I'm on Vortex but there's no dedicated MK7 GLI forum so I try to hop between the GTI and Jetta forums...mostly on the Jetta forums though so obviously I don't share the powertrain.
VW class action lawsuit on MK7/MQB water pumps finally paid out!
- Thread starter TiGeo
- Start date
GLI same as any MQB ea888.3. Golfmk7 is a good one for you to check out. MQB FB groups are pretty bad typically.
Was doing a coolant leak repair today so took a pic of this part of the TPI
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So happy I don't do VW's. Leaks, seals, random gremlins.
The spectrum for me personally is
Koreans - S tier failures, just garbage mechanically
Americans - A tier failures, good v8's and garbage everything else
Germans - B tier failures, hot or miss by engine family or year, hit or miss, flip a coin and find out
Japanese - C tier - too reliable to have fun, makes them slower and more boring but at least my wallet and time is saved 99.9% of the time.
Toyota - F tier - take it to war zone.
I jest. I know TiGeo swears by VW's so if it runs it runs (yet everyone in my family loves VW's yet every single one of them is either in the shop or getting out of warranty repair on literally everything except the block lol).
I don't think I have even needed to keep a record on my japanese cars. Light comes on, change oil, get 250k miles, and go wow...that happened.
The spectrum for me personally is
Koreans - S tier failures, just garbage mechanically
Americans - A tier failures, good v8's and garbage everything else
Germans - B tier failures, hot or miss by engine family or year, hit or miss, flip a coin and find out
Japanese - C tier - too reliable to have fun, makes them slower and more boring but at least my wallet and time is saved 99.9% of the time.
Toyota - F tier - take it to war zone.
I jest. I know TiGeo swears by VW's so if it runs it runs (yet everyone in my family loves VW's yet every single one of them is either in the shop or getting out of warranty repair on literally everything except the block lol).
I don't think I have even needed to keep a record on my japanese cars. Light comes on, change oil, get 250k miles, and go wow...that happened.
Pretty much....I just can't get into appliance vehicles no matter how reliable they are...all what you want out of the ownership experience. My VWs overall have been very good, we've had a number of them and the timing chain tensioner repair on my Sportwagen is the most expensive single repair I've ever had...ever/on any vehicle I've owned...and this car is 2x stock power and gets beat on. I'm talking even my W8 Passat...which is notorious...has been "pretty good".
Pretty much covers my thoughts. I've only had one VW but I agree with what you said. Appliances would bore me and I would find it depressing to a level that it would take away from my daily life. I love cars too much to just have an A to B transport.
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Depends what you consider an appliance. Back in the day I had plenty of bulletproof vehicles that were far from an "appliance".
A mk3 Supra, Celica GT-4, 300ZX, a handful of Miata's in various stages of beat up, and even had an original 86 (FRS) from 2012 which was probably the only time I had to have engine work done on a car involuntarily (because of the valve spring fiasco which seemed to not affect me), as well as an accord v6 in manual form. And for some reason I thought having an FJ was a good investment, sold it, then they went up in value AFTER I sold it...
But at this point I have to cover expenses for much more than myself, and the Si is about as "fun" as it gets, but still, that little 1.5 pushes out 235hp and 285tq (factory rated for 205hp and 192tq) and other than 5w30 and a new clutch, It really has been trouble free (although its due to my suspicion that the regular civic 1.5 isn't exactly the same, nor is the accord 1.5).
But also through the years there has always been a camry and always will be, its literally unbeatable value for a commuter car.
I think the term "appliance" is just over used for a lot of japanese brands, and usually this keeps people away from trying them, but the civic double wishbone chassis has been the go to budget platform for decades for a reason, and swapping 1ZZ's and B series motors for 9K rpm fun has never been more popular. Its one of those "it was marketed as an appliance" and now you have people swapping 2GR's and 2AR's from hybrid toyota's into MR2's pushing nasty power for cheap.
I would also enjoy the idea that things shouldn't just fall apart from a car and that a car should come with a prerequisite of "make sure you have a few grand down the line because x y or z breaks 100% of the time after X amount of miles". Something breaking should be a result of the customer being an idiot and/or excessive wear and tear.
Am I oozing to much toyota fanboy here
you know how many times I almost pulled the trigger on a BMW or a GTI, like 100.As is the notion that Euro cars are horribly unreliable and hard/expensive to work on. Clearly there ate plenty of non-appliance performance Japanese cars.
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Its all that darn plastic we put in cars these days.
