GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: Sootchucker on 18 May 2015, 08:19
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Sort of related to a previous thread of mine as to whether I should keep the GTD (and just pay the final payment off when the time is due), or change it for a newer model, I was pondering this question.
I'm pretty sure I've decided to keep the GTD and pay it off and use it for another 3 years or so, or until the MK8 appears (or something else that grabs my eye). With that in mind, for those of you that keep your cars longer than 1-2 years (or heavens forbid 4-5 years), are you ever totally happy with the car stock and keep it that way, or are you (like me), always looking for little tweaks and individual personalisation here and there ?
I know a lot of members with the fast Golfs (GTD, GTI and R) go with performance based mods and fit maps or tuning boxes for extra oomph, and sometimes a performance exhaust, new wheels and perhaps slam them on coil overs etc, but apart from the tuning mods, do you keep your cars totally stock ?
I like to mess and love subtle mods that add to the luxury feel of the car, so I have for instance, fitted red LED footwell lights, proper active door lights in the lower from doors (to replace the red reflector), added rear footwell lighting and externally added red Badge skins over the front, rear and side badges.
Are there any other interior or exterior mods that people have done / though of or are you 100% happy with the way VW got it ?
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I'm all for keeping a car a long time. My previous Passat was with me for 8 years and my wifes 307 about the same. We've had the Golf 6 for just over 4 years now and I've freshened it up a little over time fitting Bluetooth, RNS510, LED rears and some VCDS tweeks. That is about as far as I will go with it as it does everything it was bought for as it is (except for having too many pedals.)
I've had my current Passat for just over 2 years and apart from a remap and VCDS tweeks, that is stock and will remain that way.
I think I've got to the stage where to me a car is just a car. More important things in life take over and the time just passes so quickly, I forget how old my cars are, or how long I've had them. So I'd just pay off your finance, enjoy not having outgoing monthly payments any more and think about it again when the car starts going wrong, or something completely new catches your eye.
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I tend to keep my cars pretty much stock. The reason being that I will usually look to change cars every 3-4 years and I don't see the point in spending hundreds if not thousands of pounds on mods when it can be going towards the next car. My thought process is that no matter the mods you add to the GTI it's never going to be as good as the R given that it has AWD so id rather save and get an R if I go down that route.
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I'm all for the little tweaks to make it better and 'your own'.
Currently got a tuning box fitted and have changed the incandescent bulbs for LEDs where I can.
Will be adding wheels, springs and a cat back exhaust on my return to the UK and also looking to do the same mods you have (rear footwell lights and door lights) and maybe swapping the badges out to PP items (mine's an early one) but adding black vinyl in the centres of them.
Don't want to go too mad as apart from the wheels I like the idea of OEM+ type mods.
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I keep my cars for 3, maybe 4 years and keep them largely stock apart from the little interior mods you've mentioned. On my current car, I added LED interior lights, red footwells, sill guards, footrest plate but that's it. It will be the same when I get my R, subtle minor cosmetic mods. The only other thing I might do is get VCDS so I can do some tweaks.
I buy cars that 'out of the box' will serve my needs, with a carefully considered spec, including alloys I'm likely to stick with. Although if I decided to hang onto a a car longer than 4 years, a change of alloys is probably the only major external change I might consider, but it's still cosmetic.
Tbh if I was to start on the whole tuning mods thing, I would inevitably get carried away and start going down the handling mods route too, and the reality is I don't have the time to commit and it's just not necessary for my needs, so would be hard to justify the cost and time (though I'm sure I could if I wanted :wink:).
I tend to lavish attention on my cars in the form of enthusiastic amateur detailing and that takes up more than enough of my spare time. I'm happy with that.
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Interesting replies. So like me, no one has got carried away, just subtle minor mods.
TBH, the only thing I really would have liked to have added to mine would have been Lane assist to get the traffic sign detection (I have no real interest in the lane assist itself par se), and think it's a shame this is locked to having a £1k lane assist bundle. Reason is that I was done for speeding a few years ago in Scotland as I genuinely missed the 40mph sign (after coming from a national speed limit, still on a dual carriageway), and got done for doing 55 in a 40. The lane assist feature would have been useful in that instance, as apparently it doesn't miss much.
The only other thing I would have really liked would have been the on line connection packages (apple car play and android play), as when I purchased the Nav Pro, the dealer was spouting all sorts of crap about WIFI and on line services, and as we now know, VW have only just implemented this properly 3 years after the MK7 went on sale.
Trouble is, as nice as these options would be to me (and I would actually use them), as previously discussed, it would be ludicrous to swap my current car out for one with the same options and the ones above added as it would cost a fortune. I think I'll just my eye on the retrofit and accessory companies over the next few years see what they bring to market.
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In a previous life I'd get a GTI, never a new one due to expense (no PCP's in those days) and start to modify it almost as soon as I'd got it. The one thing I learnt over the years was that whatever you modify you gain in one area and lose in another.
