RE: SOTW: Volkswagen Jetta GTI
Discussion
Given that there was almost no Jetta GTis sold, some of the “knowledgeable “ comments on this post make me wonder.
Had an 8V one in the late 80s. Debadged. Rivals then were XR3is, Opel Mantas and Twin Cam Corollas.
All of which it ate for breakfast. The Manta was supposedly lighter with a 2 litre engine and more torque, but my mate and I swapped cars and the Manta was significantly slower, no matter what way you sliced it ... Orion Ghias were an even bigger laugh - sit on their tail to about 105, watch for the puffs of blue Ford smoke and then overtake ...
The 1600 and cooking 1800 Jettas were dull to drive, but the GTi Jetta was one of the top 5 cars I’ve ever had; though you had to cane it on sh*t roads to really get it. Far better handling car on a bad rally road than the Golf GTi - which I also had. You literally couldn’t bottom it out; and it could string a series of bends together better than the Golf. Nice torque for a small engine; prod the throttle at 90mph in top and the response to 110 was lovely. 110 was its cruising speed for the 8V, it’d sit rock solid at that all day and would run out to around 120 after you’d put about 60k miles on it by which time it had loosened up and was faster and gave better mpg than when new.
Invisible to the Feds as well and great for annoying the hell out of faster but tail happy Beemers of the period – happy days …
Had an 8V one in the late 80s. Debadged. Rivals then were XR3is, Opel Mantas and Twin Cam Corollas.
All of which it ate for breakfast. The Manta was supposedly lighter with a 2 litre engine and more torque, but my mate and I swapped cars and the Manta was significantly slower, no matter what way you sliced it ... Orion Ghias were an even bigger laugh - sit on their tail to about 105, watch for the puffs of blue Ford smoke and then overtake ...
The 1600 and cooking 1800 Jettas were dull to drive, but the GTi Jetta was one of the top 5 cars I’ve ever had; though you had to cane it on sh*t roads to really get it. Far better handling car on a bad rally road than the Golf GTi - which I also had. You literally couldn’t bottom it out; and it could string a series of bends together better than the Golf. Nice torque for a small engine; prod the throttle at 90mph in top and the response to 110 was lovely. 110 was its cruising speed for the 8V, it’d sit rock solid at that all day and would run out to around 120 after you’d put about 60k miles on it by which time it had loosened up and was faster and gave better mpg than when new.
Invisible to the Feds as well and great for annoying the hell out of faster but tail happy Beemers of the period – happy days …
When i picked up my 8v same as the SOTW my best mate had a f plate golf 8v GTi , he drove me to b'ham
to pick it up, now on the the way back it was about 7ish o'clock of a night and we came into
a town ,both giving it what for until the 30 limit, admittedly he did have a s/s exhaust and was in front
of me,..blue lights nasty noise came chasing us ,IT over took me and stopped him, then waved me on.
Now that is because i was in a jetta and he was a Golf. SAME.
to pick it up, now on the the way back it was about 7ish o'clock of a night and we came into
a town ,both giving it what for until the 30 limit, admittedly he did have a s/s exhaust and was in front
of me,..blue lights nasty noise came chasing us ,IT over took me and stopped him, then waved me on.
Now that is because i was in a jetta and he was a Golf. SAME.
Now, call me a muppet, but I've recently picked up a GTi Engineering RE1900-16V Jetta for silly money as a replacement for my Golf of similar vintage (1990). Black and outwardly completely standard, I haven't even driven it yet - it needs some refurbishment. I'm afraid it's been lowered with big alloys but has leccy windows, big bumpers and, get this, AIRCON!!! Plenty of history including GTI Eng's rolling road printout. Have I done the right thing?
twobanksoffour said:
Now, call me a muppet, but I've recently picked up a GTi Engineering RE1900-16V Jetta for silly money as a replacement for my Golf of similar vintage (1990). Black and outwardly completely standard, I haven't even driven it yet - it needs some refurbishment. I'm afraid it's been lowered with big alloys but has leccy windows, big bumpers and, get this, AIRCON!!! Plenty of history including GTI Eng's rolling road printout. Have I done the right thing?
Id say you have a good purchace there over on The Jetta Owners Club we would be interested to hear more about the car I cant belive it my car is shed of the week and not one phone call on it or any emails via pistonheads.
Being on the home page what better advert could you get lol.
Im confident it will go to the first person who actually turns up and looks at it.
Just seems selling second hand cars these days is not like it was fair enough my jetta is a acquired taste i guess.
Being on the home page what better advert could you get lol.
Im confident it will go to the first person who actually turns up and looks at it.
Just seems selling second hand cars these days is not like it was fair enough my jetta is a acquired taste i guess.
Post it in our classifieds at www.Jettaownersclub.net im sure it will co buddy looks clean enough
DubBoy said:
Hi All, Just like to say this was my car until 2 months ago when it was written off by a coach that hit me from the rear on the M40. Unfortunatly my insurance company would not offer a buy it back option. I do hope the seller is open about the vehicles History!!!!
Really? It doesn't look like its had a new rear end, the number plate looks rather aged and so does the surround. But it shows you have to be careful.
So it really is a shed of the week.
matchmaker said:
DubBoy said:
Hi All, Just like to say this was my car until 2 months ago when it was written off by a coach that hit me from the rear on the M40.
andDubBoy said:
It was very minimal damage
Right................dave
The seller really should have stated the accident history. In saying that, these things are hard as nails. I had someone run in to the back of ours after her car was hit from behind. It was a Rover that hit me and the front of it fell off, the back of it fell off where the Renault hit it from behind, the Renault in turn had it's front fall off! The Jetta? Hardly a mark! Not so long ago a bin lorry got to close to me on a corner and the back of it caught my bumper and lifted the up at one corner. When I looked there was just a gouge in the plastic! Anything modern would have fallen apart. Admittedly in a proper smash, a modern car would ultimately be safer but anything else old VWs are proper hard.
Takes me way back. I used to have an 8v gti on an E plate. Had a BBR 2.0 ltr passat engine conversion @ 37k, ran it for several years and sold it @156k. Apart from service stuff, the heater recall and the fuel pump replaced, nothing broke, failed or fell off. Was much better track day car than the Golf gti it replaced even before it was upgraded. Many happy memories......
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