuum hose? Do they still do that, or is everything done with motors now so it has a higher likelyhood of breaking?
Anybody wanna take this piece of car off my hands?
My only problem with vwvortex is that it's too big. This forum is a lot easier to read, although I realize it doesn't get the volume.
Thanks.
thanks for any info.
Some Golfs are even built in Germany while TT's are assembled in Hungary.
Love the look of the TT but you hear of reliability/quality control issues as well as the huge $$$ difference. Your thoughts?
Good Luck!
But yeah, the GTI 1.8t and TT amount to very similar cars with very drastic price differences. It's not worth it to me, especially considering how much more room the GTI has inside for people and stuff, though it may be worth it to some.
A special-edition GTI, like the 337 or the possibly upcoming 20th anniversary edition seem to be the best deal to me.
Mike
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
If anyone has information to the contrary, feel free to correct me.
Mike
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
The US and Canadian market get the Jetta wagon...others have a Golf front end on it.
I wonder how the reliability of South African-built vs. German-built 3-series is though. I expect not much difference. I just wonder.
Mike
Although the GTI has a 4 yr warranty, you only get 1 yr for any creaks or rattles from the doors, bodywork, dash etc. This may not be common knowledge since no one told me when I was buying it. After 1 yr if you want a noise looked at it might cost you.
The window problem is very common, the lifters for the glass are half metal/ half plastic and in hot climates with a dark coloured car the temperature in the door will make the plastic brittle and it will break. This happened to me 8 wks ago, both windows failed within 2 weeks of each other, the dealer has been a pain about it saying that it can take up to 8 wks to get the parts. Since this is a known problem, VW should just have these kits at all the dealers, plus they won't replace them until they break.
Oftentimes production location of a car will determine the parts source for the car too. A lot of the japanese models built in the U.S. use U.S. parts for the engine and occasionally tranny as well, and certainly for incidentals like windows, switches, and the like. Why pay the premium to import them from another country?
It is not uncommon to see reliability problems crop up even in Toyotas and Hondas, where the ones that are American-built are more problem-prone than the ones imported from Japan. That is one of the reasons they have mandated having that sticker on the car saying where the car was built when it is new. You can actually walk around a Toyota dealership right now, for instance, and see Japan-built corollas and American-built ones, and pick one based on its Japan build, if you like. or whatever.
Point is, where a car is built changes a lot about its build quality and parts make-up. Don't you think otherwise, that it is just a little bit of a coincidence that passats have average to above average reliability as a group, while beetles are some of the most unreliable and repair-prone cars out there today, with jettas not far behind?
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
The biggest beef on the New Beetles was a hatch rattle that VW solved a long time ago. Like any car company VW addresses problems and is continually upgrading their cars.
I get tired of hearing a particular car company's vehicles built outside of their home base aren't as well built. Last time I checked cars are mostly built by robot and most anything that fails in a car is a particular part that could have been made anywhere - the failed German part didn't fall off the car because a Brazilian was having a bad day at the VW plant - get real. I hope you aren't implying that Brazilians or Mexicans are somehow inferior and can't build a quality product under VW's supervision - that would be racist. Or Americans for that matter in the case of the X5 and Z3 - are German citizens the only people that can build cars properly? Do you think VW or BMW (or Mercedes, Honda, Toyota, Subaru, etc, etc) are worried that Mexicans, Brazilians or Americans are building their cars and screwing up their reputations??? thats just stupid
I bought an AMERICAN BUILT X5 3.0 last year about a month before the BRAZILIAN BUILT GTI - no problems with the X either and 3 of my friends have various Z3's that are fanatical about them. Not once did I ever consider where either vehicle was built.
The GTI and X5 are extremely well made cars, top notch fit and finish, flawless paint, rock solid dependability, BMW and VW don't build inferior products period.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I liked the car a lot but am leery of overall reliability.
A friend of mine has the 01 Beetle and has had some minor repairs to things like control switches and knobs.
As far as all the other problems, like those that jsg5 stated, those are minor problems that shouldn't steer one away from a certain car. I have an '02 GTI 1.8T, my friend has a '00 Beetle Turbo with a number of mods, another friend has an '02 Jetta 1.8T, another with a '00 Jetta 1.8T and I also have a friend with a '99 Jetta 2.0. The only one of us who's had any kind of a problem was the friend I have with the '99. She bought hers used and it wasn't in the best shape when she got it, so that doesn't exactly say anything bad about VW, just the previous owner. All of our other cars have performed perfectly well. Any kind of a problem with control switches or knobs is surely something minor that could happen to any other vehicle. If something simple like that is enough to get you to decide against a car, then you likely won't be buying one any time soon because those types of repairs are performed on all vehicles, not just VW's. The switches and knobs are not usually even built by the car company itself, they farm their work out to other supliers and just install the parts in their factory. So, it's also likely that many of these switches and knobs are built by the same company that would supply many other car manufacturers as well.