Unfortunately for those who have owned a GTI, or any Volkswagen, for that matter, some of those flashbacks involve mysterious pieces of goo-covered plastic sitting on the footwell and squeaks and rattles. In our car, the sunroof and a dash vent started making noise soon after the car was delivered. It’s a conundrum VW owners are quite familiar with: The interior materials might be first-rate, but does that matter if it sounds as if there were a baby tooth clattering around inside the dash? Volkswagen loyalists get used to these problems. Honda and Toyota fans would be appalled. To quell the racket, a new sliding-sunroof panel was ordered at our first service stop at 5000 miles; the dash rattle would magically heal itself whenever the GTI went in for service.

.....Those were the scheduled stops. Our first unscheduled stop came at 8368 miles when the airbag warning light wouldn’t stop glowing. An inspection disclosed an unhooked electrical connection under the passenger seat. Reconnecting it was covered under the GTI’s four-year/50,000-mile warranty. At this time the replacement sunroof panel was installed, and that cured the chattering, but a nonessential additional piece of sunroof trim wasn’t ordered and wouldn’t be replaced until the 20,000-mile service. At the 10,000-mile service, the airbag light was again warning us of impending doom. To get the light to turn off the second time required the driver’s seat to be removed and the wiring harness under the seat to be repaired.

A few more annoyances emerged at about 23,000 miles. At idle, the inexplicable sound of castanets would emanate from the passenger-side footwell. Loose clips that were allowing the fuel lines to vibrate against the car were the culprits; an adjustment cost us nothing. And then the rearview mirror fell off in our managing editor’s sensitive hands—glued back under warranty. Last, a burned-out $3 taillight bulb was replaced.

.....An accident at about 30,000 miles nearly ripped the driver’s-side door from its hinges and ended up costing us $2925. We sailed on until 34,578 miles when a check-engine light alerted us to a faulty intake-flap motor that was covered under warranty. At the end of the test and during a 5000-mile cross-country jaunt, both 12-volt outlets stopped working—a $1 fuse brought them back to life.
Those are the same traits that established the GTI’s impressive reputation in the ’80s, and they’re all present in the 21st-century version. Unfortunately, the electrical and trim defects remind us of 20 years ago, when flawless reliability was the exception. Today, we expect it.