only1harry
Ready to race!
- Location
- NY state
Now before you start your flaming wars I am pretty sure there was something wrong with this car's transmission or something else wrong with it. I was really looking forward to purchasing it today because of the attractive price that was $4,400 below sticker, and I need a car for the winter.
First thing that kind of raised a red flag with me was when the sales guy said they had to get the car "out of storage" from their other lot several miles down the road. I asked him when they took delivery of the car and after looking it up he said 5-6 months ago...(!) So I am guessing it was more like 6, if not more. The car had been sitting for a long while which could mean nothing, or explain some things, like the front brake caliper burning smell (piston binding) and grinding noise, whenever I applied the brakes, and when I released the brake pedal. We both got out and I asked the salesman to get close to the wheel and smell that burning odor. He agreed it was the caliper. That was the only thing we agreed on.
Anyway, on with the rest of the test drive. First thing I noticed there was excessive vibration in the steering wheel at low speeds or any speed which got worse under acceleration and higher RPM's. Maybe a lug not was loose but it didn't feel like that (I had a wheel come off when they forgot to tighten the lug nuts a long time ago so I know that kind of vibration) and didn't feel like it needed the wheels balanced. This was different like the drivetrain or a ball joint or something. Or like the steering rack had a slightly loose mounting point somewhere. Then under moderate acceleration the car would shake and hesitate. It took a couple of seconds to get moving or accelerating linearly or "normal", and under semi-hard acceleration this got much worse because there was wheel spin mixed in.
The test drive was 7 miles and the problems were there the whole time on different road surfaces and varying speeds. I never got to go past 50mph. The steering vibration that was present the entire time at all speeds and more pronounced under acceleration was annoying, but when the car started shaking and hesitating when I wanted to accelerate, that was the final straw for me. It indicated there was something wrong with that car, and if I had to guess I would say the fuel filter might have been clogged, or there was a problem with the tranny. It could have been there was old gas in the tank that had gone bad in 6 months (gas goes bad sometimes after 1-2 months), even though the salesman said he just got back from the gas station. That old gas was still in it though, possibly providing poor performance and causing the hesitation and back & forth shaking. Still doesn't explain steering vibrations at very low speeds (20-35mph that I averaged around town).
They only had 1 other GTI on the lot that was a manual. I decided not to drive the manual to see how it compared, as I wanted to compare apples to apples. I am going to try to test drive another DSG/auto at another dealer and see how that goes. Not many 2018 DSG's out there though, and that was the only black SE auto within 50-60 miles
I like the GTI best in black.
To be honest another thing I was not thrilled about was the excessive noise in the cabin. This particular car I drove had too much road noise, and I felt the engine sounded "buzzy" and noisy (is that with all of them?), probably because of all that noise making inside of the car, but it wasn't a very pleasant "noise". My brother's '98 Integra Type-R is noisy but that engine sounds so sweet, it's a nice welcomed noise that I don't mind at all. Still I was surprised at the road noise at lower speeds and I only hit 50mph maybe twice. The road noise started getting pronounced at 35-40mph which I did not expect. I only knew it 'd be much worse at highway speed. We never got to get on the highway because of an accident and a 2 mile grid lock so we made a U-turn and stayed on backroads.
Anyway I expected a little more refinement from the GTI in the noise department. The car handled fine and the acceleration was decent once it got going after it shook, hesitated and rattled. I also got a good amount of wheel spin (37 deg. out) under moderate acceleration, especially when making a turn from a stop light or stop sign. It was really hard to drive the car enthusiastically without wheel spin, and I never went above ~4,500 RPM. I did not rev the engine too high with 13 miles on it, and wanted to be respectful of whoever buys this car. I am sure some of the traction issues had to do with brand new greasy tires too. They need a few hundred miles to break in, but tires also don't like sitting for 6 months. They harden up and result in reduced traction. So I did not take off points for wheel spin knowing the tires had 13 mi. on them and were sitting for 6 months. To be clear that wasn't a deal breaker for me at all. The other things were.
Anyway, that's my story. Has anyone experienced the vibrations and brief hesitation (shaking back & forth) I just described with their GTI? The salesman tried to convince me it was normal because "everything was just braking in". I didn't buy it, but it could have been bad gas. The constant steering vibration was something else entirely though.
