It's been another five years, so I guess it's time for another five-year update!
Haven't done as much to the car in the last few years, but did do a few mods. Most notable was a Unitronic ECU flash to Stage 1 back in 2017. Their dyno says it's good for 245HP and 280 Lb*ft of torque, which is a nice little bump from the stock 210 and 207. I'm happy enough with that, and don't have any plans to go further.
A Diesel Geek short shifter was a fun mod, giving nice quick throws, but it didn't totally eliminate a bit of occasional notchiness that I think is just inherent to the transmission. There is a metal shifter cable bracket that I could have bought to replace the stock plastic one, but it was expensive and not part of the kit so I didn't bother. I don't think it's the issue, but might give it a try later. Also installed a clutch bleeder block that's supposed to give a bit quicker clutch action, and a pedal stop to get rid of the dead zone at the end of the pedal travel.
As for reliability over the past ten years, I'd say it's been stellar (but Toyota/Lexus slappies may beg to differ
) It's never left me stranded, but I've had to do a few minor repairs over the years: rear wheel bearing, parking brake cable, leaking rear-washer hose, and a faulty intake manifold. The manifold would have been covered under an extended warranty (it's a known issue,) but I didn't want to deal with the hassle of taking my modded car to the dealer, and potentially having them charge me a diagnostic fee then denying the warranty. The manifold was only $300, so I just bought one and installed it myself. Also did a carbon cleaning at the same time, which would have been $400-600 if I'd had the dealer do it, so figured I was saving money overall.
One big expense that will have Lexus owners' eyes twitching was replacing the timing chain and tensioner. Again, it's a known issue, and VW will cover it under an extended warranty, but only after the engine skips timing and eats all the valves. The smart thing to do is just to replace the tensioner before it goes bad, but the cost for the whole job was around $2K at a local indie.
At the ten-year mark, I've only got 165,000 km on the car. It still looks and drives like new(ish), so I think I'm just going to hang onto it for the long haul. If I did buy a new car tomorrow, it would probably be another GTI, so not really sure I see the point in spending the $$$. Yeah, the MKVII (and VIII) is probably "better," but "better" these days usually means quieter, more refined, less NVH, while I actually prefer a bit of NVH.
A BRZ could be a fun alternative, and I keep eyeing them, but not sure I could live with it as a daily driver. Civic Type R is also on the list of potential replacements, but I doubt I'd actually spend the extra $10K over a GTI when it came time to pull the trigger. So, I'm pretty sure the GTI and I will just keep on keeping on... I'll report back in 2025 with the 15-year update! (assuming the site is still around then
)
