So my wife and I bought a the GTI. We seriously compared it with a few other cars in its price range: the Civic SI, Mazda 3 Speed, some Subarus, Audi A3 and an Acura or two. Thing was, nothing at this price or less even came close. The SI was nice but I wasn't sure I wanted to live with the screaming engine all of the time. The Mazda Speed is fast but looked, sounded and felt too "plasticy" and "Fordy." Subarus are fast, well built but kinda plain in looks and funtionality. The Acuras were okay but more expensive and the A3 was the same as the GTI only more expensive as well.
Now my wife and I are 47 years old so dusting ricers was low on our priority list. What we did want was a well built car that looked and sounded great on the inside and the outside - a car that we could seriously enjoy driving. A car we could love. Don't get me wrong, we wanted performance but not for the usual reasons. We wanted a car that did what we wanted it to when we wanted it to. When I hit the gas I want it to go forward quickly. When I hit the brakes I want it to stop quickly. When I go to pass a transport on the highway, I want to be able to do it safely. The GTI fit the bill perfectly.
We bought our car used and the previous owner had installed an aftermarket cold air intake. This thing was supposed to make the perform better and sound good. Personally, I thought did the opposite. Sure it gave it a slightly more gutteral sound but at the expense of an added pathetic wheezing and sucking sounds. While it did provide a slightly increased high end torque (I think) it made the car run rough at slow speeds at low RPMS. So we pulled it and replaced it with the stock parts and guess what. The car now purrs and growls like it was designed to. What an improvement. Guess the VW engineers knew what they were doing.
But we did notice a slight drop in high-end torque. Not a big drop mind you but just enought so that when we agressivly went from 50 to 80 mph the car would have to drop a gear to get there. This upset me a tad. I guess we were a little spoiled. I did some research and decided to chip it. We chose the APR stage 1.
Well. Let me just say this. If you are out of your twenties and aren't really interested in Saturday night street racing but want a car that can handle itself easily and assuredly on the road. If you want to ride in comfort and safety but you want to be able to win your piece of the roadway against 95% of everything you see on the road - chip your GTI. Downpipes, intakes, jet fuel - they are for the young, speed freaks or the "need to prove something crowd." But if you want a car that makes you smile because it does exactly what you want, when you want - get a chip for your stock GTI and enjoy the ride. I promise you may never stop smiling.
Now my wife and I are 47 years old so dusting ricers was low on our priority list. What we did want was a well built car that looked and sounded great on the inside and the outside - a car that we could seriously enjoy driving. A car we could love. Don't get me wrong, we wanted performance but not for the usual reasons. We wanted a car that did what we wanted it to when we wanted it to. When I hit the gas I want it to go forward quickly. When I hit the brakes I want it to stop quickly. When I go to pass a transport on the highway, I want to be able to do it safely. The GTI fit the bill perfectly.
We bought our car used and the previous owner had installed an aftermarket cold air intake. This thing was supposed to make the perform better and sound good. Personally, I thought did the opposite. Sure it gave it a slightly more gutteral sound but at the expense of an added pathetic wheezing and sucking sounds. While it did provide a slightly increased high end torque (I think) it made the car run rough at slow speeds at low RPMS. So we pulled it and replaced it with the stock parts and guess what. The car now purrs and growls like it was designed to. What an improvement. Guess the VW engineers knew what they were doing.
But we did notice a slight drop in high-end torque. Not a big drop mind you but just enought so that when we agressivly went from 50 to 80 mph the car would have to drop a gear to get there. This upset me a tad. I guess we were a little spoiled. I did some research and decided to chip it. We chose the APR stage 1.
Well. Let me just say this. If you are out of your twenties and aren't really interested in Saturday night street racing but want a car that can handle itself easily and assuredly on the road. If you want to ride in comfort and safety but you want to be able to win your piece of the roadway against 95% of everything you see on the road - chip your GTI. Downpipes, intakes, jet fuel - they are for the young, speed freaks or the "need to prove something crowd." But if you want a car that makes you smile because it does exactly what you want, when you want - get a chip for your stock GTI and enjoy the ride. I promise you may never stop smiling.