I understand but what would you prefer? More metal which means more weight? Real wood?
Definitely real wood. My favorite feature on any car I’ve owned.
At some point, it's not unreasonable to have to pay to service your vehicles including replacing things like water pumps...we can all argue about what is "reasonable" w/r to time. I still hang my hat on the Germans....the most expensive vehicle to own that I ever had was our '06 Honda Odyssey. I've had a Toyota....'92 4x4 Truck that was v. good. My wife and I have had several other Hondas that were all good vehicles. Cheapest car to own? My '13 Ford Focus my son drives. Reliability trends don't always follow what Consumer Reports etc. says.
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Oof, that was one of the worst time periods to own a honda for sure. Can't argue that. Transmissions going out left and right, as well as a plethora of other issues. 04-06 didn't do them any good.
I think the only advantage VW has over other germans is they are essentially commodity cars underneath, parts are abundant and cheap compared to BMW, Audi, Mercedes, etc.
I also think that the general term "reliability" is also proportional to the cost. If a waterpump job costs a few hundred bucks once every 100k miles, its fine. But if I have to pay 200$ for a plastic valve cover every 10-20k miles...or if its just hard to do basic maintenance at home...
Yes, I agree that real wood makes a car interior feel "classy". I suppose if the veneer is thin enough, it doesn't add much weight. (some plastic wood is so good that it can look just like real wood). To get back to the topic of the thread: VW in general, they did a nice job with the plastic on the dash and doors of my '17 GTI. Not hard and has a nice texture to it. So far the water pump is good.
The MK7 gen VWs are dead easy to work on to me. Nothing different than any other modern vehicle. Not sure on the lux German brands...but VW is basically the Ford of German cars haha
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99% of my friends are BMW or Audi fans haha, and they always try to justify their expenses by "Well I bought it salvage and fixed it so even after all the money I throw at it I will break even/make money". But if I take all their constant expenses and overlay that over a new clean title vehicle and the depreciation, you are loosing money at such a fast rate that it isn't worth it. And its not like the car doesn't run, it just doesn't run well or leaks or has random sensors go bad or something.
I remember one time my friend was mad that he couldn't start his bmw because it was jacked up in the front, and if it wasn't level or something it wouldn't let him do anything. Hilarious. Why would I bother with a car that literally wants to make my life harder.
Please don't say they are like ford, that makes me think they are going down hill like ford is
Ford sucks hard. It's why I don't own them anymore. I'm done with old German and British cars. I like my current VW but it's soon to be out of warranty and if it gets costly it'll be gone too. I'm getting to that "can't be bothered" level of maintenance cost on cars. I think that's due to having less free time and I don't have the time to turn wrenches like I used to. I'd rather just buy another new car, have a 100k+ mile warranty with the set cost associated with a new car, and not have to think about it. I think that just means I'll finally only have fun cars as weekend toys when I've always daily driven my fun cars.99% of my friends are BMW or Audi fans haha, and they always try to justify their expenses by "Well I bought it salvage and fixed it so even after all the money I throw at it I will break even/make money". But if I take all their constant expenses and overlay that over a new clean title vehicle and the depreciation, you are loosing money at such a fast rate that it isn't worth it. And its not like the car doesn't run, it just doesn't run well or leaks or has random sensors go bad or something.
I remember one time my friend was mad that he couldn't start his bmw because it was jacked up in the front, and if it wasn't level or something it wouldn't let him do anything. Hilarious. Why would I bother with a car that literally wants to make my life harder.
Please don't say they are like ford, that makes me think they are going down hill like ford is
Like mentioned above though, the MK7 is a pretty simple car considering its tech. If it got really stupid I'll find the time to work on it. I love the car. It's hard to beat what it is for daily practicality and fun.
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My daughters friend was over one time and she had her check engine light on in her old focus (maybe 20-teens so like 2015 or something). I said I would take a look, turned out it was just the 02 sensor...sucker had 189k miles on it. Shocked she changed the oil at all but according to her every time the light came on she would "take it to the mechanic" to change the oil. She has no idea what was going in or out of the engine. But this time she said "The light wouldn't go away" lol. Different light.
My father was a mechanic and at one point he did the same. Just quit. Mechanics are interesting, they know how to do much more than work on cars, so not like he was out of work. Bought a Toyota Avalon, and it runs.
That is why I got my Si. Its salvage title, but easy rear end fix and it became my fun car/track car for 10k USD. (But then you know, new turbo, new brakes, new wheels, new tires, and that just added up to the price of a new one).
