Poll

How does your MkVI GTI rank among all the other cars you have owned?

I wish I'd never bought one
29 (65.9%)
In the top 2 or 3
10 (22.7%)
I'm actually slightly disappointed
1 (2.3%)
I wish I'd never bought one
4 (9.1%)

Total Members Voted: 41

Author Topic: Is your MkVI GTI 'the best car you've ever owned'?  (Read 12053 times)

Offline Snoopy

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Re: Is your MkVI GTI 'the best car you've ever owned'?
« Reply #30 on: 23 May 2010, 10:24 »
Twist beam is cheap, always has been.
Multi-link/double wishbones are better, but dearer.
If cost (and packaging) wasn't a problem, then even VAGs light cars (Ha!...still heavy next to the likes of an ITR or early CTR) would use multi-link rears at the very least as it has such a huge impact on the overall chassis performance.

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Early civics and i meen the first couple of generations back in 70s-80s had independent rear suspension and the golf out handled them  :wink:
It does not have as big an impact as people are lead to beleave imo.

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Nothing wrong perhaps.
Just not as good as a more modern set-up.
That's progress...
Adds weight destroys handling and feel. Thats why lotus is lotus.

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An engine is an in-efficient old hector.
Anything you can do to improve the efficiency, is a good thing....especially if you can reduce wasted energy (unburned fuel) whilst doing so....and to improve the efficiency requires engineering progress.

So explain how a 8v 1.8 is more efficient (or if you prefer, 'better' engineered) than a 16v FSI engine running full computer controlled management, with variable valve timing and a turbocharger etc?

More power and less emissions = better engineering in my book.

Not when its by electronics. Mechanical reliable engineering wins over electrical engineering anyday for long term reliability. (I design both for a living so know how crap electronics are). don't just base emissions off Co2 :wink:
The mk1 engine does better mpg as it does not have that fat ass to drag about.  :grin: is reliable and will always start unlike anything electronic controlled. :evil: Mechanical engineering wins over electrical anyday of the week. You may also find alot of the EA888 mechanicals is based off the old 1.8 funny that.
Mk6 GTI  &  Mk1 GTI 
34 years of GTI ownership.

Offline am1w

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Re: Is your MkVI GTI 'the best car you've ever owned'?
« Reply #31 on: 23 May 2010, 10:26 »
Bugger the engineering. :wink: Safety first. If I was to be in a major accident, I would rather be in a Mk6 than a Mk1. I'll have a good chance of surviving.
Remember modern products are throw away products and that's that, fortunately or unfortunately. :rolleyes:
I've just got up and am in a bad mood as my car is covered with bird poo! :angry:
RED TORNADO 7R, 5 DR, DSG, DCC, DNS, DYNAUDIO, KI, WP, HBA, LN, SP

Offline Snoopy

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Re: Is your MkVI GTI 'the best car you've ever owned'?
« Reply #32 on: 23 May 2010, 10:34 »
Bugger the engineering. :wink: Safety first. If I was to be in a major accident, I would rather be in a Mk6 than a Mk1. I'll have a good chance of surviving.
Remember modern products are throw away products and that's that, fortunately or unfortunately. :rolleyes:
I've just got up and in a bad mood as my car is covered in bird poo! :angry:
The thing is in the mk1 you will see the accident going to happen so can avoid it. Were as the amount of blind spots in modern cars meens you cannot see jack sh1t so end up crashing.
I have had two accidents in a mk1 (Luckily the other one i use to own) One an old bloke had just been to the opticians and has eyes were dilated and he drove into the back of me at 40mph at a set of traffic lights as he did not see me or the lights!!! (I had nowere to go as there was school children crossing so i had to hold the brakes on as hard as i could as well as pull the handbrake on full so did not go into the kids. (was a tuff call kids or car  :grin: )
The other one someone decided they did not like the front end and wanted to try and remove it by going straight acorss a crossroads at high speed ~60mph. That sort of killed the car. Both times myself and passenger unhurt.
Remember modern cars are built to meet Euro encap crash tests thats not what happens in real life imo. Ever noticed how in a crash brakes are normally applied and so angles and forces change  :wink: and we don't hit at exact angles like they check at :wink:
I have had two accidents in modern cars one a SEAT Ibiza only a couple years old= broken ribs and nose. A SEAT leon a couple years old that broke my ankle and foot. Both imo were lower speed impacts than the golf ones and i felt worse afterwords.

