Innitial thoughts on the 2016 GTI

Picked up the new car, though it did have had one issue. It came from another dealer and had surprise rub strips on the wheel wells and doors. This was apparently something another customer who was going to purchase the car wanted. Since it wasn’t paint matched I had them remove the wheel well strips but left the doors for now. The girlfriend wanted door ones on so she wouldnt ding things but I think they are going to be ugly in the sun. Its a fairly easy removal, just time to cleanup the adhesive which is tacky. I want to see it in good sunlight before I make a decision, its been overcast and raining here this past few weeks and the rest of the week doesnt look promising.

So other than those strips the car is pretty much perfect. The turbo lag is almost non-existent which is amazing because the GLI was pretty good to begin with. Handling is nice, we will see how it is once the suspension breaks in. This thing will be an absolute beast once I get it chipped, its already pretty damn fun. The sound proofing is much better than the GLI’s was, and the sound system is amazing compared to what I have had previously. Having a sub-woofer on top of the spare tire is a nice addition.

Already know one change im going to be making with VCDS and thats disabling the soundakor. If you dont know what it is, its a speaker in the under the trim below the windshield wipers in the engine bay that produces car sounds to make it sound more aggressive at the right times. It “sounds” good but I hate knowing its doing it. Some people just pull the plug but you can also just flip a bit with VCDS.

Surprisingly one thing that I have been impressed with is the headunit in the car. Sure it has the standard Bluetooth integration and such as well as USB/Audio cable connections but the gas/performance details are super impressive never mind the carplay/android play/mirror link compatibility. Being able to use my phones GPS software and have it show up on the screen while listening to HD radio is pretty awesome. And its not just the maps show up on the screen I can fully interact with the map software. Pretty slick. I cant get over how easy it is to use. It has two SD card slots that I can load music and pictures on to view on the headunit. Then again im coming from a super basic one on my last car.

Trunk doesnt have as much cubby space as I want but they gave me those blocks with Velcro on them which helps a lot. I can fold down the seats from the trunk which is pretty awesome.

Roof rack from the MKV GLI doesnt fit the MKVII GTI which I expected but surprisingly does work on MKVI so should be easy to sell. Thinking this time I will go with a Thule rack so that I just replace the feet if I ever want to move it to another car.

Keyless entry is AWESOME! I am already spoiled for life with how easy it is and convenient. The keyfob is a bit bigger which is too bad but at least I dont have to fish it out of my pocket each time.

As im sure you can tell im loving it and hopefully it will last 10 years like my last car. I actually owned the GLI for just a few weeks under 8 years. I got it Feb 14th 2008. Very sad to see it go but the new car is making up for it =)