2022 Jetta GLI

[Basement Paul]

That stuff is so infuriating. Amy's Jeep had 1500 miles on it when someone at Giant Eagle let their door loose into her passengers front door, putting a huge dent and scraping up the mirror. Then driving away while the security camera in that area was on fritz... We did get hers fixed. Now my door forward doesn't match. It's a lose - lose. Sorry about your misfortune.

-BP

[MostMint]

And yet my Corolla can be parked anywhere and it never gets touched. Weird. It has some new patina but I'm pretty sure that was applied by my children while they were driving it.

[AKROVER]

6 months, 8,255 miles, 25 tanks of gas, 34.0 mpg average

The car now has a garage; we got off the waiting list here at the apartment complex. While I can’t really work on a car in the apartment garage, it will be quite valuable to have shelter from hail. It is shocking to see how many hail-damaged cars there are in the area. We also have a 10X20 storage unit about a mile up the street so the Nissan can also find cover if needed, but I will have to organize things a bit better to squeeze it in.

I upgraded the operating system on my phone and now Android Auto works wirelessly. It is nice not having to hook up a wire when just trying to navigate locally.

Overall, I am still quite happy with this car. It really is fun to drive. I am thinking about getting snow tires for next winter as the tires aren’t great in snow, but with the Nissan available, that really hasn’t been much of an issue.

[AKROVER]

The GLI has crossed the 10K milestone. That also means it has had its first of three free oil changes. It was somewhat of a rip-off since they charged me to rotate the tires even though I am certain they would have removed the wheels for the brake inspection they are required to conduct. Hopefully next time I will have no need for them to perform that service for me (right now I don’t even own a floor jack), but it was only $24.



Now that the weather has been a lot nicer, I have been playing with the driving modes. It has five modes (eco, comfort, normal, sport, and custom). Sport mode is something I would only use when I am in the car by myself because the additional engine noise amplified through the audio system is quite annoyingly juvenile (so sometimes I kind of like it). The other standard modes set the steering to the lighter feel and I prefer the heavier sport setting. In the custom mode, I can program numerous individual parameters to various levels, so I thought I would capture my current thoughts.

DCC (comfort, normal, or sport) – This is a shock tuning parameter (DCC=dynamic chassis control) and sport becomes rather brutal. Comfort causes me no complaints about handling and the car rides very nicely, almost exactly the ride quality I want.

Steering (normal or sport) – the sport setting simply makes the steering feel a little heavier, but I much prefer that.

Front differential lock (normal or sport) – After trying sport, I think it fails to unlock quickly when pulling out and turning, causing some unnecessary chirps. Normal has not caused any noticeable bad behavior.

Drivetrain (eco, normal, or sport) – No one knows for sure what this setting does, but most owners seem to agree that on a manual transmission car, this is only a throttle pedal response setting. I had it in eco for most of the time I have owned it, but have been experimenting with sport. I seem to accelerate more smoothly, particularly off the line, in sport mode, but the touchiness of the pedal is quite annoying when simply maintaining speed. I was also struggling with rev matching when downshifting, but that is likely just a learning curve issue. I am now going to try normal to see if it provides a happier middle ground, but eco wasn’t actually a problem so I will likely go back to it if I find normal annoying in some way. No one believes that this actually affects fuel economy in a meaningful way. My experiments with the sport setting didn’t produce any unusual fuel economy readings but weren’t long enough to be conclusive.

Engine sound (comfort, normal, or sport) – Sport is juvenile stupidity, great for me when thrashing in the car, but not for cruising or driving with my wife. In comfort, the economy-car sound insulation transmits enough sound feedback to keep me happy (I hated my Jaguar’s silence).

ACC (eco, comfort, normal, or sport) – Who would have thought adaptive cruise control would have so many different settings? Eco reduces the responsiveness of the system so much that when approaching a slower car, it runs up on it before slowing down and then slows down excessively before finally matching speed. Normal seems to work much better. I haven’t tried the other two settings.

