[dieselraver]

The time has come. The m3 lease is up and my commute has turned into a 90 mile round trip yet again. This time I can’t lease as the mileage restriction would be financially horrendous.

Needed a car that checked all of most boxes. Filling up every second/third day was getting tiring.

1. Needed to be fuel efficient
2. Relatively affordable. I also have the atlas that I lease so we’re not a one car household.
3. Not be a penalty box
4. Be fun to drive.

I present to you the new financed (school me financial lounge) 2020 Volkswagen GTI autobahn 6 speed manual transmission.
At 0.9% apr for 72 months it was a no brainer. I’ll update this post when I do a few more mods. So far I’ve installed the craven speed front plate mount, a Valentine one gen two with the savvy obd port hard wire install and I have a few more things planned.
Any questions or advice ask away.

[

And the m3 is going back tomorrow :-(

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Senior Member]

1. Needed to be fuel efficient
2. Relatively affordable. I also have the atlas that I lease so we’re not a one car household.
3. Not be a penalty box
4. Be fun to drive.

Congrats, but with the GTI you have to chose either 1. or 4. you won't get both.

 

[fireside]

Nice purchase! Losing the power is going to be a downer but GTI's are never bad places to spend time.

Congrats, but with the GTI you have to chose either 1. or 4. you won't get both.

True statement for anything with over 200 horsepower sir.

 

[VadGTI]

Did it not make sense to do a buyout of the lease and to then flip it? From what I've seen, residuals on them end up being below current market and you had an excellent spec (Yas Marina, manual, carbon fiber roof, executive package, etc.). One of our TCLers returned his M3 and it was immediately up for sale one state over for something like $13k over his residual. And that was before COVID drove up prices on fun cars.

 

[Senior Member]

TCLers returned his M3 and it was immediately up for sale one state over for something like $13k over his residual.

It doesn't mean they will get 13k over, and they probably had to certify it with some kind of extended warranty.

 

[Numbersix]

Nice choice. Does Autobahn get you DCC as standard now? I hope so—I found that to be a game changer on long trips with my
Mk7.

I’d also urge you to do PPF on the bumper, lights, and hood if you haven’t already.

 

[fireside]

Nice choice. Does Autobahn get you DCC as standard now? I hope so—I found that to be a game changer on long trips with my
Mk7.

I’d also urge you to do PPF on the bumper, lights, and hood if you haven’t already.

It's a Golf with a turbo not a R8, damn lol.

 

[2 doors]

Good choice on color - the red ones are always the fastest.

 

[LoudTIGER]

everyone is picking up GTIs. congrats

 

[KrisA]

It's almost like this is a VW forum with all the recent MK7 purchases!

Nice car, enjoy it.

 

[caj1]

The front end would look a lot better if the plate was centered

 

[kraut_pauer79]

Red 👍
El Manuel 👍

Highway fuel econ will indeed be pleasing if you keep your foot out of it

It's crazy how time flies, I remember you posting when you first got the M3 in the middle of NYC winter. Hopefully we'll soon hear what's it like to transition from that car to this one.

 

[dieselraver]

Did it not make sense to do a buyout of the lease and to then flip it? From what I've seen, residuals on them end up being below current market and you had an excellent spec (Yas Marina, manual, carbon fiber roof, executive package, etc.). One of our TCLers returned his M3 and it was immediately up for sale one state over for something like $13k over his residual. And that was before COVID drove up prices on fun cars.

The buyout is about $50,000.00
This is a highly desirable combination but combined with the insurance at $300 a month, the atlas I have as well it just pushes my budget too far north. Also I’ll be doing about 22,000 miles a year and a m3 while fun is highly inefficient at this. Need a family hauler and I also need a commuter vehicle capable of doing 90 miles a day five days a week without breaking the bank.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dieselraver]

Congrats, but with the GTI you have to chose either 1. or 4. you won't get both.

At one point I considered trading in the m3 for a Corolla hybrid. At 54 mpg the Corolla was basically a Prius on a Corolla body.
I considered driving the infiniti I own outright but even though well sorted it’s a 2004 and the kicker. Gets worst mpgs than the m3 at 12mpg
The m3 gets roughly 15-17mpg so I was filling up every 2nd day. If I push it I can get 3 days out of it.

A gti at mid 20’s to mid 30’s documented will be more fuel efficient than anything currently in my stable


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Senior Member]

I considered driving the infiniti I own outright but even though well sorted it’s a 2004 and the kicker.

Infiniti is Brooklyn's' darling.

 

[Taco1933]

Seems like a bit of a dip, but I‘ll probably always believe the GTI is the best all-around car on the planet. So I think you did alright. Congrats.

 

[dieselraver]

Nice choice. Does Autobahn get you DCC as standard now? I hope so—I found that to be a game changer on long trips with my
Mk7.

I’d also urge you to do PPF on the bumper, lights, and hood if you haven’t already.

This is a leftover 2020 which is literally unchanged from the 2021. Only difference is the interest rates. Trimwise it’s a gti 4 door autobahn manual transmission. Even in manual guise it has the parking assist (helps you parallel park), adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, blind spot, frontal collision warning, rear cross traffic alert. Also it has the dcc, the limited slip diff, the golf r brakes the magnetic adjustable dampers etc. it’s fully loaded also has the port installed options of the frameless home link compass mirror.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Numbersix]

It's a Golf with a turbo not a R8, damn lol.

And? If he’s doing a 90mi RT commute each day, it’ll be sandblasted in a year.

I did it on my Mk7 GTI for reasonable cost, and it helped me 5.5 years later at trade in time.

 

[fast16]

Looks awesome! Congrats!!
Just curious what type of deal did you end up getting on a leftover 2020?

 

[RAVatar]

The buyout is about $50,000.00
This is a highly desirable combination but combined with the insurance at $300 a month, the atlas I have as well it just pushes my budget too far north. Also I’ll be doing about 22,000 miles a year and a m3 while fun is highly inefficient at this. Need a family hauler and I also need a commuter vehicle capable of doing 90 miles a day five days a week without breaking the bank.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you were flipping it, it would've been very short term loss for a large gain. I would've at least seen if Carmax or Vroom would've exceeded the buyout.