After selling the 06 WRX with AWD, I decided I needed a lower mileage fun daily driver. Unfortunately finding a newer manual transmission car these days is quite the task. I kicked around the idea of a 2015 Honda Accord sport which I found a lower mileage one at Lia Honda. I was in the final processes of deciding to take the car or not when I pulled the dipstick to find rust covered all over it, and grit/dirt/rust debris where the oil should be. I cleaned it and put it back in (it felt like I had to push through a clogged tube to put it back) Pulled it out to find the same results. The first pull was enough to have me decide to walk away but I had to check again. I told the salesman that this was a major concern and something they should try to take care of. The salesman insisted that every car has some sort of grit/debris in the oil. (Funny that my 06 WRX that had 146k miles never has, as well as every single car I and friends/family have owned) Hopefully they replaced the oil, the tube, the dipstick and looked over the motor. (They insisted that they did a better job of looking the car over and reconditioning it than any other dealer that had the same car that was not a Honda dealer) BULLSHIT!
My next adventure took me out to Syracuse where I looked at a 2015 Impreza Hatch. Way to slow for my liking and not something I could be happy driving around to keep the miles off the S2000.
After looking on the sites I found getting a manual transmission with any sort of luxury features was very hard to come across as they all seemed to have base model features. I was referred to Volkswagen/Audi. I never considered one before and actually usually walked away from them if I saw one. So after doing some searching I found a 2013 GTI that was located in Rochester. This car was a single owner that had been garaged every single winter in a damn bubble with a dehumidifying bucket in the bubble. The previous owner put clear vinyl wrap on the front bumper, fronts of the fenders, the entire hood, the front of the roof, the A pillars and the top of the rear bumper. There was no scratches or dents on the entire car. To me this looked like a brand new car.
We decided on terms which turned into him not having the title in hand and me having to wait 2 weeks to have a Ohio title show up to register the car. (Long story short with a mess of other situations along with it)
The car: 2013 Volkswagen 4door GTI “Driver’s Edition” 25,500 miles and with a 6spd transmission. This car came fully loaded and I’m loving every second of it now.
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While waiting for the title I ended up finding some 16" winter wheels and tires that only saw about 90 days of use due to the car being turned in for the dieselgate situation VW had.
I’m not sure on mods yet. I want it as reliable as possible as I’m in the process of finding a house to purchase. I know that these take very well to mods and gain power very easily, however the clutch on these are not very strong and from what I’m hearing they have issues with both the intake manifolds with the flaps they have as well as something with the timing chain or timing chain tensioner.
If I did, it would be a simple intake and tune once the warranty ran out so I didn’t void the warranty I currently have.
My problem is that I still need to purchase my father S2000 after selling mine, which will take some funds away. So tuning it will be a couple years away with how I’m seeing it.
Totally understand, My previous a4 the only performance mod was a tune on the car as it was my daily and I didn’t want to cause any reliability or sacrifices on drive-ability, plus its the biggest gain for the money, everything after that is minor for the money.
FYI I have a vag com if you need it or want to do any of the vag com mods to the car. I live on the Williamsville/Clarence area.
Awesome, thank you. From what I hear it is for minor changes on the car like changing the blinker from 2 blinks to 3 blinks if you don’t engage the blinker all the way? lol All stuff that deals with the computer that has nothing to do with tuning the vehicle?
Yes correct, there is list in the vortex forums of things you can do. Some of its really dumb stuff imho, but there are few handy things like opening/closing your windows and sunroof from your key fob is one I have used many times.
Did you tell the previous owner you were planning to drive it all winter in WNY? He probably cried after the stored in a bubble like it was a Ferrari GTO or something.
I think you’ll like coming over to the German side.
I absolutely love my mk6. After I got one I had two friends buy mk6 GTIs and another friend go with an mk7 golf. If you tune it you will need a clutch. Go with HSTuning’s RSR kit if you do the clutch, I have it and love it.
I have an APR intake but I got a deal on it used, for new I would recommend roc euro.
I have a lot of chassis and suspension mods on mine, if you are looking to get into that just PM me and I’ll give you some recommendations. I have over 100k on my car and it still runs and shifts flawless, tuned since about 65k. I also really like having a short shift kit and solid cable bushings. I’d highly recommend. A coil pack always seems to go on these between 60-70k so be ready for that, luckily super easy to change and only like $22 each at the dealer. Just do them all along with plugs when one goes.
