Why is the German aftermarket community/support so strong?

[SnailPower]

Honda has a similar following, so it isn't just the Germans.

Very true. Honestly, any performance car will have its fan base and store directed for parts. When I had an SRT4, I was part of a forum just for that car and there were websites selling everything you can imagine for the car. It just goes with the territory. The reason you're going to see more for these cars is because of how many years they've been around for.

Though with that in mind, so does Honda and Civics... They probably have even more parts than you can imagine because of how popular they are and the price in which you can mod vs the power you get from them.

I guess yeah, as excited as you might be to think Germans are the only one that do it, they're not. Switch car brand and you'll be surprised.

 

[Chogokin]

I bet. SoCal .neq. New England.

Back in the day...4 inch exhaust tips were called "fart cans"...now they are the norm for Mk7's.

 

[shovelhd]

Back in the day...4 inch exhaust tips were called "fart cans"...now they are the norm for Mk7's.

OK, but do they change the exhaust note like a fart can does?

 

[mike-y]

a "fart can" was just a straight-through muffler. many are universal fit, meaning you can just grab one and weld it to the back of your exhaust. Any 4 cylinder car (sans turbo) with one of these is usually not going to sound very good. Especially if they also deleted the resonator and/or cat. That's where 90% of the horrible sound came from - deleting the resonator and/or cat while having a straight through muffler was a recipe for disaster. back in the day, this mod was extremely popular in the sport compact world, including VW's. Most VW's I was around back in the day had fart cans with DTM tips, lol.

Just adding a 4" tip won't do anything for sound. And turbo cars won't sound quite as bad with this setup because the turbo affects the exhaust sound. they still sound crappy though, just not as obnoxiously loud as a full straight through exhaust on an NA car.

Some car people tend to wear blinders, in that they can not appreciate anything except what they drive, and what they drive is infinitely better than the competition. I see that a lot on forums. I've owned honda/acuras, BMW, VW, Jeep, and nissan/datsun. There are fans for all of these cars, and a lot of those fans think anything from the competition is a PoS. it's kinda sad, because there is a lot of knowledge out there from different camps that will still apply to other makes. the more open your mind is, the more knowledge you gain.

 

[Chogokin]

OK, but do they change the exhaust note like a fart can does?

How is it different than the guys running straight through exhausts on Mk7s? These cars sound like absolute crap uncorked.

 

[torga]

How is it different than the guys running straight through exhausts on Mk7s? These cars sound like absolute crap uncorked.

Agreed. TSI is one of the worst-sounding straight pipe engines. Not even annoying (like VQ trumpets), just... gross. Uncorked GTIs sound like farm equipment.

 

[odessa.filez]

Can't think of many cars of any brand that sound good aftermarket. But hi revving cars often sound great with stock exhaust.

s2000
2zz MR2 spyder
e9X M3
even my e90 N52 sounded great near redline with stock exhaust.

none of these are turbos

 

[oddspyke]

Agreed. TSI is one of the worst-sounding straight pipe engines. Not even annoying (like VQ trumpets), just... gross. Uncorked GTIs sound like farm equipment.

Every G35: