I love this car. 10,000 mile “one car to do it all” update

shipdawg

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In long, this car is nearly perfect for me.

The only thing I changed were the brake pads and fluid to cope with the track temps and the car was flawless all week. No problems on the track, no worrying about cooling or brakes, no special treatment. And after three 20 minute sessions I just grabbed my stuff and drove home without any drama.
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What brake pads did you go with?
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jrse7en

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I know how you feel OP. I lease my 2017 with 13700 miles on it and decided im just gonna buy it out. The car does everything I want performance wise and gets 41mpg highway.
 

randomisjustfine

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Just wanted to post a love note to my car on here now that I’ve driven it for 10k miles. I did an absurd amount of research on this car before buying one so hopefully people looking into this car will find this helpful.

Who I am: Low 30s dude with a wife and two kids and without space to have a third “toy car”

What I wanted: A safe and fun car that I could use daily, drive my kids around in, and do as many autocrosses as possible every year with a few track days thrown in there. I also live in the mountains so i wanted something that was fun to drive on the amazing roads we have here.

In short, the car has been everything I wanted and more and I love it. You should buy one.

In long, this car is nearly perfect for me.

I get 40+ mpg on the way to and from work and it’s quiet and comfortable. I love the apple CarPlay. I had to have a sunroof and this is a good one, the tilt mode on the highway is nice and opening it on the side roads is amazing with no buffeting ever.

Handling dynamics are great. The suspension and diff work so well together, this car will teach you how to drive properly. I promised myself that I wouldn’t change a thing on this car until I had it for a full season of autocross. So that means all season tires and no suspension mods and it’s been impressive. If you are thinking about modding this car I would really encourage you to get some experience with the baseline setup first.

On of the most amazing weeks for me with this car was going to an autocross on a Tuesday, going for a great mountain drive on Wednesday, commuting a few days, and then driving to Georgia for a track day at Atlanta Motorsports park. The only thing I changed were the brake pads and fluid to cope with the track temps and the car was flawless all week. No problems on the track, no worrying about cooling or brakes, no special treatment. And after three 20 minute sessions I just grabbed my stuff and drove home without any drama. The all season tires were certainly holding my lap times down but this wasn’t a race and they generally behaved themselves once I increased the pressures to stop them from rolling over so much. The car was easy to steer with the throttle in long sweepers and feeling the diff kick in to pull you out of corners was great. Weight transfer and rear rotation were no problem either, with just the right amount of rotation when changing directions. When the rear would start to come around it was very easy to feel it and catch it by opening the wheel up just a bit. I had the Traction control “off” but without doing the pedal dance and it only interfered once when I had to correct a line I screwed up coming onto the front straight going nearly 100mph, I was fine with that.

I’ve had no mechanical problems thus far and my only complaint was with the pedal spacing when trying to heel toe a downshift and that was fixed with a 75 dollar bracket from acuity.

I drove the WRX (stiff, loud, uncomfortable) and the GTI (great, but a VW - and I’ve been burned hard by them before) and this car was the only real option for me given my goals.

So if you are in the market for a new car and considering the Si, I can’t recommend them highly enough!

Bonus pic of the car on track attached!

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Awesome write up. 2 questions - how tall are you and if you are 6.1 or 6.2 how did you fit in with a helmet?
 

aighead

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Thanks for the great write up and review! A part of me wishes I got an Si, but the father of two in me is glad I stuck with the Sport Hatch. Its my daily too, so I love having a hatch for double strollers and the like. Maybe when the kids are older I’ll get a coupe :)
For what it's worth I took my 11 and 9 year old, at the time, to the dealership and they fit, and continue to fit, beautifully in the coupe. Granted, it helps not having to worry about strollers and child carseats. I'm watching them grow and there is still a ton of space for them, almost 2 years later.
 
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WNCSi

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Hey Op, What brake pads did you end up going with?

I did Hawk 5.0 pads and Hawk fluid. Held up very well. I'm a novice so I certainly wasn't pushing the absolute limits of the car but I was happy they never even started going soft. I will say that the brake feel isn't as immediate as the stock pads, but they are very progressive in how they respond.
 


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WNCSi

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Nice post, glad you are having fun. I was looking at the Golf GTI too during my initial car search. I have two children as well and they both still need childseats. A big factor for me was practicality as well because even though I prefer hatches, the Golf's interior was noticeably smaller than the Si's so fitting the seats in there was more of a challenge. Also, even though the GTI is a hatch, without the seats folded the cargo area is pretty shallow. The Si sedan lacks the versatility of a hatch, but since the seats need to be upright for a few more years it actually has more room for my needs.

Also, at the time, the GTI with a similar spec to the Si I got was around 8-9K more expensive. There are better packages now on the market for new GTIs, and the GLI is a decent price as well. But at the time it was beaucoup bucks. I still consider the Si as the best performance value on the market even two years after launch. The new GLI is very very close though which is a great product from VW. I've done track days and commutes and kiddie trips with relative ease. A hatch or wagon version would solve my main issue with double strollers eating most of the space. But otherwise, continue to have fun! Its a great little car.
Absolutely. I would KILL for a hatchback SI.
 
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WNCSi

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Awesome write up. 2 questions - how tall are you and if you are 6.1 or 6.2 how did you fit in with a helmet?
I'm 5'11. I had to lean the seat back one extra click to give me the room I wanted and I had about an inch to spare. You may want to try some different helmets. I have the racequip closed face helmet and it's pretty bulky.
 

H3llsp4wn707

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Thanks for the great write up and review! A part of me wishes I got an Si, but the father of two in me is glad I stuck with the Sport Hatch. Its my daily too, so I love having a hatch for double strollers and the like. Maybe when the kids are older I’ll get a coupe :)
I love the way the hatch looks, main reason i was considering the CTR. Enjoy!
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