Oh my God that's too funny. All hail VW quality--makes those crappy Japanese cars look like the tin cans they are right? Welcome to reverso-world. :D

I'm sure the S2000 doesn't fit in the typical "Honda cheap box" category.

You know the S2000 is the only Honda/Acura I would consider buying. Unlike every other Honda it seems to have aged well. Great car.

As for the GTI/GLI, there is a reason I have not driven one since the first one hit a show room near me. The next one I drive on a car lot I will own, so I am just staying far away. I like my daily driver to be practical and fun. At least 2-3 times a week I have to take clients in my car and other than the Jetta the rest of that class is too racer or small. I would own a BMW, but for as many miles as I put on the upkeep would kill me. That is why I sold my last 328. My next ride will either be a new GLI DSG or a used Mercedes C32/C55.

Slim Pickings?

This is the golden age of performance cars.

The S2000 is nice, but they're not very fast at all.

I think i shall stick with my classic V-8 P-car.

on the track, where speed belongs, they are plenty fast.

on the street, where serious speed doesn't belong, it doesn't make much of a difference...

+1 what Todd said. Especially the early S2000.

I know this an old thread but I finally spent a little time in the 07 GTI today at the dealer while my GLI was being serviced and I really like the car. I like the DSG but its a tough decision to give up a stick and I don't think I could do it. The computer shifting is amazing and so is the tiptronic. This is one car where I don't think slopomatic applies. The negative is that the car with options is $30k and for me even $30k for a VW is alot and I paid that for my GLI.

I had a mk.1 with a 16v swapped in and Konis. spray painted it flat black. That was a fun little car.

Think I may stop by the VW dealer tommorow and take a test drive for a little fun.

got mine on the track today. posted this at vwvortex:

Was up at Streets of Willow Springs today instructing at the POC Driver's Clinic. Since I wasn't going to be driving I drove the GTI up. As luck would have it, I got a couple of opportunities to flog her. First off was the skid pad. We do an exercise where cars drive a circle and you learn to throttle steer. I took off ESP (egad, that is annoying) and round and round I went. The car behaves very well, and it was very easy to throttle steer. I was quite surprised...the weight balance is quite good and it was easy to coax into oversteer.

We had rain around noon, so lunch laps were delicate, but the good news is that the informal "speed limit" of 55 or so was plenty fast on a wet track. The biggest problem I found was in the turbo lag, as it was a bit tough to keep it in range. I will admit that this was my first time with a turbo on track, so maybe some of that can be alleviated with practice, but my conversations with fellow drivers who have turbos indicate it is something you just work around rather than solve. On a wet track, the surge is exacerbated.

Later a student who was on R-compound wanted to right shotgun on hot laps since he couldn't drive his car (no tread on wet track + student = bad). I obliged, and we set out with me able to lean harder under open track conditions, albeit mostly wet with some drying line (actually quite difficult read). The tires were howling and abs chattering (again, ESP off all the time), and I swapped between Sport mode and full manual. Then towards the end of the day (with a mostly dry track), the instructors were let loose for play time so I flogged it hard. The only car to catch me was a 996 turbo so I can't complain about my ride.

Up sides: easy to throttle steer, good straightline power, predictable drifts, sport mode is almost perfect...just a couple of manual downshifts coming out of straights and in a turn here or there.

downsides: brakes do not modulate well (not a lot of feel) and are weak for the weight/power of the car. Too much body roll. Turbo lag noticable when you're working a sequence of tight turns.

This is a bone stock car. With bigger brakes and suspension work, I think it would be a *very* competent track car. not sure how long it would last though...my 911 is 27 years old and has seen constant duty on track for 3 years with very little work and the engine at 100K+ miles and never opened (knock on wood).

I am contemplating a commuting car and the GTI is on the short list. I hope Honda brings their soon-to-be Civic-R as a competitor but at this time it is unclear.
2L, 200 HP, no turbo, ? weight

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1169993467.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads9/11169993478.jpg

The only problem with owning a Honda, is that at the end of the day you still own a Honda. :cool:

Todd, thanks for the review. The GTI is the one car I would think about upgrading for but I just don't want the debt now. In a couple of years when the dealer starts selling lease returns etc., I may reconsider. How is the knee by the way? Are you driving the P-car again?

Automobile Magazine picked it as the 2007 Car of the Year.

http://www.automobilemag.com/features/news/0702_2007_automobile_of_the_year/

Instructed this saturday, ran and instructed today. Knee is tired but held up well. I think I flatsplotted my tires on the last run session of the day though...was just me and a GT3 cup car running. I tried to keep up, maybe a little too hard :p

Very cool. I've ridden with Todd, and he's a very aggressive and competent driver. So if he says the GTi is a good car on the track, I tend to believe it.