Replaced Golf Sportwagen with an Alltrack

Joined
Oct 17, 2007
Messages
3,706
Location
utah
After owning a 16 GSW 5MT FWD for over 4 years, i decided to sell and search for a fun daily driver. Corvette/Camaro V8 type stuff i was i was hunting for. However, they all had big drawbacks as far as cost, entry exit, daily driving practicality, and so i bought a new Alltrack instead. With where i drive and the speeds i am legally permitted to do, a big V8 would largely go unused. Mostly what motivated this decision was a combination of how easy to get in and out, and see out of, these compact wagons are. The second motivating factor was the massive deals going on. 0% for 72 months and 120 days delay in payment starting. This was on top of a big discount, over 18%, let me roll out of Emich VW in denver for a signature promising 328.50 a month is all. Yep, $11 a day interest free gets me a brand new Alltrack S AWD DSG with 6 year 72k warranty bumper to bumper. I will have to pay tax and title out of pocket here in Utah. Selling my 4+ year old 24k mile golf let me put 12k into my day trading account. The gains pay this new payment. I know some of you like to know the numbers on these deals and maybe some people will say i should have paid cash. The third determining factor was these cars have ceased production and will likely never return to the USA market again. You gotta get it now or miss out. I can always go buy a sports car later on when i achieve more goals, and just keep this Alltrack as the perfect daily car.

This one obviously is white, and it has the light interior. Its a tan almost light grey looking synthetic leather that is very comfortable. It doesn't get hot like real leather and you can just wipe it clean with a vinyl/interior type product with ease. I did have a slight preference towards black interior but this will be cooler in the heat and i will be able to see the filth on the seats and therefore will clean more often.

Big advantages on this vs the old: Ride height, Alltrack is something like 1" taller so entry/exit is a dream. Heated Seats! I was turning these on while blasting the A/C just to ease some minor fatigue on my nearly 500 mile return trip from Denver. DSG and Haldex AWD. This is really what did it for me, having the luxury of AWD in our TourX, it simply became very desired on my list. I do like manual but i wanted DSG this time to experience something new and the DSG holds a ton of power. The clutches in the manual models are in dire need of upgrading if you add power. The DSG does somewhat feel like your driving a manual but you can be lazy. I spend more time at work juggling stocks and normal business activities so some days i'm just too tired to nail down perfect manual shifting. The S model Alltrack also has the blind spot mirrors, very nice feature that you start to miss if you have a car with it. Alltrack has a bigger gas tank, a great improvement on the smaller golf tank.

Most importantly, the S model has NO SUNROOF. I am not a fan of any sunroofs and a large number of issues have been had up to and including lemon law buybacks on SE SEL sportwagens from essentially unfixable leaks. I would have bought the fully loaded SEL in green that they had if not for the sunroof leak horror stories. The SEL has slightly better seats and tech. The only real weak spot in the S model is the headlights need to be upgraded but that isn't hard or terribly expensive.

MPG: It was delivered to me full of 91 octane, i stopped in Veil (~90 miles) and decided to stop/top up for about 29 mpg. That was starting with 40 miles on the car, fiddling with settings while it was running, not knowing for sure if dealer filled 100%, ect. Made it all the way home and to Costco the next day with at least 1/4 tank left. Hand calc MPG for the nearly 400 miles was 33.2. Car though we had 34 mpg. Speeds varied a lot from 40-80 as speed limits and construction permitted and i was not driving for economy. A very beautiful drive through the rockies, was able to go on the same road they use on TFL Ike gauntlet, very cool scenery.

Dealer experience was okay, salesman was great, finance guy was the typical d-bag hard seller. Where they really dropped the ball was in prep. The sent me out with a missing valve stem cap, some plastic still in place that your normally supposed to toss, some test driver scuffs on interior, ect. Nothing i couldn't fix in an hour today at home but this high volume dealer wanted me to sign and leave. Still worth it as they were letting these things go for about 2,000 less than the best Utah deal i could find. Strange thing happened, while test driving their other white one, random lady rear ends me out front of the dealership. So we had to deal with that, mostly dealership and the persons insurance. Thank goodness it happened before i bought and they had another white one. It will need a bumper cover replaced and likely get sold w/o anyone being the wiser as it was a soft slow hit.
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Future Plans include window tinting, possible APR Plus tune on engine and trans, and a whole lot of detailing. White shows that dirt a lot more than my Tungsten Silver color did.

