Car Worklog

Maintenace and Modification log for my cars

Car Worklog
General Discussion

Next car mentality

Jovian

This post is going to serve more as a reminder to myself later on when the mod bug starts to bite. It will help reel in my desire and keep me grounded.

Although I think I did an excellent job picking out tasteful and reasonable mods for my last car, there are some things that could have turned out better. Mostly of these changes are due to now living in California with stricter laws and the fact that im getting older. I have very rarely done anything to modify the “looks” of the car and this will continue. I can’t be spending as much as I did before on third-party mods this time around. The new car will be from the start more performance oriented and I wont get as much out of anything I “upgrade”.

The suspension on the stock GLI was nice and everything and I really enjoyed the upgrade I did to it. This new R will have something similar to what I put on the GLI so there is no need to touch it other than replace the shocks when they are done. I also don’t want to deal with my car bottoming out when going to parking garages and other extreme incline changing areas.

Intake and Exhaust will also not be touched on the R. Main reason for this is due to the California laws but also don’t get much bang for your buck when you do upgrade it. I don’t enjoy loud exhausts like most and the stock sound should be the perfect combination of performance vs noise. The intake although a cheap upgrade wont give me much without the higher stage software and expensive parts to back it up.

I replaced the wheels on the GLI due to multiple of the originals being bent. Not sure if it was me or the original owner who did it but regardless it was horrible for tire wear, ride quality and a potential safety issue. Again I am not a visual person so I will again only replace the if I have it. Being in California now I am less worried about potholes and such that Mass had a plentiful amount of.

Now there will be some things I will change about the car.

  • Software – I will get the APR stg1 software for the car, I will not need this right away and should wait for a sale to get all the profiles at a reasonable price. Heck stock is still more than current car modified.
  • Tires – I have been pleased with Yokohama S.Drives on my GLI and once the stock ones are done I will probably continue this trend. But there is no need to change them out before the stock need to be replaced. Who knows maybe I will like the stock ones.
  • Tow hitch – I have been mountain biking a lot and it would be easier/safer if I had a hitch bike rack on the R. I am not doing the roof racks due to girlfriends inability to get them on top of the car due to her height.I will need this reasonably soon after I get the car as my current bike rack will not fit. So getting it done at the dealer when I purchase the car might be smart.
  • Boost gauge – I have installed a vent boost gauge on my past two cars and its been an essential troubleshooting tool. I will do this again but also don’t need to do it right away. Probably a R matched NewSouth again.
  • Third Party Fixes – This engine “should” be more refined and shouldn’t need any third-party fixes like the 2.0t BPY did. But if it does these changes are acceptable. I am referring to the PCV and CatchCan changes I made on the GLI.

As you can see this is a slim list compared to what I did to the GLI and the A4. I am purchasing something higher end and more refined than the previous two so I don’t have to do as much work. Any changes I do make I will keep the old parts to be reverted if need be. I regret not saving the springs/vents on my current GLI and will remedy this with the next one.

I will keep the R as long as I can, like I am doing with the GLI. Buying new will give me a few more years which is nice, especially since I wont have to do as much work to it.

I don’t foresee any revolutionary advances in reasonably priced mods coming out as the technology has been pretty stagnant for a long time. The only thing I can possible think of is software for the DSG. Even then the current prices are pretty expensive for what you get and this is a daily driver not a trackcar.