Kirby - Pure White 2016 Golf SE 4-door

Here's Kirby, my 2016 Golf SE *cough* Rabbit *cough*. Pure white, 4-door with auto and black leatherette. I had a silver GTI but, IMHO, it had the most uncomfortable seats I've ever sat in so I traded (up in my opinion). My GTI was the S model and this Rabbit, er, I mean Golf has better features like heated leatherette seats, pano sunroof, KESSY, and the lighting package which I absolutely love!



Mods so far include de-badging the rear and adding my own "Rabbit" badging. I know it's a Golf, but they were originally called Rabbits and I've always wanted a VW Rabbit since I was a kid.



I added some brushed stainless trim accents around the window switches, glove box latch, and over the passenger air bag light.







I also have a dash-mounted ProClip. Planned mods include, 50% tint all around (except windshield), window visors (so I can keep windows cracked in the rain), and wheels. I'm planning on keeping the OEM tires because it rides so smooth and quiet. I had 18's on the GTI and they weren't bad, just a little loud.

Sounds like the Golf is what you really should have had all along! Congrats on finding a better fit for yourself.

Honest question: are the seats in the Golf really that different? I've never sat in one personally, but even the regular seats (as opposed to the "Sport" seats some models get) don't *look* hugely different to my eyes when I see pictures of them.

Ya the lighting package is pretty sweet. Equipped exactly like mine except the color, I got the night blue. I looked at a white one the dealer had on the lot but it wasn't an SE and I liked the night blue anyway. I'd change out the glovebox, hatch, reverse and license plate lights to deautokey led. Easy to do and makes a big difference.

I think the Sport seats might be very similar to the GTI seats but I'm not sure what trim they're available with. SEL? I know that the bolsters on the seat bottom and back are softer and about 1/3 as tall compared to the GTI I had. I always hated getting over those bolsters getting in or out. Guess I'm just old and out of shape.

I felt the gti seats were a little narrow between the shoulders.

GumbyGTI said:

I always hated getting over those bolsters getting in or out. Guess I'm just old and out of shape.

Click to expand...

I love the seats in my GTI, but getting in and out of them is a bit of a pain point for me as well. I'm trying to be careful not to just lazily crawl over them because that will wear out the seats much faster, but it is extra effort to consciously haul yourself over the bolsters.

This was my driver's side left bolster after 4 months.

Been thinking a lot about what kind of wheels I want to put on Kirby. I want to keep my 17" tires that are on there now (smooth and quite). I like the simple design of 5-spoke wheels (plus how easy they are to clean) and I've got it narrowed down to either Neuspeed RSe05 or some the Sport Edition F7. I really like the Neuspeed wheels because they'd be light, I can reuse the mounting hardware and they are a perfect fit. They're also about 3X as much as the Sport Editions.

I decided to go with the Sport Edition F7s. They were on sale at Tire Rack and I got all 4 shipped for just over $400. I will probably run these until the tires wear out then upgrade to some 18" Neuspeeds. I just didn't want to give a set of perfectly good tires away for next to nothing on Craigslist. These obviously aren't the highest quality wheels because when I took them to my tire installer on Wednesday, they found two were slightly warped. He always spins them before mounting tires to make I can return them if they're out of round. Tire Rack immediately sent two more which arrived today. My installer said one of those was out of round! He said it was real bad and if he put it on the back right side, I might not even notice. I told him to go ahead since I didn't want to get into a constant back & forth with Tire Rack and the tire shop.

Overall, they look pretty good. If I could've bought higher quality wheels that had the same look, I would have. These are 17x7.5 and ET35 which I was a little nervous about but the lower offset looks great. It pushed them out just a little so they're now flush with the fenders.





I can feel just the tiniest of vibration on the highway, so I'm going to call Tire Rack and see if they'll replace the bent wheel (and maybe check the new one before shipping!).

Kinda wishing I had gone with the Neuspeeds now. After finally getting 4 good wheels on, I still noticed a slight vibration at highway speed. I took the car to Firestone because they had a road force balancer and about an hour later they said the wheels and tires were fine, just not properly balanced. Upon leaving I noticed the vibration is gone but there was a faint "squeak, squeak, squeak..." coming from the right side, like something was rubbing. I did some quick stops and side to side manuevers and it seemed to go away. But now, at low speeds, I can hear a "squeak" that's tied to wheel speed. Press the brake pedal lightly and it goes away. There's also a new tire noise at highway speed. Tempted to just go to the dealer and have him put the Madrids back on and dump these Sport Editions on Craigslist. <end rant>

Been too long since I've updated!

Since I have the lighting package, I decided to do everything I could to protect my investment up front, so I installed Lamin-X over the headlights and fog lights. Went with clear for the headlights and yellow for the fogs. Fog lights were a breeze to install but the headlights took about 20 minutes each. The film is about 1/8" too wide all around. I'm sure that's so it can lap over the sides, but it just sticks up and you have to constantly keep a hair dryer on it and keep pushing it down till it finally sticks. There was a slight haze for a few days and an air bubble that finally went away a few weeks later when the weather warmed up. You can't tell there's anything on the lights now except at night there's a cool crystallized refraction (?) pattern at the edges as the light shines through.





I also got tired of the subtle vibration at highway speed and wasn't in love with the 5-spoke look, so I dumped the Sport Editions and got some proper wheels. Here's Kirby on 17" TSW Snettertons

Unboxing:



Looking sharp!



Finally, had to take Kirby in several times for the leaking sunroof. 3rd times the charm apparently. Was starting to get scared that I would have to start a buy back after I had done all this work.

I really like what you've done. It gives me some ideas if I keep my black Golf/Rabbit. I'm considering trading it in for a 2 door GTI S but your dislike of the seats worries me because I love the seats in my Golf. I think I prefer leatherette over real leather. Do those TSW wheels feel like they are a bit heavy? The weight is listed at 23 lbs which is 5 lbs more than what I had in mind but they look a hell of a lot nicer.

Also have you considered the VW sport springs? I don't think the wheel gap looks too bad with 17s but supposedly they make the car feel a lot more planted without sacrificing ride quality.