What did I think of my GTI+ after 4 years ownership?

[SRGTD]

So, having parted company with my Polo GTI+, I thought I’d do a review of the car. I’ve split it between the Good and the Not So Good aspects - you might not agree with all the points, but this is just my opinion of my specific car. I’ve split the review into a number of smaller posts rather than put everything into a single post which hopefully makes it more reader friendly. Enjoy!

[SRGTD]

So firstly the Good aspects;

Mechanically; it’s been excellent. It done everything I asked of it, it’s never let me down and the only trips back to the dealer were for servicing and MOT’s. There was one hiccup with the car’s software; the clock changed to some random time and at the same time, the trip recorder zeroed itself. That was early on in my ownership of the car and it never happened again.

Performance; very good with more than enough power for me if / when I needed it. However, with the poor state of the roads and traffic congestion, I found there was very little opportunity to drive a GTI as it should be driven, which is one of main the factors that prompted me to consider changing it for something else.

Handling; very surefooted and predictable. Tyres will be a big contributory factor to the car’s handling though. I had a set of Michelin PS4 on my car, and they were very good; good grip levels, quieter then the original Bridgestone Turanzas they replaced and the PS4’s eliminated the tramping and wheel hop that I experienced a few times with the Bridgestones. The Michelins were on the car for roughly 17k miles and still around 4mm of tread on the fronts and between 5-6mm on the rears. Also, ride comfort on the Michelins was better than it was on the ‘hard as nails’ Bridgestones. Brakes on my specific car were very good, with good progressive braking action. I did get the occasional ‘mooing’ sound from the rear brakes while reversing (common on pre-facelift GTI’s - there’s a discussion topic on the forum relating to this), but usually only after washing the car and the rear discs had got wet.

[SRGTD]

Fuel consumption; my long term average was 44.3mpg which IMHO is excellent for a 2.0 litre 197bhp hot hatch. That figure is no doubt influenced by more often than not being in slow moving traffic on single carriageway roads travelling at 50-55 mph or slower. Best mpg achieved on a journey of 26 miles was 57.8 mpg.

Styling; externally, IMHO the GTI is a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Apart from the wheels, the uninitiated may mistake it for any other non-GTI Polo. That was one of the things I liked about it; the fact that it wasn’t ’in your face’. I’ve heard the Polo’s styling described n the motoring press as boring; I have to disagree - I’d call it subtly understated. The red dash trim was a bit too much for or me though; I opted for the no cost option of the gloss grey dash pads.

Practicality; very good for a B segment car, with a decent sized boot and passenger space is good. It’s possible to carry 2.4m long pieces of timber in the car (I’ve done it on quite a few occasions).

Interior build quality is good, and with the exception of only one very occasional interior rattle from the centre console which strangely only happened on one specific stretch of road, the interior was completely creak, squeak and rattle free.

[SRGTD]

Now the Not So Good;

Seat comfort; one of the main criticisms of the car for me. I have a long standing back problems (sciatica, and a slipped disc every so often for good measure) and although the GTI’s seats look good, I found it difficult to get comfortable. In fact I never found what I would call the optimum seating position for me in four years of ownership. That’s a problem I never had in the previous four VW’s I owned. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem getting comfortable in any car I’ve owned other than the Polo GTI+.

Air con; I’d describe it as just about adequate in terms of keeping the car’s cabin cool when the weather’s hot. At the two year old point, I had the air con serviced (dealer was running a special offer) and it did improve, but only marginally.

Build quality; I’d consider the exterior build quality of my specific car to be ‘patchy’ - issues discovered either on collection day or during the first few days of ownership; uneven panel gaps in places, a dented scuff plate on the driver’s door sill (replaced under warranty), a poor fitting fuel filler flap and I also discovered a small dent on the driver’s side rear quarter panel adjacent to the lights just above bumper level. Some of those issues could have happened in transit after the car left the factory, but IMHO they should have been picked up at PDI stage and rectified before I took delivery of the car and weren’t. I considered rejecting the car at the time, but because of the impact of Covid back in 2020 when I took delivery, it would probably have been an extremely long wait for a replacement, so I kept it.

Dealership experience; a typical large VW dealership - quite sterile and impersonal IMHO, and staff turnover rate seems to be high as I rarely saw the same person twice. The dealership I used was taken over a couple of times while I was a customer there and following the most recent takeover a couple of years ago, there was a noticeable deterioration in customer service. When my car was serviced last year, things were missed and I was also overcharged! (they did refund me the amount of the overcharge).

[SRGTD]

Alloy wheels; The factory diamond cut alloys were only on my car for the first 3.5 months of ownership from new as I fitted a set of powder coated aftermarket alloys (I’ll be putting the aftermarket alloys up for sale on the forum soon, if anyone is interested). I’ve expressed my dislike of diamond cut alloys many times on the forum - primarily because of the poor durability of the lacquer on bare alloy finish and their susceptibility to white worm corrosion. Before I put my diamond cut alloys into storage, they were in ‘as new’ condition as you might expect after such a short time on the car. I cleaned and waxed them, inspected them for damage (there was none) and stored them in my garage; in wheel bags, the wheels were then stacked on a wheel ‘tree’ and the whole lot protected with a fitted cover.

Fast forward to last week and I had them refitted on the car and found the start of white worm on one wheel in two places and it definitely wasn’t there when I got them ready for storage. That’s in spite of ensuring the wheels were protected and (IMHO) stored correctly. I can only assume the ‘protective’ lacquer coverage in the specific areas with white worm was so thin (almost non existent?) that it allowed oxidation of the diamond cut face to occur under the lacquer. I stored the diamond cut alloys from my previous Polo GTI in exactly the same way for a similar time period and they were fine when I refitted them to that car to sell it.

So check your diamond cut alloys regularly guys; durability isn’t great, so repair any stone chip damage as soon as it happens. And if you run your diamond cut alloys on the car during the winter month’s, be aware there’s an increased chance they’ll succumb to white worm corrosion.

Check out the pictures below of the early stages of white worm on my alloy;

IMG_1639.jpeg (63.98 KiB) Viewed 1446 times

IMG_1642.jpeg (103.03 KiB) Viewed 1446 times

Looking closely at the pictures, you’ll see the diamond cut surface is covered in small grooves (similar to grooves on a vinyl record) caused by the diamond cutting tool on the CNC lathe when the face of the wheel is cut during production. Those grooves are often (but not always) a sign that the wheel has been refurbished and the face re-cut. Two of my wheels have grooves and two do not, so maybe two were damaged in transit from the factory and were subsequently ‘refinished’. Alternatively, I wonder if VW recycle cosmetically defective alloy wheels they replace under warranty? - i.e. get them refurbished and then supply them back to their factory to fit to cars on the production line . I doubt those wheels with cosmetic imperfections are scrapped.

[SRGTD]

In summary;

My Polo GTi+ was a good car for the most part, let down by some questionable build quality and an average (on occasions, below average) dealership experience. All things considered, if I were to award it a score out of ten and I was feeling generous, it would be a seven.

Would I buy another Polo GTI or another VW? I’d never say never, but probably not. Twenty two years is a long time with one brand, so time to move on - and I have!