Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: cobas Jul 18 2011, 03:01 AM

I have to admit the interior is nice. The cargo organizer is one of my favorite features, and it's not expensive. All the doors have pockets, even the rear ones. There's a center armrest for the rear, with cupholders, and a pass-thru for skis, and the seats fold down 60-40 too. There's also HVAC vents for the rear passengers on the center console (instead of our cupholder/ashtray). The glove box has a shelf at the top for the owner's manual (better than an elastic band, no?). There's an HVAC vent inside the glove box, which can be closed off. The front seats are heated, the sunroof is one-touch open/close/tilt. The whole top of the dash is soft and rubbery, all four windows are one-touch-up, one-touch-down, there's a sunglass holder despite the sunroof, etc. The materials in general are very nice - even the seatbelt buckles are wraped in cloth (ok, it ain't leather, but it ain't plastic either). There is NO CD storage at all. But there's an iPod port, an Aux port and an SD Card slot, so I've stopped using CDs. The stereo/phone/nav interface is a touch screen but you can use buttons and knobs too. As nice as the stereo/nav system is, you can get those at Crutchfield or BestBuy without buying a whole new car. Ok, it won't look quite as nice, but it'll be just as functional.
Also I'm finding the "wheel unbalanced," speed in the GTI is around 70mph. I think it's inevitable with those huge heavy 18's. Those wheels look nice enough but they can't be good for performance... oh well, I'm not changing them at least 'till the tires wear out.

The center instrument panel has an LCD screen with a variety of settings... a depressing fuel economy gauge (19mpg?!), a distracting compass, a display of the name of the road you're on (?), a digital speedometer, a travel timer, distance-to-empty or just the name of the cell phone that's synched in bluetooth. I'm still deciding which one is the least distracting.

The headlights... they're Xenon with a very sharp top cut-off and... they move. They aim into the corner at moderate speeds. The coolest thing about that is the little dance they do when the car first starts up at night. Don't know why but they focus, spread out, focus again, rise and then fall like a mini concert lightshow, It's um... a neat way to impress your friends, if you have friends who are impressed by that sort of thing.

Oh Silent.... erm... I was just in Orlando on the 8th for the STS-135 launch. Totally forgot to let you know, but we just drove down to Miami after the launch went off. Reserved a midsize. Got a Mustang instead! An automatic Mustang, the V6... a convertible... not so quick. But quick enough to get me a speeding ticket.