Jetta FSI Turbo

[Lima]

Well, I picked it up yesterday and everything went pretty well.

A few little things:
- They forgot to install the iPod adapter but that is being done right at this moment.
- The driver's seat and the centre console storage compartment lid touch and, as they are both leather, squeak when going over bumps. It's very quiet and only noticable when you have absolute silence in the car and go over a rough road.
- the leather on the passenger door near the grab handle looks like it needs to be tucked in under the panel better

Other than those very minor points, everything is wonderful. Of course I am taking it pretty easy for the first 1000k or so (in accordance with the owner's manual) but even so, this is still a quick car. A little run up Mt Cootha demonstrated that it likes the corners... the 225/40 on the 18" wheels surely do hang on well and I imagine they are still scrubbing in, so more grip to be had.

DSG is just a delight and makes me smile from ear to ear. I took a relative for a test drive and he said it felt like an electric car, just a constant surge of power. I tried Sports mode briefly... it's a bit bloody enthusiastic to say the least! It holds gears for eternity and changes down very early, I can see that there's going to be some fun had once she's run in!

I must admit, there is a learning curve here. At first I found driving the car smoothly a bit of a trick. It seemed to be either too slow or too fast, but now I'm getting the hang of it.

Interior comfort is better catered for than in any other car I've owned. For a car with so many features the controls are very intuitive and ergonomic. The stereo really pumps out the tunes well. They've leant me a TDI for today and the difference in sound quality is quite noticable (not having a go at TDIs here, a very nice drive).

Photos will be forthcoming next week.

Cheers,
Tom

Good stuff Tom.

[tofo17]

Well things were going well until yesterday. At about 5:45pm I was driving to a friends house when I noticed the temperature guage start rising slowly. At the same time I noticed the air-con seemed to be ineffective (it was very humid in Brisbane yesterday).
The temperature guage continued to rise until the car decided to tell me to stop. So I did. I checked the coolant level, it seemed fine. So I called VW Assist you informed me they couldn't do much except send a tow truck to take the car back to the dealers. An hour later the car was towed.

So 800km on the odo and one week of ownership (today) it's back at the dealers. They're checking it out and should get back to me this afternoon. If it's not simple to fix and can't be done today they've offered to give me a loan vehicly, which given it's a long weekend is a good thing.

As you would imagine, I'm not very happy. Yesterday was the first time I did drive with a little enthusiasm, so maybe this exposed something that was loose... who knows

On a more positive note, I have really enjoyed driving it over the last week

Have a great long weekend everyone. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll give me a GTI for the weekend.

Cheers,
Tom

[DubSteve]

Yesterday was the first time I did drive with a little enthusiasm, so maybe this exposed something that was loose... who knows

Cheers,
Tom

Bad news there Tom hope you get it back tomorrow and it all goes well. When you say with a little enthusiasm what do you mean by a little enthusiasm

[Rod_H]

Don't these GTI engines have a faulty temp sender unit. I have read over at the Tex forums of this same thing happening.
Aircon cuts out with high temp readings from faulty sensor and the gauge goes off the scale and can hunt from cold to hot.

[william]

I noticed the temperature guage start rising slowly. At the same time I noticed the air-con seemed to be ineffective (it was very humid in Brisbane yesterday).
The temperature guage continued to rise until the car decided to tell me to stop. So I did. I checked the coolant level, it seemed fine.

Cheers,
Tom

im sorry to hear of your inconvience aircon has been a problem for later vws they had a major recall on compressors on some early golf 5 models but the compressors are shocking which is strange as golf 3 and 4 a/c units had no issues if sealed. with the temperature issue which seems to me a coolant temperature sensor also common but from factory very strange ,they truely are great cars with excellent dsg gearboxes and the 16v 2.0t gti engine which are pretty fullproof i love them but issues like this turn me off new cars .

[Lima]

Sorry to hear that Tom. Good luck getting it sorted, hope you're back on the road quick smart.

[Dr Spine]

Bummer mate! Hope you've got everything in order to come on the SEQ Number 2 drive next sunday.

[tofo17]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

As you know the car was towed on Wednesday night. On Thursday I talked to the dealer and they said they would check the car out but would offer me a courtesy car for the long weekend if they weren't able to fix it. I received a call at about 2:30pm on the same day to inform me that the radiator fan had failed (an electrical fault) but they had the parts, had done the fix and my car was ready to go!

So less than 24 hours later I was back on the road and the car is fine... racked up 1000km today.

Definitely a disappointing thing to happen to a brand new car but I was impressed with the service from VW. They were clearly pretty embarrassed.

Still loving the experience... oh, and they cleaned the car.

Cheers,
Tom

[Lima]

That's great Tom. Always love to hear about pleasent dealer experiences. More important;ly, glad you're back on the road. Excellent news.

[PeterH]

Tom, sad to hear of your problems with the radiator fan. In my industry (computers) we have a term for this "early life failure". We actually say this to customers, it is meant to imply that not everything is perfect coming out of the factory. And generally after one or two glitches their machines go on to povide years of trouble free service.

I took delivery of my GTI on 19 Jan. The compliance plate says 01/07 but the manufacture date is 12/06. This could suck in a few year's time should I trade it in (dealers always seemn to go on manufacture date), but then again, maybe I'll never trade it?

Continuing from ealier in this thread, I'm at the other end of the scale, last child (twin girls 21yo) just left home so we are officially 'empty nesters'. We have had family cars for years due to necessity, and always automatics, although I had manuals before we married.
I went for a test drive in the Jetta TDI and I liked it, heaps of torque, lovely on hills. Only problem was I then went for a test in the GTI and it was just love, fast and nimble.
OK, so this is not fair, I should be comparing it to the Jetta FSI Turbo, but the truth of the matter is that the dealer didn't have one at the time.
The other factor in my decision is the DSG. I have always preferred manuals, but my wife has RSI and other complications and finds it painful to operate a manual gear shift. So the DSG is the perfect compromise, and I can't believe how quickly it changes gear.
You can tell that underneath it's really a manual by the way it rolls backwards on a slight incline. In 'real' automatics I tended towards laziness at times and just let the auto keep it stationary rather than keeping the foot on the brake. Can't do that on the DSG, I'll have to relearn the manual way of doing it.
I did try explaining why this was the case to she who, but her eyes sort of glazed over; think it has something to do with the hormones.

Peter