If the salesman or sales manager, who I saw after the test drive, had said we will have a technician drive it and see if we can fix the issues I reported, I would have gone back and test drove the car again. But they never said that and expected me to buy the car "as is". That's just nuts.
Harry
First thing that kind of raised a red flag with me was when the sales guy said they had to get the car "out of storage" from their other lot several miles down the road. I asked him when they took delivery of the car and after looking it up he said 5-6 months ago...(!) So I am guessing it was more like 6, if not more. The car had been sitting for a long while which could mean nothing, or explain some things, like the front brake caliper burning smell (piston binding) and grinding noise, whenever I applied the brakes, and when I released the brake pedal. We both got out and I asked the salesman to get close to the wheel and smell that burning odor. He agreed it was the caliper. That was the only thing we agreed on.
Anyway, on with the rest of the test drive. First thing I noticed there was excessive vibration in the steering wheel at low speeds or any speed which got worse under acceleration and higher RPM's. Maybe a lug not was loose but it didn't feel like that (I had a wheel come off when they forgot to tighten the lug nuts a long time ago so I know that kind of vibration) and didn't feel like it needed the wheels balanced. This was different like the drivetrain or a ball joint or something. Or like the steering rack had a slightly loose mounting point somewhere. Then under moderate acceleration the car would shake and hesitate. It took a couple of seconds to get moving or accelerating linearly or "normal", and under semi-hard acceleration this got much worse because there was wheel spin mixed in.
The test drive was 7 miles and the problems were there the whole time on different road surfaces and varying speeds. I never got to go past 50mph. The steering vibration that was present the entire time at all speeds and more pronounced under acceleration was annoying, but when the car started shaking and hesitating when I wanted to accelerate, that was the final straw for me. It indicated there was something wrong with that car, and if I had to guess I would say the fuel filter might have been clogged, or there was a problem with the tranny. It could have been there was old gas in the tank that had gone bad in 6 months (gas goes bad sometimes after 1-2 months), even though the salesman said he just got back from the gas station. That old gas was still in it though, possibly providing poor performance and causing the hesitation and back & forth shaking. Still doesn't explain steering vibrations at very low speeds (20-35mph that I averaged around town).
They only had 1 other GTI on the lot that was a manual. I decided not to drive the manual to see how it compared, as I wanted to compare apples to apples. I am going to try to test drive another DSG/auto at another dealer and see how that goes. Not many 2018 DSG's out there though, and that was the only black SE auto within 50-60 miles
I like the GTI best in black. To be honest another thing I was not thrilled about was the excessive noise in the cabin. This particular car I drove had too much road noise, and I felt the engine sounded "buzzy" and noisy (is that with all of them?), probably because of all that noise making inside of the car, but it wasn't a very pleasant "noise". My brother's '98 Integra Type-R is noisy but that engine sounds so sweet, it's a nice welcomed noise that I don't mind at all. Still I was surprised at the road noise at lower speeds and I only hit 50mph maybe twice. The road noise started getting pronounced at 35-40mph which I did not expect. I only knew it 'd be much worse at highway speed. We never got to get on the highway because of an accident and a 2 mile grid lock so we made a U-turn and stayed on backroads.
Anyway I expected a little more refinement from the GTI in the noise department. The car handled fine and the acceleration was decent once it got going after it shook, hesitated and rattled. I also got a good amount of wheel spin (37 deg. out) under moderate acceleration, especially when making a turn from a stop light or stop sign. It was really hard to drive the car enthusiastically without wheel spin, and I never went above ~4,500 RPM. I did not rev the engine too high with 13 miles on it, and wanted to be respectful of whoever buys this car. I am sure some of the traction issues had to do with brand new greasy tires too. They need a few hundred miles to break in, but tires also don't like sitting for 6 months. They harden up and result in reduced traction. So I did not take off points for wheel spin knowing the tires had 13 mi. on them and were sitting for 6 months. To be clear that wasn't a deal breaker for me at all. The other things were.
Anyway, that's my story. Has anyone experienced the vibrations and brief hesitation (shaking back & forth) I just described with their GTI? The salesman tried to convince me it was normal because "everything was just braking in". I didn't buy it, but it could have been bad gas. The constant steering vibration was something else entirely though.
If the salesman or sales manager, who I saw after the test drive, had said we will have a technician drive it and see if we can fix the issues I reported, I would have gone back and test drove the car again. But they never said that and expected me to buy the car "as is". That's just nuts.
Harry