Climate control (eco or normal) – I am not really sure what this setting does. I had been using eco mode and the dual zone automatic climate control had been working very well, but now that we are seeing some warmer days, I think it holds back the ac a bit too much so I will try normal for now.

[MostMint]

if they rotate the tires they may need to recalibrate the TPMS as the sensors have moved corners

[Basement Paul]

No sensors on VW wheels. They use speed sensors on each axle somehow. Makes life much simpler.

-BP

[MostMint]

No sensors on VW wheels. They use speed sensors on each axle somehow. Makes life much simpler.

-BP

OK I was trying to save them from stupid random chargeville but to no avail!

[AKROVER]

The first repair on the VW was with a Permatex windshield repair kit. We got peppered with gravel by a truck going the other way on a 65mph two-lane road in rural Nebraska on our way to Ohio. On the advice of the owner of that Auburn inn that I stay at, I tried the kit. The idea makes sense. It tries to work some liquid resin into the cracks with vacuum and then pressure. The resin is then cured by UV exposure (sunlight for 15 minutes). The final cleanup is with a razor. I will never really know if the kit worked. I have had some ugly cracks in windshields that never ran so if this never gets worse, it doesn’t really mean anything. OTOH, this one had a half inch leg radiating out of the bullseye that wouldn’t surprise me if it was beyond the capability of such a repair technique. If that runs, I wouldn’t necessarily call the repair a failure. The one thing I can say which was a total surprise to me is that the kit provided a significant cosmetic improvement. The chip was quite visible prior to the repair and now I have to look to find it. Mostly all I see now is that one crack, the chip seems to have vanished. For $20, it was worth the cosmetic improvement and the possible delay or prevention of a windshield replacement.

Our trip to Ohio brought the mileage to 18,459. The car performed exceptionally well, averaging 40.4 mpg for the highway portions of the trip and providing a new record single tank of 44.1 mpg. We did have a good tailwind much of the way to Ohio and now that we live an hour further south, we bypass the 80mph speed limits, both of which significantly helped fuel economy. I still ran almost every onramp with my foot on the floor and I often broke into the 90’s when passing slower vehicles so I am really pleased with the efficiency of this fun car.

The car is now exactly one year old and the average fuel economy sits at 34.9. Everything about this car has exceeded my expectations. My biggest complaint is that the audio system is always on when the infotainment system is on. I can turn the volume down to zero, but when I restart the car, it always comes on at a very low yet audible volume. I almost never listen to the radio or to music in the car so I would prefer it to just be off, but then I lose my map. My wife’s complaint is that the passenger seat isn’t that comfortable for her on a long day. It only has minimal manual adjustments so perhaps that is the issue. For me, the driver’s seat is one of the most comfortable I have ever had for long days of driving.

Prior to the trip, I changed the throttle response setting from normal back to eco. I think it provides finer control when cruising along at a constant speed. For accelerating, the normal setting wasn’t really making me super smooth on my shifts. Eco certainly isn’t helping me in that regard, but I don’t think it is hurting me. Since I spend more time holding speed than gaining, I will prioritize that part of driving and then blame myself for any clunky shifting that occurs while accelerating.

[AKROVER]

I pulled the trigger on a snow tire and wheel package. I kept looking at our sloped roads and driveway and decided that traction in snow was going to be important. I bought both the cheapest wheels and the cheapest tires that Tire Rack was showing for my car, but not just because I am cheap. I liked the style and the weight of the wheels (Moda MD28) and it was a closeout price. The tires (Vredestein Wintrac Pro) had surprisingly positive professional reviews for such a cheap tire. Tire Rack is really easy to order from and I didn’t think $1200 mounted, balanced, and delivered the next day was a bad price. I was able to reduce wheel diameter to 17” (from 18) which should increase impact resistance and improve ride quality. 17 is the smallest that I could go on the GLI, but I probably wouldn’t have gone any further. I couldn’t reduce width as the math just doesn’t work out in available tire sizes. I prefer narrower tires for winter as they have less float in deep snow, but 225 isn’t likely terrible with a 3300lb car.