The mk1 and mk2(8v) GTI's were torquey but lacked top end - so you modify the cylinder head and realise the the bottom end torque isn't so good... What do you do next? oh yes, you then have to put a 1900 or 2000 bottom end on it at huge expense then wonder why you didn't just get a 325i instead.
The suspension looked a bit high too, oh, I'll chuck a very expensive German kit on it. Then the ride is ruined. And so it goes on.
I've modified TDI's too. The GTI's got a bit boring (understatement) in the 90's so I thought I'd try something else with these new fangled TDI's just released. Add tuning box and yay! Suddenly it's quicker than a GTI of the time and more fun to boot with all that torque; ok, I'll make it faster still and add a remap and injectors and suddenly the fuel economy has gone to poop! Oh, the suspension can't handle the new found power, I'll upgrade that too - now the ride has also gone to poop... The brakes? I'll leave it there!
The best thing that ever happened to the sporty VW's was when the GT and above spec TDI's and turbo'd GTI's came with proper sport seats and engines that you could just add a stage 1 tune to and use reliably without going silly on the mods. With the mk5 came proper suspension too, and by then there are so many electronic luxuries added to the cars, coupled with all the emissions crap, that you'd not really want to run one too far after the warranty ran out.
I've lost count of the amount of people on the forums that have bought their GTIs and TDI's and modified them so far that they'd lost sight of why they bought them in the first place, and still never found that utopia they were looking for. If you want a sports car then buy a sports car is my considered opinion after about 30 years of messing about with GTIs and TDIs. Buy a cheap sports car for fun and a GTI, or better still a GTD, and just appreciate each for what they are.
Alloy wheels have always been my weakness and trademark, but the mk7 is a hard one to choose wheels for that actually look good. Especially if you want non diamond cut wheels to avoid the inevitable problems. I've changed my wheels twice on my mk7 already and was looking for yet another set before running into a brick wall of options. I appreciate everyone's tastes are different but with a Golf you want it to keep it's classy classless looks but at the same time you want it to look a bit different to someone's leased company car. As said above - you want to put your own stamp on the car.
Mr N, I'm not sure what your hobbies are but I'll always argue that if you play golf or have a football or rugby, cricket or whatever season ticket that all costs money. If you collect stamps or coins it costs money. If you buy fine arts then it costs loads of money. If you buy a holiday cottage because you're particularly flush then that too will cost money, and lots of it too!
If your car is your main interest then you can justify spending a bit of 'dead' hobby money on it and only you can know where you'd be prepared to draw the line.
For me, in your shoes I'd do the mods you have already done as they're all classy, subtle and pretty cool. I'd maybe look at a different set of wheels but as the GTD comes with the best looking wheels in the range I'd probably not bother - but I would add a set of spacers front and rear to give the car the sporty shoulders it lacks (all Golfs look better with a set of spacers but the mk7 benefits the most since the mk3). I'd add a tuning box (I wouldn't bother with a remap on a TDI as they work differently to petrol engines and I like the fact the DTUK ones are adjustable to suit your mood) which will still have some value when you come to change car unlike a remap.
At that point I'd call it a day and concentrate on saving for my next car which will have lots more gadgets. And with technology gaining pace all the time I'd just appreciate that whatever gadgets were on my next car they too would be out of date after 12 months...
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^ agree with all of that! Plus only make reversible changes and always keep the original parts.
Yep. I got old.
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I personally like the idea maintaining a really nice stock example. I'm probably in the minority here - I can never decide that I like anything non-OEM looking for more than 5 minutes
On the power side I can't see much point putting more power through the front wheels given it already has a bucketload of torque. Plus then I'd probably void warranty, need a new clutch, have issues with CELs, reduce lifespan, kill resale, etc. I'm happy with the stock suspension too - could get it to handle better but I'd probably sacrifice comfort and DCC is standard here in Australia so my car has it and I'd probably stuff up the functionality of that....
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Could alway throw an R400 style bodykit on it to pep it up a little??
http://www.diytrade.com/china/pd/12807475/PU_R400_bumper_body_kit_for_vw_golf_MK7_GTI_R20.html
:rolleyes: :laugh:
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I'd go remap over a tuning box. Carbon have one that can removed so you have the best of both worlds.
