Well, it's been just over five years with the GTI, so figured I'd post a bit of an update...
In short, the car is still fantastic. Only 90,000 kms on it, and it's still tight and rattle-free - basically feels like it's brand new. My plan is to keep it at least another five years, but I'm thinking another ten is a real possibility. We'll see how it goes, but so far, so good.
Except for the summer tires and wheels, I've kept the car bone-stock up until now. But in the last year or so, I've noticed the dampers getting a little weak, so thought I'd swap them out and maybe do a few small mods while I was at it.
So, installed Koni Sports all around, replaced the strut bearings and strut mounts with stiffer ones from an Audi TT, replaced the control arm bushings with ones from an Audi S3, added a dogbone mount insert to tighten up the engine/tranny mount, and did the brakes with Centric rotors, Hawk HPS 5.0 pads, and a Tyrolsport caliper bushing kit to replace the stock rubber bushings and tighten up the brake feel.
I've been somewhat reluctant to mod the car because it's so good to start with, and I really didn't want to mess up the ride/handling/comfort/performance balance the stock car manages so well. Happily, the mods turned out fantastic! The car is still just as comfortable, but I'm amazed at how much slop has been taken out of the driving experience.
At stock power levels, wheel hop was never an issue, yet there was always a bit of juddery unpleasantness when accelerating on bumpy pavement, especially when turning. I always just chalked it up to FWD suckiness, but am very pleased that the S3 bushings (and possibly TT strut mounts) have about 95% eliminated this. The car just lays down power smoothly now, with none of the judder and unpleasant feedback through the wheel. And that's another neat thing about the car - there are plenty of parts upgrades out of the VAG OE parts bin, so you can mod/upgrade while still keeping an OE feel (no rock-hard and squeaky polyurethane bushings, for example.
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And I'm also super happy with the dogbone insert. It tightens up one of the main engine/tranny mounts and takes out some of the slop in the shifter when driving hard. Extra vibration is the trade off, but I'm happy to find that it's pretty marginal. In fact, it's just enough vibration to give the car a bit of extra life and character that it was missing before.
And of course, the new brakes are a big improvement. From the beginning, I was never that happy with the mushy pedal. Whether it was the new pads or the bushing kit, brake feel is now much improved. The pedal is solid, with none of that original mushy feel and long travel (and yes, I had bled the brakes before.)
Overall, I'm happy to say that I'm now enjoying the car even more than I did when it was new. Part of me thinks maybe I should have done these mods five years ago, but in a way I'm also happy I waited - it's like having a brand new car again and a fun way to rekindle the romance a bit. Maybe I'll go stage 1 for her tenth birthday.
It looks pretty much exactly like it did five years ago, but may as well throw in a crappy pic anyway...