Do i recommend this car? Sure, for anybody not needing big back seat room, these are very nimble and fun to drive. For more back seat space i shift my recommendation to the larger Regal TourX. For both cars you better hurry the brand new examples are almost gone.

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Great pick up. Euro wagons are super cool, I wish they were not a dying breed. The DSG is awesome, one of the most enjoyable points on the car. It took me about 4k to truly learn how to drive it correctly. You need to make a complete stop when you stop, or it will lug you down trying to resume in 2nd. When stopped, you also need to release the brake and give it half a second before applying gas, you can actually feel it engage like a clutch. People that don't learn this have a little trouble getting the car going with the DSG, it can be a little jerky if you don't.

When moving shifts are unbelievably smooth and it really gets the power down too.

Enjoy that car! Even the color I would pick. Sweet.

Tried to talk my wife into one of those she is dead set on a "SUV" ugh.
 
Thanks for the DSG tips. In my head its still a manual but i just do less. i try to avoid creeping at slow speeds and stuff. if i'm going to accelerate i get into it so it can not slip as much. What is really neat is how well it can do a 6th-5th downshift on the highway. That Denver/utah trip was full of hills. It could slip into 5th w/o me even noticing if i wasn't watching the tach. Just instant seamless shift.
 
Hard to beat the price, the financing, the warranty. Congratulations! I just recently did a 40K mile Haldex service on a Tiguan. Drain the fluid, remove pump and clean screen, refill and start, top off. The fluid comes in a 800ml bottle and you will use about 700-750ml all at a bargain price of about $35...ouch! I am surprised that Strong in SLC couldn't get you what you want at a better price.
 
Nice Alltrack! I share your opinion on sunroofs; I've recently passed on a couple of otherwise very nice cars because they had a hole in the roof.
 
Strong VW wouldn't even quote me a price on the phone. Their website price was technically better, but to get it, you had to do some lease to own scam. Strong is quite bait and switch with their pricing and advertising. They say things like 40% off new VWs on the radio all day long and nobody can ever get it. Also they didn't have many wagons left at all. Emich is the last dealer with a huge selection of these in north america.
 
Love those in white. Good get. I bought a 2019 Jetta se back in February with a very good discount. An additional motivation besides the price cut btwn the 2019 and a 2020 setting right beside it was the 60 month 72k warranty. As of today I've put less than 2k on it since February so this thing may outlast me lol
 
Alltrack S gives you the nice fake leather on the door cards too, that was dust-magnet cloth on the non-alltrack s trim. This somewhat less common lighter color gives you a lot of variety, plenty of black, silvery carbon fiberish trim, and the nearly grey looking tan seems to jive well. At least good enough for a car that is so cheap. Great equipment for a base model. I'm not nuts about the plastic cladding but i do like the other alltrack bits. I'm gonna go through a lot of plastic trim treatment between this and the tourx. I'm not sure if it is just because it is new and my other golf was old, but it may have slightly stiffer/sportier suspension while still being very compliant for a daily/hitting bumps.
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Originally Posted by dareo
Alltrack S gives you the nice fake leather on the door cards too, that was dust-magnet cloth on the non-alltrack s trim. This somewhat less common lighter color gives you a lot of variety, plenty of black, silvery carbon fiberish trim, and the nearly grey looking tan seems to jive well. At least good enough for a car that is so cheap. Great equipment for a base model. I'm not nuts about the plastic cladding but i do like the other alltrack bits. I'm gonna go through a lot of plastic trim treatment between this and the tourx. I'm not sure if it is just because it is new and my other golf was old, but it may have slightly stiffer/sportier suspension while still being very compliant for a daily/hitting bumps.
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Very nice color combo! Hope you don't have issues with the pano roof.
 
Originally Posted by dareo
Strong VW wouldn't even quote me a price on the phone. Their website price was technically better, but to get it, you had to do some lease to own scam. Strong is quite bait and switch with their pricing and advertising. They say things like 40% off new VWs on the radio all day long and nobody can ever get it. Also they didn't have many wagons left at all. Emich is the last dealer with a huge selection of these in north america.