Im all for modern stiffer body shells as it helps in a crash (look at F1 for stiffness) (as long as it does not impact weight to much), but i find it upsetting that there are huge compromises i often get told about made to meet certain standards set by the EU/USA crash tests just to help marketing. I also find it a problem having to have so many blind spots and over selling saftey to the point people forget how to drive because they think they won't get hurt is worrying.
« Last Edit: 23 May 2010, 10:48 by Snoopy »
Mk6 GTI  &  Mk1 GTI 
34 years of GTI ownership.

Offline am1w

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Re: Is your MkVI GTI 'the best car you've ever owned'?
« Reply #33 on: 23 May 2010, 10:39 »
Snoops: Your post is full of logic, but it had me in stitches. I know I am a bit sick by this reaction, but you can be so funny when one least expects it!
I hope you are all healed now. :smiley:
RED TORNADO 7R, 5 DR, DSG, DCC, DNS, DYNAUDIO, KI, WP, HBA, LN, SP

Offline Ess_Three

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Re: Is your MkVI GTI 'the best car you've ever owned'?
« Reply #34 on: 23 May 2010, 10:42 »
Early civics and i meen the first couple of generations back in 70s-80s had independent rear suspension and the golf out handled them  :wink:
It does not have as big an impact as people are lead to beleave imo.

I was referring to early CTRs or ITRs - cars that outhandle ANY VW to date.

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Adds weight destroys handling and feel. Thats why lotus is lotus.

Didn't the 7 have double wishbones?
Wasn't that a Lotus?


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Not when its by electronics. Mechanical reliable engineering wins over electrical engineering anyday for long term reliability. (I design both for a living so know how crap electronics are). don't just base emissions off Co2 :wink:

And I, like many, use them both for a living...and electronics = progress.
We aren't stuck in the dark ages...

Emissions/efficiency = better burn of hydrocarbons = less unburned hydrocarbons.
Care to explain the swirl advantages (hence better mixing, and more complete combustion) of a 8v head over a properly designed 16v head?


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The mk1 engine does better mpg as it does not have that fat ass to drag about.  :grin: is reliable and will always start unlike anything electronic controlled. :evil: Mechanical engineering wins over electrical anyday of the week. You may also find alot of the EA888 mechanicals is based off the old 1.8 funny that.

Weight accepted. We will never see the likes of the Mk1 again as long as we have to share the road with idiots in 2.5T SUVs.

When you say "alot of the EA888 mechanicals is based off the old 1.8"
You mean it's made of metal, has physically similar in dimensions, has 4 cylinders and a crankshaft.

That's like saying I'm roughly based on Algelina Jolie as I am human with two arms and two legs.

Hardly the same...they are polar opposites.

Reducing my Golf count by the week....
..but gaining motorcycles.

Offline am1w

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Re: Is your MkVI GTI 'the best car you've ever owned'?
« Reply #35 on: 23 May 2010, 10:48 »
When you say "alot of the EA888 mechanicals is based off the old 1.8"
You mean it's made of metal, has physically similar in dimensions, has 4 cylinders and a crankshaft.
That's like saying I'm roughly based on Algelina Jolie as I am human with two arms and two legs.
Hardly the same...they are polar opposites.

 :laugh: :laugh:
This is turning into the best posts ever.
You two are ace!
RED TORNADO 7R, 5 DR, DSG, DCC, DNS, DYNAUDIO, KI, WP, HBA, LN, SP

Offline Exonian

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Re: Is your MkVI GTI 'the best car you've ever owned'?
« Reply #36 on: 23 May 2010, 11:55 »
As usual I'm going to back Snoopy on this one. The mk1 was engineered, the mk6 is manufactured.
I'm not going to stick my neck out and say that the mk1 was better though. The early ones were rust buckets and the one I had was the most unreliable car I ever had. In fact it blew it's head gasket on my effing wedding day!
If they still made a mk1 with a galvanised shell and a 2.0 150bhp engine, power steering (sorry Snoops I hated the unasisted steering as I have no muscles) I'd get that over the eurobox mk6 in a flash.

