GTI's on highway often trying to get me to race...

[GrnMtn]

Hey, I have a 16 Golf R that I lease for a commuter car between Vermont and New York City.

The car is great for these commutes that I do each month. With the somewhat assisted driving features and the carplay it makes the trips very doable.

Unfortunately, more often than not I will get spotted by a newer model GTI and the driver will suddenly act strange. They will slow way down and make me attempt to pass them, then suddenly speed up aggressively. Or a GTI will come out of nowhere and swerve in front of me and brake, then when I move over and pass it they will suddenly start driving like a maniac. Almost like fighting with their car.

On one occasion this happened on a stretch of road that I was familiar with I just sped away with no problem accelerating faster than the GTI. But I don't like to drive that way and only did it because I knew the stretch of highway well and was in a mood after work related stresses.

When I do these trips I keep my cruise control on 73 more or less the entire way. Therefore having this happen so often really gets my goat. I got my R as a reliable and comfortable way for me to commute long distances in a variety of weather and road types. The last thing I am interested in doing is racing a random GTI on the highway.

I can't help but feel like I am missing something here. Which is why I joined here and posted this message. Is there some signal that I am to do? Why are these GTI's so aggressive? Do I need a sticker that says I use cruise control?

What is even weirder is that when I occasionally see another R the driver will often give me a friendly wave. So clearly there is something going on here.

Anyways, I love my Golf R and it is amazing for my driving habits. Especially navigating traffic close to and within NYC. But these GTI's that get all weird are driving me up the wall.

What is the deal?

Thanks!

 

[mattd502]

Sounds like you shoulda got a golf sportwagon lol you got a performance car and people want to race, it happens.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gawernator]

lol Try getting a 911 turbo or an R8, Z06 or something, I bet people will try to race you every 5 minutes

 

[NeedSleep]

Likely trying to get a roll race going because that's how a GTI would likely beat a Golf R.

It's possible that they just want to compare their car to the Golf R, knowing that the R is more rare than a GTI and is the next/highest level Golf in the US.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

 

[GrnMtn]

Sounds like you shoulda got a golf sportwagon lol you got a performance car and people want to race, it happens.

Thanks for the reply!

I looked at the new AllTracks but I wanted something that could accelerate quickly in the heavy traffic that I often encounter trying to get to my garage in the city. My previous car was a Jetta Sportwagen TDI that didn't cut it.

 

[GrnMtn]

Likely trying to get a roll race going because that's how a GTI would likely beat a Golf R.

It's possible that they just want to compare their car to the Golf R, knowing that the R is more rare than a GTI and is the next/highest level Golf in the US.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Thank you! I looked up roll racing. That must be whats going on. I am going to look into a sticker that I can put in the window that says I don't do that.

I've got nothing against GTI's and had one years ago. Which is one of the reasons this has been driving me so crazy. VW is my brand of vehicle hands down. My wife has a 2013 A6 that she loves and doesn't encounter these issues.

The R is definitely a performance car, but it is also really special in terms of comfort, control, and convienence for long distance commutes. Especially when snow comes into play. 8 months out of the year I have my snow tires on. I think that this fact is often overlooked when people in my situation are considering a new vehicle. At the time of my purchase the R was the only model that suited my needs.

 

[GTI Jake]

Just have a sticker made that says NYPD lol, nobody wants to race a cop

 

[GrnMtn]

Just have a sticker made that says NYPD lol, nobody wants to race a cop

LOL that's perfect.

 

[GTI Jake]

I'd make it blue and reflective too, just to really sell it ha

If you get pulled over they'll probably love the reasoning behind it

 

[NeedSleep]

Actually now that I think about it, here in my part of Southern California, I've seen literally a handful of different MK7 Golf Rs on the road, 2 of which I've seen multiple times in my commute. All of them cruised calmly when I spotted them. Now, I've encountered at most 20 different MK7 GTIs since I got my car last year, and most of them do drive faster or a bit more crazy.

One observation is that the Golf R owners looked older than the GTI drivers I've encountered (myself included since I'm in my early 20s), so the R owners could simply be more mature.

I admit that I do tend to drive fast, but I never involve myself in racing or trying to instigate races. I also tend to respect Golf R owners that I see down here since I would've liked to own one and they don't pick on me lol

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

 

[GrnMtn]

Actually now that I think about it, here in my part of Southern California, I've seen literally a handful of different MK7 Golf Rs on the road, 2 of which I've seen multiple times in my commute. All of them cruised calmly when I spotted them. Now, I've encountered at most 20 different MK7 GTIs since I got my car last year, and most of them do drive faster or a bit more crazy.

One observation is that the Golf R owners looked older than the GTI drivers I've encountered (myself included since I'm in my early 20s), so the R owners could simply be more mature.

I admit that I do tend to drive fast, but I never involve myself in racing or trying to instigate races. I also tend to respect Golf R owners that I see down here since I would've liked to own one and they don't pick on me lol

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

This makes a lot of sense. I am in my mid 30's. When I was in college I had a '05 GTI that I tuned up a little bit and I would drive hard on backroads, throwing the car into curves. One time I spun out into a snow bank and damaged the passenger side pretty bad, but was fine personally. After that I kind of toned things down a bit. Was never really into high speed racing, mainly out of fear of the state police.

Hence the transition to the Jetta's and Sportwagens. When I got my Manual TDI Sportwagen I thought I would be driving it forever, but my work offered to lease me a car of my choice in the sub 50k range. I could have gotten a S3 but no, it was an R all the way. I have always wanted one. Who knows what will happen when the lease is up though...

In the mean time I think I'm definitely going to get some type of government related sticker for the car, and hopefully that will quell the aggressive driving.

 

[Gawernator]

It’s simple. Golf R’s cost more, the older drivers tend to have more money. So on average the R will have an older more mature driver than the GTI

 

[Misslauren82]

I don't know - maybe it's just the area where I drive (Mass Pike) but I haven't really seen many aggressive drivers that want to race. Maybe because it's during commuting hours so most folks are probably on conference calls or finishing up reading the newspaper - who knows.

I'm a mid 30's woman - might be why *laughs* but my car is obviously modded if you are looking.

There was one instance coming home from the airport some Mk4 R32 with an exceptionally loud exhaust wanted to race - but I just ignored it.

Now if I'm in the Scirocco most people are hanging out their windows waving at me, hehe. But they probably know it's too slow to even bother. : )

 

[Gawernator]

Girls usually don’t want to race


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Misslauren82]

Yes - ultimate deterrent.

Except at night - then nobody can see in the car, haha.