Wife has just bought an 08 GTi DSG. interested to hear owners experiences of theirs. Good and bad points etc…

Post purchase cognitive disodence? 🙂

Great engine the 2.0T. Bar coil packs (meh) very very good.

Not taken delivery yet. I know they’re great cars, hence choosing one, would just be interested to hear any owners/ ex owners experiences.

I bought a slightly later one (61 plate) in August, and its flippin’ awesome!

Economy not fabulous, although I’m not exactly careful. But it’s tractable, loads of torque so you can drive it like a diesel when the mood suits, and then pulls hard and strong to the red line if you feel like booting it.

Very direct steering, loads of grip, both mechanical and dynamic, but not unduly harsh on your average British road surface.

Struggling to think of any downside – can you tell that I love it?

Keep an eye on the DSG box as the mechtronics units have a nasty habit of failing. You can service them though. Good engines, gti getting back to its roots now with the Mk7 as well. I had an R but detested the DSG box (yuo can’t get the manual here).

I have a Touran with DSG which I’ve owned for 5 years and it has been faultless. There was never any way we could have gone for the manual version. This GTi has the paddles too but I can’t think of any time where I won’t just leave it in ‘D’.

Is the golf GTI with the 6 or 7 speed DSG?

I know that the 7 speed (dry clutch) one is utterly amazing and couldn’t imagine buying a car without one now…

Rachel

Had a 2008 dsg. Fantastic car, loved driving it and found the DSG to be awesome. When I bought it I thought I’d use the paddles or sport mode, in reality I just kept it in drive and found it an absolute pleasure to drive.

For the 18mts I had it it averaged 27mpg and that was a real mix of driving.

It handled brilliantly and was faultless for the time I had it. Only dowside was at the time I had it they were quite desirebale to thieves in the area and whilst on a MTB holiday it was stolen.

The wife now has a mini jcw which in paper is more powerful and quicker 0-60 but in reality the golf had much more usable power – can’t see why you’d need a quicker car than the golf for British roads.

I’ve got a Scirocco GT which I think is the same engine and DSG box. 2 cars for the price of 1; sport mode and paddles or comfort mode and auto. 34mpg ave.

I think the 61 plate will have the TSI engine (and be a mk6 car – an 08 will be a mk5?)? Prior to 2010’ish will be the TFSI engine? From an engine point of view, very good. Loads of tuning options (should the will take you) and very reliable. Coil packs shouldn’t be a problem as VW issued a recall on them so might be worth checking if you car was affected by the recall and whether they’ve been done (should be free – mine were).

One upgrade I’d highly reccommend if its not already got it is scrap the original basic head unit and get a VW RNS510 sat nav unit shoved in there. Sat nav, hard drive, SD reader etc – lovely bit of kit.

One upgrade I’d highly reccommend if its not already got it is scrap the original basic head unit and get a VW RNS510 sat nav unit shoved in there. Sat nav, hard drive, SD reader etc – lovely bit of kit.

Has one fitted already 😀

Do I really ‘really’ need a remap?? 😈

Do I really ‘really’ need a remap??

Probably not as exciting, but if I was into buggering around with cars, I’d get better brakes first…
They’re not bad, as such, just not as good as on my old A4.

Always found A4 brakes horrible, far too ‘grabby’.

I had an 07 Edition 30 GTi. As with all VAG cars when you come to (or unless it’s been done) get the cambelt done, get the water pump and rollers done at the same time.

Always found A4 brakes horrible, far too ‘grabby’.

That’s why I liked them, once I got used to them. You may like the GTI brakes better then. I assume they’re the same as the scirocco.

I’ve had 2. A 56 plate, and now an 11 plate.

Both great cars. Decent economy is achieveable if you want it, I can get 36/37mpg if I’m careful, not bad for a 2.0T with 210 bhp.

My engine destroyed itself at 75k miles on the 11 plate. I had a cam chain tensioner fail. It’s not uncommon I’m told. The hydraulic tensioner fails to keep tension on the chain when the engine is turned off, resulting inthe chain skipping a load of teeth when you next start it up, this smashes all the valves into the pistons, which results in new top and bottom end. No problem if under warranty, but worth thinking about if not.

Look here

Vw will warranty e chan tension problem uto. 5 years I believe , my 2010 gti s having the tensioner changed as type

santacruzsi – Member

I had an 07 Edition 30 GTi. As with all VAG cars when you come to (or unless it’s been done) get the cambelt done, get the water pump and rollers done at the same time.