[AKROVER]

A few weeks ago, I took the car to Rapid City for its 20,000 mile service. I was about 600 miles early, but we had a big trip to Asheville coming up. The trip was another successful 2900-mile road trip, although fuel economy was quite a bit worse on this trip averaging only 37.4 mpg.

With the road trip behind us and cooler temperatures being a bit more reliable, I put the snow tires on today. Since liquidating all my tools and moving to Alaska 17 years ago, I have probably changed out between summer and winter tires on various vehicles a dozen times. Today was the first time using real tools and it seemed so effortless; no cranking on cheap scissor jacks or spinning wrenches to get lugs off. Even though it was a decent day, the concrete in the garage was a little cold so I even cranked up the heat. I will also add my endorsement for my Quinn digital ½” torque adaptor that I bought at Harbor Freight. It really makes torquing to specification super easy; set the desired torque and listen for the beeps (or watch the digital display). I think it was well worth the $50 I paid.

I think my car looks good with a little extra sidewall. I might have to experiment with the suspension settings, although I suspect comfort mode will still be my preference. I am also curious about noise levels and fuel economy, although I suspect it will be worse in both.

I have been having a slow leak in my right rear so finally removing that wheel allowed me to inspect the entire tire. I was not surprised to find a nail buried between the treads. That has been an issue for at least six months now. I guess I am lucky the nail stayed in on several long-distance road trips. It was an amazingly slow leak.

[AKROVER]

Last weekend was snowy and this weekend was cold and rainy, but we had some really nice days this week so I changed out the tires and washed the car. While we didn’t get a lot of snow this winter, the snow tires proved their worth a few times. The most interesting was 8” of fresh unplowed snow clogging a hotel parking lot on the morning we were departing. The car only has 5” of ground clearance, but the snow tires and the locking differential pulled us out without too much drama. I do not understand the programming of modern traction control as we weren’t going anywhere until I turned that off. That button came in handy a few times this winter. The tires didn’t seem to cost me any fuel efficiency as the lifetime average still sits at the same 34.9mpg it did last fall when I put the snows on. It actually calculated to 35.0 briefly a couple tanks back, but the 180-mile roundtrip to our local ski area is a drive that really helps average efficiency. Road noise did not seem different, either. On our recent Montana road trip, I took those snow tires up to over 80% of their H speed rating for a minute and Kris didn’t even look up from the book she was reading.

The car had two incidents this winter. I was hit from behind in a line of traffic at a stoplight in Rapid City (the ‘big city’ to us, less than 10% the size of Cleveland), but it was just a light tap. It added two more small paint chips on the white plastic rear bumper cover which was already split from being hit in a parking lot in Florida and has a couple of marks from my clumsiness loading and unloading the trunk. The second incident was getting the dirty abrasive salt licked off the sides of the car by a couple of bison. I can usually outmaneuver them, but I was really boxed in by the herd on a narrow dirt road and two of them got in a couple of licks before I found an escape route. I didn’t find any scratches in the paint so perhaps bison tongues aren’t the worst thing to rub on the sides of a dirty car. I have had a couple of rental cars licked in the past, so I am fully aware of this risk when driving through the parks here. I would love to know how they learned such behavior. Did one bison dare another to go lick a car? Do their tongues ever get stuck to the cold metal?

I was happy to see that my summer (all-season) tires held pressure through winter storage, including the one I patched after pulling the nail out. I did notice a bit of squirm on the grooved road north of town on my first drive, but I suspect that is because I just rotated the tires, and they need to wear into their new locations.