BTW I have found a cure for the godawful throttle on the mk6 (and mk5 for that matter as it's not much better). It cost me £100 plus VAT though and makes the car a little jerky at times. However you can move off on a sniff of throttle and you don't have to stretch your leg 2 foot to get full acceleration.
And it has a neat little switch that enables you to power it off in traffic if it's gets a bit too jerky.
It's called a Sprintbooster. Hideously overpriced for what it is but I found it necessary.

Quick edit: I don't agree about the Alfas though. I find most modern Alphas fugly. I think it's the funny grille that does it mostly. Not as fugly as BMWs though.
« Last Edit: 23 May 2010, 12:00 by Exonian »
‘25 8.5R, ‘23 8R, ‘20 8CS, ‘19 135iX, ‘19 TCR, ‘17 Ed40, ‘17 GTD, ‘15 7R, ‘13 GTI PP, ‘11 GTI, ‘09 GTI, ‘98 Ibiza Cupra, ‘05 GTI, ‘06 Polo GTI, ‘04 GT TDI, ‘05 Fabia vRS, ‘02 GTI T, ‘03 Ibiza TDI 130, ‘01 Leon 180, ‘89 mk2 16v, ‘99 Ibiza TDI, ‘96 VR6, ‘98 Ibiza TDI, ‘92 VR6, ‘88 mk2 8v, ‘92 Polo G40, ‘91 mk2 8v, ‘89 mk2 8v, 205 GTI 1.9, ‘83 mk1 GTI, ‘80 Scirocco GTI, plus some others I’ve forgotten 

Offline am1w

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Re: Is your MkVI GTI 'the best car you've ever owned'?
« Reply #37 on: 23 May 2010, 12:00 »
Is this it?

http://www.sprintbooster2.com/
Or,
http://www.wheelandtyre.co.uk/tuning/sprint-booster/

£118! Expensive.

I was looking at this just yesterday! :smiley:
« Last Edit: 23 May 2010, 12:03 by am1w »
RED TORNADO 7R, 5 DR, DSG, DCC, DNS, DYNAUDIO, KI, WP, HBA, LN, SP

Offline Exonian

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Re: Is your MkVI GTI 'the best car you've ever owned'?
« Reply #38 on: 23 May 2010, 12:31 »
That's the ones. They are expensive but necessary IMO.
I asked REVO when they did my re-map if they could improve the throttle response any more and they said they had it as good as it could be got. So the Sprintbooster was to my eyes a necessary addition.
Makes the car more like a 205 GTI. Touch throttle and off it goes.
The Golf is more prod throttle, wait, move a bit, stretch you leg right out, move faster, dip clutch, change gear and repeat previous steps. Very refined I'm sure but not what I want.
‘25 8.5R, ‘23 8R, ‘20 8CS, ‘19 135iX, ‘19 TCR, ‘17 Ed40, ‘17 GTD, ‘15 7R, ‘13 GTI PP, ‘11 GTI, ‘09 GTI, ‘98 Ibiza Cupra, ‘05 GTI, ‘06 Polo GTI, ‘04 GT TDI, ‘05 Fabia vRS, ‘02 GTI T, ‘03 Ibiza TDI 130, ‘01 Leon 180, ‘89 mk2 16v, ‘99 Ibiza TDI, ‘96 VR6, ‘98 Ibiza TDI, ‘92 VR6, ‘88 mk2 8v, ‘92 Polo G40, ‘91 mk2 8v, ‘89 mk2 8v, 205 GTI 1.9, ‘83 mk1 GTI, ‘80 Scirocco GTI, plus some others I’ve forgotten 

Offline R32UK

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Re: Is your MkVI GTI 'the best car you've ever owned'?
« Reply #39 on: 23 May 2010, 12:36 »
That's the ones. They are expensive but necessary IMO.
I asked REVO when they did my re-map if they could improve the throttle response any more and they said they had it as good as it could be got. So the Sprintbooster was to my eyes a necessary addition.
Makes the car more like a 205 GTI. Touch throttle and off it goes.
The Golf is more prod throttle, wait, move a bit, stretch you leg right out, move faster, dip clutch, change gear and repeat previous steps. Very refined I'm sure but not what I want.

Agreed. Along with the turbo lag this is one thing that i miss from the old R, instant torque and no pootling around waiting for something to happen. Hate to think what a CTR must be like :undecided: