Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
Hatchbacks Volkswagen GTI Article Comments: 2006 Sport Compact Comparison Test 
274 messages, Last post on Aug 20, 2007 at 9:50 AM
You are in the Volkswagen GTI Forum. Your Host is pf_flyer
Article comments for 2006 Sport Compact Comparison Test - Here's the three-word definition we like: small, sporting, inexpensive. And because these cars are frequently the only transportation their owners have, reality says we should add a fourth: practical. (more)
|
Replying to: iomatic (Jul 27, 2007 10:45 am) And its still a FWD econocar. Sorry, after driving a car with a real engine, the McHonda felt like a cheap child's toy. And sounds like one too - for children, maybe the moped whiny sound is cool, for me; absolutely embarrassing. And the Ford Probe did the same exterior/interior much better 10+ years ago. I do a lot of driving on the freeway, no way the Civic can hang with the rest of the traffic. Seems very strange that a Civic was even included in this comparison. And spending more than $10k on a McHonda?!?! Huh???
|
|
|
Replying to: mugwomp (Aug 05, 2007 6:25 pm) The ford probe? HA HA HA HA HA! that says it all man. 
|
|
|
Replying to: bani (Aug 02, 2007 7:55 am) the general consensus is that the mk5 is much more reliable than the mk3's or 4's...they must have first year cycles or something. I've got almost 30k on my 07 and have had NO issues of anykind. vw is redesigning the mk5 golf 'cause they are losing money on them, maybe vw will finally improve reliability in the next version. you know why they are losing money on em? because the build quality is so impeccable, and the build time is long. the mk6 may end up being ligher and sportier looking, but the interior will probably be ON PAR with honda and mazda's interiors as opposed to slightly more upscale like it is now.
|
|
|
Replying to: aviboy97 (Aug 02, 2007 7:39 am) very true!  avi, are crystal white pearl 3 hatchbacks still hard to come by? just wondering.
|
|
|
Replying to: eldaino (Aug 05, 2007 6:52 pm) european reviews also report the build quality in mk5 is down compared to mk4 (both top gear and fifth gear reported this). vw continues to do exceedingly poorly in reliability reviews compared to the competition (both european surveys as well as american surveys). furthermore, vwoa has been losing close to $1b per year for the past 3 years. if vwoa doesnt turn around soon, they might pull out of the us market altogether -- they will have no choice in the matter. you have to wonder about some of vwoa's business decisions. i mean seriously, i would rather have chosen improved reliability rather than a stupid guitar or a stupid 'fast'.
|
|
|
Replying to: bani (Aug 05, 2007 7:56 pm) secondly, even american reports show much better improvment over the mk4's with regards to reliabiltiy. the difference in quality is a vw faithful problem: its not so much that the materials are not as nice in the mkV's as they are in the mkIV's its just that they are no longer on par with their audi cousins. what next? hondaphiles who hate their un-acura interiors?  there are probably over a hundred mk5 owners where i work. the most common problems seem to be electrical failures your serious? if this is even true, you think that they would have taken if from their co-workers NOT to buy this car, given all the problems they seem to be having...unless of course you are going to tell me they all bought one at the same time? very hard to belive all this...in fact, i simply don't. You'd be hard pressed to find a place to work with hundreds of honda owners, (which is a much more common car to see), much less with all of them owning a particular generation of cars. And like i said, thats honda, which is much more common than vw. MKV's in genral are not seen often, except for the occasional jetta. In my almost year of owning my bunny, i've seen about 4 other ones and a few gti's. I just find that part of your post entirely to hard to belive for the reasons stated above.
|
|
|
|
I have to say that I haven't seen near, make that even remotely near the same amount of complaints regarding the Mk V cars as the MK IV. There's a ton of love for the MK IV's out there, but they admittedly had more than their fair share of problems. However I'm not hearing anything like that regarding the MkV version, either on the main VW forum site (won't mention it by name here) or by fellow owners. Plus any JD powers type of data I've seen so far has listed the MkV in a favorable light.
|
|
|
I was looking at the Si, GTI, and Speed3 recently, amongst some others that don't quite fit in with them (Impreza, WRX, tC, 3s hatch). I bought the Si. The VW GTI is an incredibly well rounded package. The engine, as has been talked about, might not have massive peak output, but the torque curve is fantastic, and it pulls like a diesel in the low RPM range, and is pretty quick when you give it a few RPMs. It's the easiest car of this bunch to drive sort of fast; the speed3 is easy to get away from yourself withough a feather foot, the Si needs to be pounded, or driven like a quick econobox, with not much in between. The GTI is by far the best car for highway cruising. The tall 6th gear, combined with easy, effortless acceleration at any RPM level, so you don't need to shift, make it relaxing to drive. The ride is very soft, and is more comprable to an Accord or Altima than the other cars in this segment. Not the greatest when whipping around corners, but makes for a nice experience just driving normally. The GTI is very quiet, by far the most of the three - when doing my 1st test drive, I hit 95mph passing some trucks, in 6th gear, no downshifting, just gave it a bit of gas and sped up until I could easily pass the truck. Then, I glanced at the speedo. Oops! While it isn't faster than the Si when driven to the max, it's a lot faster in "normal" driving, which is definitely a good thing. The interior is quite nice. Visibility from the 2 door hatch was decent, though the Si sedan was better. The interior is by far the most classy, and is about as funcitonal as the Civic's, with even better materials. The seats were made for people a bit larger than me, and don't provide as much bolster as the Speed3 or Civic, but this definitely goes along with the notion of the GTI being a long distance cruiser. In the end, the GTI is the most relaxing to drive, the most "mature" car of the bunch, but is also the softest. I didn't like that I didn't have any real indication of speed other than the speedo. I didn't like the overly soft ride, nor the excessive body roll through corners. I wanted something a bit less soft, a bit less quiet, and the reliability was definitely a major concern, as I intend to keep the car for a long time (unless it's not reliable or I'm making double what I am in a few years). The Speed3 is the best performer, hands down. It's also a 4 door hatch, which is a big plus. On the downside, the clutch is a pain (not the weight of it, but the non-progressive uptake and awkward point where it starts grabbing), the shifter is worse than my 01 Hyundai Accent, by a mile, and it will cost significantly more to run than the Civic; gas mileage would be a bit worse, but the real killer is tires - I would want to run the summer tires, and the tires in that size are $800/set for ones that'll run for 10k miles or so. The exhaust boom on throttle release is annoying. I love the power the engine puts out at modest RPMs, if you want to pass easily, you just need 3k RPMs, and lean on it a bit, and off you go. That's an awesome feeling, to have so much power in reserve for anything. It is, in short, a beast. It's a 4cyl, FWD muscle car, if there ever was one. It's harder to tame than the other cars in the segment by all means, and while it won't take as much attention to drive fast as the Si does, it will take more effort due to the clunky shifter, and the car's seemingly fine line between balance and causing some sort of spectacular crash over bumpy corners. The interior of the Speed3 looks nice, but the gauges (particularly the speedo) aren't the best - the numbers are so bunched up on the Speed3's speedo that it takes more than a quick glance to see precicely how fast you're going. This isn't so good when police in an area are known for pulling people over that are going, say, 46mph as opposed to 44mph. Through corners, the Speed3 has an advantage, but it also has better tires to start with than the Si. It handles extremely well, although I didn't have much confidence driving it around the bumpy onramps under acceleration, the car doesn't feel very stable while doing that. The suspension is the hardest of the three by a significant margin, it rolls as little as a Miata, and lets you feel every bump in the road with confidence. I don't mind this, but it is significantly less comfortable to ride in than the Civic or GTI in particular. I'm not terribly fond of the Speed3's styling, but I don't mind it much, either. It was a *very* close decision between the Speed3 and Si for me. I really like the whole package, and I really wanted to have fun driving it... but what the Speed3 didn't do for me is put a smile on my face when not accelerating hard. (When accelerating, it most certainly did) The Civic is not the most well balanced of the bunch. It's schizophrenic. The engine is just as amazing as the others, but in a completely different way, of course. It's not torqueless, it just doesn't have forced induction; it has a similar amount of torque as compared to many other good 4cyl engines around the 2L mark, although it is tuned to put out max torque over 6k RPMs, it is a remarkably flat torque curve below 6k, also. Acceleration below 6k is more than adequate for the majority of driving, and power delivery is very linear, you just get no big rush. Sure, the GTI has 40% or so more torque, but the Si's engine will happily do 40% or so more revs with no complaints, so usable power is similar as long as you keep the revs up a bit. This means that instead of cruising at 1800-2k RPMs, you cruise at 2.8k RPMs. For real passing power, you do need to downshift, but it's not as bad as most people seem to claim in 6th on the highway. At 67mph, you're doing 3kRPMs, and the Si isn't that much slower than the GTI, which has taller gearing, but, yes, you're likely going to want 5th gear for the hills, or 4th if you plan on passing in the hills. So what? The shifter in the GTI is nice, but the shifter in the Si is incredible. It's smooth, easy to shift with a touch of notchiness so you know what you're doing. If you aren't driving carefully, I can see an accidental shift to 4th instead of 6th if you aren't pushing the lever over very much, but that's not exactly going to blow the engine up at legal speeds. It is geared nothing short of perfectly. Want to pass decently on the highway? 