At 27,750 miles, this car still really pleases me. So far, we have road tripped through 17 states with this car, and the luggage capacity and ride comfort have been everything I hoped for. Fuel economy continues to impress me, particularly given the way I drive it, but I would like to break 40mpg more often. The horsepower really comes in handy for passing on our high-speed two-lane roads. Around here, many of the two-lane roads are posted at 65mph which makes passing a very interesting event. In Montana, we found ourselves on many two-lane roads posted at 70mph and I was getting passed a few times rolling at 72. I think our part of South Dakota has some of the best roads in the world with smooth pavement and fun curves, often with good visibility around the curve. I do enjoy the precision I feel going around curves in this car, but I recently pulled up the accelerometer feature on a curvy road and laughed at how little of the lateral capability I ever really use. The car magazines complain that the all-season tires and softer suspension limit this car to about 0.85G, but that is about 4 times what I need for my idea of sporty driving. Even though I don’t push this car to its limits, I can still tell that it is a lot more fun to drive on a curvy road than the wandering Nissan.

[Basement Paul]

My wife found herself in a situation at a stoplight up a tiny hill where here FWD car would literally not move at all because the traction control sensed there was zero traction. The neighbors happened to be behind her and pushed her to get the car moving. So I taught her how to turn it off for traction... The dumbest thing ever. Which helped her several times when she had FWD cars.
She even got high sided in her Jeep at the end of our driveway and the wheels would not turn until she put it in low range which immediately turns off the TC and she drove right out without spinning a tire. I definitely don't understand the logic either.
I think if a bison was licking my car, I would just roll the dice and let it lick. Now if a cat was licking my car, that would be a different story.

-BP

[MostMint]

Avoiding bison licking the car?! That's a story to tell

I've read somewhere in the past most people get uncomfortable when lateral g's go above .33 and if I recall correctly that is part of the guideline for recommended speeds (yellow signs) where there are bends in the road.

[TireSmoker]

The bison have discovered rolling salt-licks. Thats pretty funny you've encountered that more than once.

We enjoyed driving in western South Dakota (Black Hills) when we went through there a few years ago. Thought it kinda felt like Pennsylvania.

[AKROVER]

A couple weeks ago, I took the VW in for its last included service. You would think since I have to pay for my own service from here on out, they would have really tried to show me how good they are. First, they tried to sell me an air filter and a cabin filter for over $100 for the pair (less than $20 each online, which a customer can easily check while sitting in the waiting area). I checked a couple more things when I got home. The filters weren’t even near their recommended service intervals and the air filter still looked clean, so I really believe they were effectively trying to rip me off. They also forgot that they needed to do a brake flush as part of the included 30K service, so they had to wait for a mechanic who was qualified for that job after the oil change was done. That mechanic got called into a meeting part way through servicing my vehicle, so I ended up waiting over 2.5 hours for routine service, a mere oil change and brake fluid flush. The service desk clerk knew I wasn’t happy with the long wait so when the car was done, he sent me out before the paperwork was done, promising to email it to me. A customer service rep called from the dealership a couple days later and I explained why I wasn’t happy with the service and that I hadn’t yet received any documentation. She seemed very concerned about my complaints and asked if it would be OK for the manager to call me. I said sure, but all he did was text their usual request that I call them if there were any reasons I couldn’t rate their service as excellent. When the VW survey showed up, they got blasted. Less than an hour after I submitted the survey, I finally got an email with my service documentation which I doubt was a coincidence.

Kris took a road trip to the Iowa Writing Festival and returned with covid and a broken windshield. We don’t have many options around here, so I went through Safelite’s web system, requesting a replacement on my own dime. The system spit out a quote of just over $400 which isn’t bad and is less than my deductible, but there was a warning that advanced safety systems might require recalibration and that their quote didn’t include that. I figured that wouldn’t cost much, so I scheduled an appointment. The next day I got a quote for the recalibration which is almost as much as the windshield replacement. I checked online and that is within the normal range for this service. All that high tech stuff is nice, but it can really add to the cost of ownership. The car goes to Safelite in Rapid City next Wednesday for the windshield replacement.

I suppose I should mention that the car got licked again. My wife was parking at a trailhead a month or so ago and before she could get out, a big bull came up and licked the dirt on three sides of the car. There wasn’t even any salt anymore, just dirt. Stupid bison. One of these days those giant heads or those big horns are going to damage something.