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I personally like the idea maintaining a really nice stock example. I'm probably in the minority here - I can never decide that I like anything non-OEM looking for more than 5 minutes
Not at all - I never mess around with any of my cars! I stick to stock :smiley: Only time I've done anything was to get the red PP badges added to my GTI PP as when I got mine they were still silver. Apart from that I stick with what I've got, if I want something different I wait until the next version comes out :smiley:
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Could alway throw an R400 style bodykit on it to pep it up a little??
http://www.diytrade.com/china/pd/12807475/PU_R400_bumper_body_kit_for_vw_golf_MK7_GTI_R20.html
:rolleyes: :laugh:
Classy! :grin:
:sick: :sick: :sick:
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Could alway throw an R400 style bodykit on it to pep it up a little??
http://www.diytrade.com/china/pd/12807475/PU_R400_bumper_body_kit_for_vw_golf_MK7_GTI_R20.html
:rolleyes: :laugh:
Classy! :grin:
:sick: :sick: :sick:
I quite like it with the beige paint!! :grin:
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Could alway throw an R400 style bodykit on it to pep it up a little??
http://www.diytrade.com/china/pd/12807475/PU_R400_bumper_body_kit_for_vw_golf_MK7_GTI_R20.html
:rolleyes: :laugh:
Classy! :grin:
:sick: :sick: :sick:
I quite like it with the beige paint!! :grin:
If only that colour was an option on the configurator, I might have been swayed away from my usual black :whistle: :grin:
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I think that "beige" is actually LSG.... everyone says my car is "metallic beige" :angry:
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I think that "beige" is actually LSG.... everyone says my car is "metallic beige" :angry:
I assumed it was the LSG :tongue: In pictures where LSG looks more grey I like it but am less keen when it takes on the 'beige' hue. In reality how beige is it?
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I think that "beige" is actually LSG.... everyone says my car is "metallic beige" :angry:
I assumed it was the LSG :tongue: In pictures where LSG looks more grey I like it but am less keen when it takes on the 'beige' hue. In reality how beige is it?
It is beige more often than it is grey. In most lights it looks like the cathodic protection applied to the car before the undercoat is applied. Seems a popular choice on the non-performance Golfs - plenty of Match and GT Golfs seen in this colour at my local dealerships' used lot. When it is photographed looking nice (as most of us would like it to be) it looks carbon grey.
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It looks beige more often than not.
I ordered it based on the configurator representation.... I won't be doing that again lol
Still, looking beige makes for a good Q car :)
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It is beige more often than it is grey. In most lights it looks like the cathodic protection applied to the car before the undercoat is applied. Seems a popular choice on the non-performance Golfs - plenty of Match and GT Golfs seen in this colour at my local dealerships' used lot. When it is photographed looking nice (as most of us would like it to be) it looks carbon grey.
It looks beige more often than not.
I ordered it based on the configurator representation.... I won't be doing that again lol
Still, looking beige makes for a good Q car :)
A little too Q car perhaps, there's sleeper then there's über sleeper zzzz :laugh:
The configurator colour representations are woeful. It manages to make every colour look flat and dull. I'd never buy based on that. But in the pics I've seen where it looks darkish metallic grey....nice, if only that was the reality.
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I think if you've already made your mind up to keep it for a while then you need to decide if you're bored with it as it stands? I love the idea of modding for performance and styling and then i just can't bring myself to do it, i'd love to lower the GTI a little when i see others that have and then the doubt starts.. How long will my DCC shocks last? How would i feel going over the MANY speed humps round our way? Etc etc..
I'd like a stainless exhaust but don't like the sound of most of turbo back so would have a cat back which sound quite a bit like the standard exhaust so whats the point?...
Sometimes i hate the way my mind works!! :undecided:
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I have a tartan picnic blanket on the parcel shelf, replaced the gtd badge with a csma plaque and Wear a tweed flat cap while doing 30mph looking to sucker people in...
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I have a tartan picnic blanket on the parcel shelf, replaced the gtd badge with a csma plaque and Wear a tweed flat cap while doing 30mph looking to sucker people in...
That's dedication to the cause for you :wink:
If I'm ever up Grimsby way and a beige bullet whizzes past with a tartan throw in the rear window, I'll know it's you :grin:
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I think if you've already made your mind up to keep it for a while then you need to decide if you're bored with it as it stands? I love the idea of modding for performance and styling and then i just can't bring myself to do it, i'd love to lower the GTI a little when i see others that have and then the doubt starts.. How long will my DCC shocks last? How would i feel going over the MANY speed humps round our way? Etc etc..
I'd like a stainless exhaust but don't like the sound of most of turbo back so would have a cat back which sound quite a bit like the standard exhaust so whats the point?...
Sometimes i hate the way my mind works!! :undecided:
Much of what you say makes perfect sense and sums up how I feel about modding. So I accept I won't go down that road and aim to get the most enjoyment I can out of a stock car. I do enjoy seeing what others do though.
Sootchucker, did you have anything specific in mind mod wise to refresh the GTD if you decide to keep it. Perhaps you need to come up with a little wish list of mods to ponder?
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I have a tartan picnic blanket on the parcel shelf, replaced the gtd badge with a csma plaque and Wear a tweed flat cap while doing 30mph looking to sucker people in...
That's dedication to the cause for you :wink:
If I'm ever up Grimsby way and a beige bullet whizzes past with a tartan throw in the rear window, I'll know it's you :grin:
Eat my beige dust! :-P