4th is perfect for this. Need to zoom? 3rd is built for that. Downshift to 3rd at 55-60mph, blip the throttle, and get on it once you go in to gear. It's quick enough, and sounds like a race car. Wheeee! I get tingles when doing that; sure the Speed3 will dust it, but it's just not as satisfying. If you do redline it in 2nd, shifting in to 3rd drops it right back into the power band. If you manage to redline it in 3rd, hopefully you don't run into the police, but shifting in to 4th will again drop the car perfectly in to t |
|
|
If you manage to redline it in 3rd, hopefully you don't run into the police, but shifting in to 4th will again drop the car perfectly in to the power band, again. Now, in the same regard, the Si has some funny issues. It's not as loud as the Speed3, exhaust wise, but it makes the noise when you're on the throttle, not off of it. So, when you're accelerating more than lightly, say, at 3.5k-5.5k RPMs at 1/4 throttle - nothing rushed, but faster than most people drive, that Camry driver with the 4cyl automatic isn't making a peep, and you're barely accelerating any quicker than him! The car sounds a lot faster than it is. It can feel a bit obnoxious at times. Then again, so is the exhaust boom when you release the throttle on the speed3. The exhaust drones away on the highway, too. But, when you *do* have to crank it up to 8k, the sound is great, and you have the get-go to match the sound, too. The Si might not quite have the same handling limits of the Speed3, but it's damn close. Whereas the GTI seemed to roll too much in corners, and the Speed3 wasn't happy going over bumps, the Si is exceedingly stable, and grips as well as anything I've driven. I can't find the limits of the car, can't make the tires squeal; it just grips, grips, and grips. It feels significantly more agile than the Speed3 or GTI, which definitely has to do with the car's weight. The GTI rolls too much on quick directional changes, whereas the Speed3 just doesn't seem to like to change directions as fast. The Si would definitely be at home on an autocross course (though the speed3 might still be faster). The ride quality of the Si is very good. It's smooth on smooth surfaces, and over bumps, it's extremely well damped and not going to wallow at all (GTI does a little bit), or want to go skating off the road (as the Speed3 seems to want to). The Si was the most confidence inspiring handler of the bunch. I would have much preferred a hatchback and would never buy a coupe, so the Sedan was a reasonable choice. It's a definite downside to the Si, but the cargo space is plenty adequate for my uses, most of the time. All three cars are fantastic. All of them couldn't possibly have different personalities, given that they're both 2-2.3l 4cyl engines on a compact chassis. One's a NA screamer that needs to be pushed to bleed, another a quickly spooling turbo for effortless, if not massive power, and the last gets you that massive power, but at the cost of feeling and driving more like a rough muscle car (which, again, can be a plus or minus depending on what you like). The normal Mazda3s was quite attractive. Handles very well, although not as much as the Si. A bit quicker than the Si when it's not being pushed, but has no real "zoom" capability. Rides very nicely, though is louder on rough roads than the Civic. The shifter was better than the Speed3, but was rubbery and vague, and the clutch uptake is similar to the Speed3 with far less effort. It's an enjoyable drive, but too soft, and not performance oriented enough to catch my eye, particularly considering that it'll get worse mileage than the Si or GTI when driven normally, so much to the point where it'd be more expensive for gas even with regular. The normal Impreza has one interesting thing, which is AWD. Didn't push the handling much, but isn't on par with the normal 3. The WRX is nifty, and definitely feels quicker on launch than the speed3 (thanks, AWD), but is expensive, less refined than Civic or GTI, and the clutch/shifter combo falls in just above the Speed3. I could barely afford one, so it wasn't a serious consideration.
|
|
|
Replying to: seminole_kev (Aug 06, 2007 6:59 am) its ok, i mention vwvortex all the time! i too have love for the mkIV's, but there is no hiding some of their well known flaws. and yes, like you said, the newer gen vw's have been lauded and are being praised for their noticable improvements with regards to reliability. and as a side note, not even CR has enough data to even rate the current gen rabbit or gti. |
|
You are here:
Forums
Hatchbacks Volkswagen GTI Article Comments: 2006 Sport Compact Comparison Test
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
2010 Chevrolet Cobalt
2011 Honda Civic
2009 Mazda MAZDASPEED MAZDA3
2010 MINI Cooper
2010 Volkswagen GTI
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