I have the same exact car in DSG. You’re gonna love it.
FYI - If your model is PZEV (which I think it might be with that extra hose on the airbox) it covers like EVERYTHING for 7 years or 150k miles.
I just had my turbo replaced under it at 67k miles for $0. For that reason alone I decided not to mod the engine.
I did the VW driver gear springs, and a big rear swaybar (as I do on every GTI Ive owned) and it made a huge difference without being too low or rough.
Anyway, excellent score!
EDIT: Here is a link to some fun vag-com tweaks: MK6 http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36478
I highly recommend changing the push to talk button to be a mute button. I seem to accidentally hit that a lot for some reason.
I’m not entirely sure what the differences are. From what I’ve quickly looked up it has to do with the wheels and premium audio. I personally like the Drivers Edition wheels and the sound in my car is pretty damn nice in my opinion. I was shocked to see they had components in the rear doors as well as the front. If I am missing an option I’m not sure what else it would be but I’m not concerned as I have all the options I’d care for. Shocked to learn it has Navigation and a SD slot on the radio to play music from a SD card.
The sunroof and windows opening because of the key fob could be very useful on really hot days. I’ll be in touch. hahaha Thank you.
My brother has VAGCOM as well if you want to use it. I programmed the keyfob to open and close windows, awesome to have in the summer when it starts raining and I want to roll my windows up without going outside!
Not sure why I’m having problems replying with quotes. @JayS I did tell him and I felt terrible telling him however, I need a nice DD and couldn’t pass on one that has missed all the winters here without going further than Rochester to get it.
I am loving this car so far, I will say that.
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I will definitely keep that clutch in mind as I’ve heard these cars come with weak ones and once power is put down, they slip. I’d be very interested in doing an intake and chip, however I think I want to wait a year and a few months till the warranty is up as he had an extended warranty that I’m in the process of transferring over to my name.
Hard part is wanting to keep this stock because I have to purchase my fathers S2k this spring after selling mine. That is going to hurt the pocket after buying this and looking for a house.
I am enjoying this car for the first 1000 miles I’m about to have on it. Missed driving it this past week in the single digit temps and wanted to drive it while on vacation. It is nice being back in the drivers seat again.
He said it was not previously tuned, however I’m wanting to call BS on that because of the APR sticker. Not sure if he bought something that the APR sticker came with but the tires were original and fresh, so it leads me to believe he didn’t drive this car hard at all. (Surprised)
If you have rain sensing wipers you should be able to enable the “rain closure” feature where the rain sensor will stay active for up to 24 hours after locking the doors and automatically roll up the windows if it senses rain. I’ve never been able to get it to work on my CC though because I guess there’s some weird difference in the code for 2012’s.
Things that went wrong with mine (under warranty thank god)
-Water pump
-Water pump again after recall and new part # fix
-Fuse panel in engine bay fried due to fuse short. Fixed with ‘special coated’ fuse
-Carbon buildup and intake valve cleaning at 60k
-misc interior fixes, ripped seals on door, etc
-backs of seat panels fell off, poor adhesive from factory
-Driver side seat bolster motor failure
-Intake runner failure, brand new intake manifold at 90k (covered under vw/audi extended warranty to 120k)
There’s a couple more that I may be missing. Still love the car, and knocks on wood the issues are sorted here for a bit.
I tried replying to these before but the site has been having issues unfortunately.
I believe the car does have the PZEV and that is cool if it is covered. It will keep me from modding mine as well since I don’t want to denied a fix for free.
The setup with the windows sounds great, I’ll have to check and see if mine have been done already or not.
Definitely enjoying this car and glad I got it. I’m going to have to look into the rear swaybar.
Awesome, We might have to look into this then and make sure mine is setup the same way. I love when you can automatically open everything when the keys are pressed. It would be even better if I can do it to close them as well.
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I believe the waterpump recall was done as well on this car. I have to look back but I know some recall was done and I thought that was the one I saw.
I am highly enjoying the car and it will definitely be something to keep me happy and keep miles off my fathers S2k.
Here is the unofficial list of parts covered by PZEV.
When my turbo went the dealer didnt know it was covered. He had to call VWOA to verify and it was indeed covered. That leads me to believe this list is good.
or want to do any of the vag com mods to the car. I live on the Williamsville/Clarence area.