you say don't skimp, but surely after paying 27k for a car you can't then go out and buy brand new tyres for it - it should come with tyres that can cope with all situations!
Huh, are you for real? Twenty seven thousand pounds on a new car - but you then don't think you ought to spend an extra £500 on a decent set of boots! What if you stuffed your car into a hedge, or lamp post or dry stone wall - simply because your tyres let you down - and then wrote off the car! Dunlops could quite easily do that - but with more 'suitable' tyres, you would have a massively improved chance of missing said objects. OK, a change of underwear might be required, but your car would be intact!
And for the record, I have personally ditched shyte tyres on two brand new cars (actually, one was a dealer demo) - with better boots when they were virtually new. First ocasion was on a Vectra GSI which had Yokohoma AVS S1Z, and the second was on my RS4 with Pirelli P-Zero Rossos. The Yokos went after less than a 1000 miles, and the Pirellies lasted just 4k miles - and on both cars, the handling was massively improved.
Don't get me wrong, the Dunlops arn't 'dangerous' (like the Yokos and Pirellis were 
), but they are seriously 'inferior' - particularly when Dunlops are marketed as a 'premium' brand tyre. You could sort of accept shyte handling if you purchased some £30 'Nippon No-Grips' from China, but Dunlop . . . 
But saying all this, if you are one of the few who purchase a GTI just for the 'pose factor' - and never have any intention of using the GTI for what it is made for, then the Dunlops will be perfectly acceptable.
HTH
A. you missed my point. what i meant was when you are shelling out that kind of money on a car, you expect the tyres to be the best. i'm not saying i wouldn't change them, i'm saying that i would expect them to be tip top when i picked the car up.
OK, thanks for clarifying.
And I wholeheartedly agree that the car should have the best tyres. But sadly, we all need to accept that Volkswagen are just a 'mass market' manufacturer, and that the GTI is just 'another' model in their wider car range. Yes, yes, yes - WE all know that the GTI is much more than that - but in the global issue at Volkswagen Group - it aint. Which is why the GTI is supplied with quite a wide range of boots. But if you genuinely want a true 'sports car', or a car with much more control on crucial items such as tyres, then you seriously need to be looking at an Audi 'S' or 'RS' car, or a Porsche or a BMW 'M' car - but then you'd be paying a shed load more wonga - and one heck of a lot more than say £500 for a set of uber decent boots!
B. i can actually drive. i certainly won't end up in a hedge or a lamp post - i'll leave that to chavs in sh!t cars.
I'm sorry, but no matter how talented the driver, you can NOT overcome the laws of physics. If/when your tyres let you down, even the finest professional drivers in the world (of road cars or race cars) can overcome shyte tyres. Just look back to how Lewis Hamilton lost the WC in 2007 due to shagged tyres on his McLaren, yet the same scenario favoured him at Brazil 2008, when Jarno Trulis tyres were shot.
So unless you are some multiple world rally champion or F1 champion, I, with the highest possible respect and friendship, suggest you 'smell the coffee'.
C. even though you don't know me and i know you weren't having a go, i'm actually offended by the whole "never have the intention of using the GTI for what it is made for" comment! i drive hard but safe, and it really winds me up when i see a GTI going at 60mph on the motorway - buy a micra if you want to drive like a pussy. don't get me wrong, i enjoy the way the car looks and people looking at it, but its certainly not my primary reason for buying it so i can drive round the town centre all day posing. its meant to be driven, and it certainly will be i can promise you.
Sorry, I certainly didn't mean to adress that comment at anyone in person, including you - but we all know it does happen. And whilst there may be a real genuine reason to drive like Miss Daisy - such as you already have 11 points on your licence, for the most part - I bet a good 50-70% of GTI owners (and other similar cars) never, EVER get driven to anywhere near their capabilities!
