It's amusing, I've driven many of those cars, and one of the absolute worst cars across an intersection remains any STI. I absolutely hate their clutch and throttle programming. I realize the later WRX has a 2.5L engine, but they still have a similarly lazy feel to them below 4k rpm and feel like mid 90's turbo charged cars, instead of like modern ones with plenty of low end torque.
What's interesting is that your GTI is by far the quickest thing on that list, barring the, I presume, 928 GTS, that was still a mid 5 second car, so nothing more than half a second ahead of a bone stock GTI, and about as long as it's taken to read to here faster than the poor Primera/G20.
Remind me, you're bog stock? Stock tires? Still have the CDV? No tune? Stock dogbone, motor and transmission mounts? You can help the feel, if you care, but I'm also getting a pretty strong vibe that you're just not in the correct car. Sell soon, because like the Mk8 or not, it will absolutely drop our resale values. Hell, even just the warranty change and LCI from 17 to 18 had about a $3k impact on me when my 17 was totaled.
The STI has gearing issues around town, as well. The WRX isn't
as bad, but it's certainly not ideal in later years. They have a stranger clutch than the GTI, but it's more direct. Overall they feel more dirty; more like tanks that can be abused to hell and back, and I do like that quite a bit, but the later models haven't really captured my imagination the same as the early US imports. They're certainly lazy, and you have to slap them around and wake them up. The rev hang isn't quite as intrusive, though it's indeed present.
I don't really consider them competition on paper, though; not for the Golf. These are two cars with drastically different personalities; and in my brain are two different driving styles always fighting with one another. If I bought a WRX or STI, I'd lift it immediately and smooth it out a bit.
I get a kick out of 928s. I like the engine, the gearbox, the handling, the ride quality, the interior (for the year, anyway), the layout... I'm of the unpopular opinion that it's the best car Porsche ever made. I liked the body better without the flares, but whatever. It didn't really bother me. It was quick, but smooth. The GTI is
technically almost in the same ballpark so far as 0-60, but the experience of getting there sucks.
The G20T (Touring) was a
nasty little beast. I sold that to make room for the GTI, and really shouldn't have. Rides like a Cadillac, handles like a BMW, shifts like a Miata, and has room for cargo with a proper limited slip diff. In defiance of the Titanic turning radius, you can get those things damned near flat sideways while drinking a soda and pull it out with one arm.
Damn that was a good car. Mine was a bit of a POS that a family member got rid of, but I'd been
waiting for it. I knew it would be available eventually.
I'm stock. I've done the VCDS tweaks and it made a dramatic improvement, but it's still not quite there. The tires do limit the car, but it's fine, in that respect. There's not much point messing with the clutch unless I change the flywheel, which I find much more annoying. May as well have a lazy clutch if I've got a lazy flywheel. The car is pretty idiot-proof. Anyone can drive it; and that's kind of the problem. One would assume the GTI is the performance pack that gets that crap out of the way, but there needs to be another package on top of that.
Be Porsche. Charge people extra for removing things, and sell them a better car.
Did I buy the wrong car? Perhaps. I do feel limited, but then again what else is there? I wanted to spend twenty five to thirty grand or so on something to keep me going for a while as I recover from health stuff, and I wanted a new car with a warranty so I wouldn't have to mess with it. I also needed cargo space; which pretty much leaves me at the Subaru, the Golf... The rest of the lot really aren't in the same class. Once the GTI is moving, it's a hell of a comfortable ride. I
almost increased the budget, but decided to stick to my guns.
I'm also physically fucked up, and the Golf is much more comfortable, as well as astronomically easier to get into and out of regularly. The Subaru requires comfort work, and the Golf requires performance work. No free lunch under 40k, apparently.
If that rev hang weren't a thing, this would be a different car entirely. Unfortunately, I'm not going to do anything about that.
I think there will be enough hipsters around to keep the 7/7.5 values reasonable for a while. I've got a 2019 S in white silver metallic with a manual transmission. If anything GTI will resist depreciation at least a
little bit, it'll be that. It's one reason I picked that color, but as it turns out I
really like that damned color. Gorgeous vehicle all around, in my opinion.
Nobody really makes the correct car for me at that price point; not anymore, anyway. It's all about mileage and tech. I don't give a rat's ass about either, and the tech annoys me; so there's no benefit in that stuff for me.