No cambelt on these cars. Camchain.

My mistake. There is on the MY in th OP.

Not driven the Golf, but the mk1 TT 3.2 with DSG is fantastic fun.

(but very thirsty)

Vw will warranty e chan tension problem uto. 5 years I believe , my 2010 gti s having the tensioner changed as type

How much for a tensioner change?

cam chain tensioner fail

This is common on the Mk6’s think they finally fixed it properly before the Mk7 came out. I’ve got a Mk 5 GTi and love it, mines manual but if you fancy tuning them for about £300 some very reputable companies will give you 240-260 with everything else standard. The DSG is apparently capable of taking more BHP as standard than the manual, something to do with 2 clutches
This forum is pretty much all you’ll ever need
http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/

Best friend is a VW Master Tech – STAY AWAY from the MK6.
VW are starting to get arsey over the warranties now as they have done so many.
MK5 is virtually the same car as it was not much more than a visual upgrade other than the 2.0l engine.
7 speed DSG if you can find it as the DMF can fail even on the DSG (it’s not common knowledge that the DSG uses the same flywheel as it’s assumed it’s an “auto”)

Is an 08 a MkV?

Think it might be. TFSI engine rather than the new TSI one.

Still a good engine, can be a bit tappity when idling but is more vocal than the newer one. Economy and power not quite as good as the newer unit but 197hp is not to be sniffed at. Be aware they can use a bit of oil so check the dipstick fairly regularly

Anyway they are great cars

I have the cheapo version, the Leon FR, even though they are very similar I still have a small pang of envy when I see a “proper” GTI

I have a TT with the 3.2 and DSG gearbox, owned from new and only used launch control once as shown to me by the dealer and rarely use the flappy paddles, much prefer to leave it in auto.

I am a grandad in disguise.. 😆

MK5 is virtually the same car as it was not much more than a visual upgrade other than the 2.0l engine.
7 speed DSG if you can find it as the DMF can fail even on the DSG (it’s not common knowledge that the DSG uses the same flywheel as it’s assumed it’s an “auto”)

So it’s the same car, but with a different engine and gearbox…?

The DSGs in all GTIs are the 6-speed ‘wet’ variant aren’t they? Certainly is in the old man’s 12 plate mk6. They only use the 7 speed one on the less powerful cars – like the 1.4l Scirocco.

VAG like bringing new models out which are essentially the older car with new engines/tweaked styling.

Slight topic deviation

bikebouy Are you over at the TTF / TTOC?

^^ erm, I don’t know if I registered. I did look on the site for digital radio upgrades and the like but can’t remember if I redg’d or not..
Should I??

<off topic>

There’s a wealth of knowledge over there (no matter how big or small the problem), and very welcoming to all. Cars range from the 150 convertables to a V6 Twin-Turbo beast (which is somewhere on the forum)…

Plus the classifieds is useful, along with the group buys.

This is the thread for you – dedicated to the V6…

http://www.ttforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=161580

</off topic>

Sorry for the topic diversion!

Ohhh TVM.

I still am looking for a solution to digital radio and plugging my iPhone into the radio and streaming from there. Audi dealers want me to change the CD stacker for something mental and I’m not prepared to muck about with a beautiful standard car.

😀

I have a new beetle hire car. I’m loving the 2.5L 5 cylinder engine (I’m in the USA), however the 6 speed DSG box is soooo slow, I could shift faster manually!

Had a mkv GTi fantastic car and engine! but changed it for Scirocco GT TDi a few months back, want the GTi back though 🙁

however the 6 speed DSG box is soooo slow, I could shift faster manually!

It’s faulty then. Whole point of the DSG is that it shifts way faster than a manual, something like 8ms apparently. It’s practically instant when you are accelerating away.

It takes a longer when it thinks you are going to want to upshift but you suddenly change throttle position so it has to downshift instead.

I probably should’ve qualified that with ‘in manual mode’ it works fine in auto, but the manual mode is frustrating.

My dsg is pretty darn quick in manual mode too so I’d echo the above point.

You did get it servicesd at 40k?.
It should change as fast in either – it WON’T change if the computer knows it will exceed the rev limit/gear/etc

It’s a hire car! Only has 15k on it, but it will have been thrashed for every single one of those 15K.

Should be just as quick in manual as auto. You may not be using it sympathetically. If you do two gears at once for example, it will do it fine but take a second, instead of being instant.