[aretardedorange]

Nice looks gorgeous. I got a 08 TL . Not a bad car at all. I hope you enjoy the car man!

[aretardedorange]

So what are your impressions?

[Tondtar]

Originally Posted by aretardedorange

So what are your impressions?

Sorry for being busy and lazy in doing a post-purchase follow up until now. However, since you asked for it ...

I picked up the car about 3 weeks ago. Final purchase price was $15.5K (I got a $400 break). The car was purchased in a dealer-only auction by the guys who sold it to me. They are two brothers who run a small used car and boat dealership in Orange County and specialize in high-performance and custom work mainly. Most of their business is done for out of state clients who are looking to purchase, clean, unique CA cars and boats. Jason, the guy whom I dealt with said in 5 years of doing this business, they never came across a car this clean and this well pampered and I do believe him after I saw it in person. He was actually keeping the car in the garage at his home because he did not feel OK leaving at the lot in their office overnight because it was, a he put it, such a "looker".

First of all, I am not such a gear head and don't know sh*t about GTI's. The car grabbed my attention on eBay after seeing the photos and reading about all the mods done to it. The other factor was the mod work was done by Group 5 in San Diego, whom I know is quite reputable in SoCal market for their performance upgrade work. The auction did not result in a sale because the winner could not secure financing due to the age of the car and that's when I started negotiating with these guys.

My impression so far :

Good : Styling, color, condition, tastefully done and extensive mods, fast as hell (in initial acceleration it beats an E92 and I have to be a bit careful as it feels a bit light in handling the pull of turbo when it fully kicks in). Pampered and clean with no scratch inside or out. In my estimation, the car has close to $10K worth of mods (parts alone). I estimate HP to be about 270-275 range which is great for a V4 car of this size.

Bad : Not too many but ... Needs a new set of tires (a mismatched front tires and back tires have to go also). Also, I am not too crazy about the rim styling but I can live with it for now. Braking feels a bit rough but was inspected and it's OK and pads are not low (I think I am spoiled with E92's silky smooth and authoritative feel of disk brakes). The rear gear is a bit hard to engage when car is starting cold. Sometime, I have to put it in first gear and move a few feet forward before I can use the rear gear. The head VW mechanic looked at it and says it's quite fine and probably expected since it has a short shifter. Mileage of 48.6K may be on the high side but considering how clean and well taken care of it looks, I am not too worried about it. I am sure it being a San Diego car, most of it was highway miles.

Conclusion : I think I got really lucky on this car. Everyone who sees and drives it so far has given it thumbs up ranging from family and friends to the Lemon Check service and VW dealer's head mechanic in Santa Monica who looked at it inside and out. I will be driving it for about a year after my E92 lease is up next month and then I will give it to my son who will be getting his license by then. Although he bitched about it being stick shift first, I see him change his minds rather quickly after all his friends started drooling after seeing the car. In the meantime, I am enjoyin' the sh*t out of it

Here some Photos I took last week ...

[Chewy734]

very nice ride! more pics of your house?

[BobKingerman]

That's a sweet looking car, only thing is the rear tails are a little to dark for my taste

[-=Hot|Ice=-]

Originally Posted by BobKingerman

That's a sweet looking car, only thing is the rear tails are a little to dark for my taste

[Negotiator]

Looks great, but I really dislike painted badges. I recently got a gti to replace the g37.

[Tondtar]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

very nice ride! more pics of your house?

I wish that was my house. If it was, I'd be posting pic of my new Bentley not a cheap GTI

Originally Posted by BobKingerman

That's a sweet looking car, only thing is the rear tails are a little to dark for my taste

I do too but did not mind it much in this case. The car color goes well with the matt black badges.

Originally Posted by Negotiator

Looks great, but I really dislike painted badges. I recently got a gti to replace the g37.

Nice ....Wanna race?