If they're being difficult and won't give you a price over phone or email, it's not going to get any better in person.

Beautiful car, love it in white.
 
Originally Posted by dareo
Thanks for the DSG tips. In my head its still a manual but i just do less. i try to avoid creeping at slow speeds and stuff. if i'm going to accelerate i get into it so it can not slip as much. What is really neat is how well it can do a 6th-5th downshift on the highway. That Denver/utah trip was full of hills. It could slip into 5th w/o me even noticing if i wasn't watching the tach. Just instant seamless shift.

Make sure you change DSG fluid and filter, as well as Haldex every 40 to 50k.
 
I will probably change DSG and Haldex fluids at perhaps half the recommended 40k intervals as i will do nothing but short trip this thing.

Gregk24, this is the base alltrack so no troublesome pano roof. I would have paid a lot more for a higher trim without sunroof but VW made it mandatory for SE and SEL trims while simultaneously not designing it well.
 
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Originally Posted by dareo
I will probably change DSG and Haldex fluids at perhaps half the recommended 40k intervals as i will do nothing but short trip this thing.

Gregk24, this is the base alltrack so no troublesome pano roof. I would have paid a lot more for a higher trim without sunroof but VW made it mandatory for SE and SEL trims while simultaneously not designing it well.

40k is conservative. I think recommendation is 60k. Regardless of short trips, no reason for 20k intervals.
 
i bought the standard S wagon last year, non AT then lowered on the MK7 R OEM springs. GREAT CAR.... get yourself a JB4 if you are a serious driver, if not a pedal commander type device. both are invisible to dealer service issues, no flashing of the PCM etc for warranty concerns and can transform the cars driving and power if you want. Also look up the OBD 11 device, need to take a lot of serious notes but you can make so many changes to small stuff like adjusting your radio on the fly that you cannot do now stock. Oh and buy legit winter tires on a second set of rims UTAH winter will be nothing to you.
 
Nice set up.
Had I done more research or spent more time at it, I might have went the same way. I picked up a 2017 GSW-S 4Motion DSG.
Something about the simplicity of that car clicked with me and I thought the other option was 27 to 35 large for Alltrack, didn't want to go that money, didn't mind cloth seats and def no glass roof. Been very pleased but seeing yours in white looks really nice and you didn't have to come up with a lot more $$.
At the time, there was nothing about the Alltrack look or differences in appeared I preferred over the standard GSW and the 18's were out. I was in at $20 and change, right at $5000 off msrp.
Sounds like we do about the same annual miles, Feb purchase miles were 046 and my annual LOF was 5,800 ,then almost another 6000 last Feb.
Looking at the odo now, I'm realizing our "Safer at Home" condition must have some impact ... Currently 12,592.
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* Look over at VW Vortex site sometime if interested.... there is a good write up on many DSG subtleties and features, it's somewhat instructional and filled in some things for me that were helpful knowing.
Next up for mine is probably getting a bit more life from the OEM tires until Fall or Winter then an excuse to set up new wheels / tires and an off-set that looks right.
I had a tint done a few months ago and haven't decided if I want to do anything distinctive or sporty for looks or graphic's. The easily attainable vanilla appearance of a wagen may make it fun when I can get out to drive it more spirited. Primarily, it gets me to the biking trails, serves as grocery runner / errands, haling the grandkids and my 4 mile work commute.

Enjoy !
 
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Originally Posted by bachman
* Look over at VW Vortex site sometime if interested.... there is a good write up on many DSG subtleties and features, it's somewhat instructional and filled in some things for me that were helpful knowing.


Do you have some example areas at VW Vortex which particularly strike you as so? Perhaps a link or two? Pls/thx...
 
My wife loved this car over her 2018 Tiguan SE but ultimately the tiny back seat and 3 kids she bit on Tiguan which was essentially same price then. She was mulling the manual transmission one as her previous 2005 Subaru Legacy GT wagon had one too.

These seem to have dropped in price around here as many 2019's with that nice 6yr/72k warranty available.

Enjoy.
 
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