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8 minute read
Time for Something New.
After 5 years of ownership it has finally come to an end. A dream car of mine is now passed on to someone else for their enjoyment. Here is the run down of what it was like to buy a top end Golf from new and what I encountered along the way.
Quick note: I will attach previous articles written here to get a more in depth look at the buying process.
The Beginning.
So it all started when my 2013 Focus ST was finally reaching higher mileage. I purchased the vehicle at a great price, it was a demo which was never titled to anyone. It was originally just over 30k and I was able to get it for just over 20k with a little over 10k miles on it. Overall was a great vehicle but approaching 60k miles, I knew that it would start needed some serious maintenance. At the time used car prices were pretty good and after some negotiation I was able to get a good price for my Focus and get a good price for the Golf R (see "Buying Golf R" article above for more details.)
This was the first time I ever bought a new vehicle and honestly a pretty high end one. Now I know this ain't no Porsche, but pretty much being a budget Audi S3 with a stick it was a hell of a deal. I also needed something more reliable as I was driving a lot for work and side jobs and this little hatch not only holds a surprising amount of stuff in it, it also hauled ass! Sure a Mustang from a roll or on the highway could walk away from it, but 90% of the time from a dig or slow roll the Golf could easily pull away even with the manual.
The Ugly Truth.
So now onto the part that most people don't want to think about after spending all this money on a new car, the maintenance cost. First of all being a rare car which in all honesty is an Audi S3 mechanically with out all the fancy interior design bits means it is quite costly. Regular scheduled maintenance wasn't too bad like oil changes, coolant flushes, transfluid, etc. Some higher end costs were brakes. I believe the rears alone were around $600 and fronts were closer to $900. Also the special wheels and tires were astronomical! At the beginning you could grab a wheel for around $700, by the end of the ownership a new wheel was right around 1k a piece. Now driving this car around Detroit and to and from Milwaukee, WI quite often I ended up bending 2 wheels. I saved money by ordering a wheel and tire package from Tirerack for right around $1,400 total. This was great cause if I ever bent a rim I could easily overnight one to where I was at and install it with ease (which did happen btw.) I also chose to go down a size to 18 inch to give myself a little more comfort which was huge! I loved the agility, sportiness, and grip from the stock set up but the older I get would rather have more comfort and an overall well rounded package.
Daily Experience.
Driving was a major plus in this vehicle and most miles were not mainly from daily commutes, but from cruising and taking it for nice trips. The stick is a MUST HAVE in my opinion and was a joy each and every drive. Tight and direct without feeling like a gated shifter, it reminded me a lot of regular BMW manuals shortly before they were axed. Having the AWD or Haldex was also a new experience. Previously mainly driving FWD vehicles and an occasional RWD the amount of grip was confidence inspiring. Shifting from 1st to 2nd was a neck-bending experience and you were grateful that the VW engineers had some rubber in the bushing allowing for some give. The grip from the stock tires was immense. On normal spirited drives you never felt you were even close to oversteering or loosing control. With the manual things were slowed down a bit which I enjoyed and the car was fast, but slow enough you could enjoy rowing out the gears. The best comparison I heard it that the Golf R is like a mini Skyline GTR especially if you went with the automatic.
Keeping Things Running.
Now this is another huge issue that most people don't think about which was a decider for a majority of this cars life: where to get your new vehicle serviced. I wont name names, but the place I bought the car from was great from the sales department. They were fairly reasonable and worked with me which was great. I loved the car and wanted it but they did work with me on price of the new car and of my old vehicle. Service department on the other hand was not very good. After taking my new vehicle there twice, that was the end of it. I started to look around and I found a tuning shop right by my house that had a great reputation. After visiting and talking with the owner I liked how they used premium oil, OEM parts, and were passionate about German vehicles. This was where my car was mainly serviced when I was staying in Michigan. Things however changed as I would spend a month, to a couple months in season down in Naples, FL. I took my Golf to the local dealership for a service and was pleasantly surprised. The Naples dealer and service department is the best VW service center I have ever experienced and my VW's will be maintained there from here on forward. I have not bought a vehicle from them yet so I can't state how that experience is.
Final topic I will briefly touch upon is something that almost every single person I encountered ask me. Is it tuned? Have you modded it? What did you do to it? My answer was always the same: nothing and I will do nothing to it. Keeping this car completely stock was exactly what I wanted, and the cost to having it maintained to perfection was enough for my budget. After many modded vehicles I wanted something that just worked and worked well. I wanted to be able to jump in, drive the 6 hours to Wisconsin, or even the 20 hours down to Florida, and not worry about a thing. Guess what, it did! Not once did I have any issues besides the occasional pot hole. I knew the cost of the vehicle and the cost to maintain it and it was all just within my budget.
In Conclusion.
Overall impressions of this vehicle is just as I have read in Car and Driver and other main car reviewing websites: its a vehicle for adults who want practicality and to get to their destination in a hurry. The amount of times I was surprised as to how much I could fit in the rear was too much to name. The speedometer reading after punching through many of the gears was shocking from not only how fast I was really going, but also how stable and planted the vehicle felt. Long road trips made in relative comfort and also seeing I was averaging over 30 mpg was wonderful. Insurance being actually less than my Focus ST was absolutely shocking. To have all of this in such a compact package was an absolute joy and it is a vehicle I will never forget, and if you can accept some of the costly maintenance I'm sure its one you wouldn't forget either.
