Build blue-sun's GTI Thread

General Information

Staring a new thread for my GTI.

As I posted in the IllDub thread, last week I traded in my 2017 Jetta GLI 6 speed for a new 2021 GTI SE in Cornflower Blue with the DSG transmission.

When I purchased the GLI, I had originally wanted a GTI but they were generally more expensive than the Jetta GLI's and the interior space (rear legroom - we have 11 yr old twins) was just a little bit bigger, so that's what I went with.

I've been watching the payoff amount for the last 6 months and the trade in/retail values on the GLI to see if it would be worth upgrading. Plus, once a month the wife and I would switch cars so I can take the dog to the groomers in her Edge ST (toss the dogs old crate in the hatch of the Edge is much easier than having her up front with me while I shift - I have done it but it's not ideal) and she started complaining about how much she hates driving stick in traffic, etc. I hated how the MK6 GLI had shitty headlights (no HID from the factory even through all the other lights were OEM LED's) and the lack of a LSD made driving in the snow horrible, even with snow tires.

Now, I knew that back in 2019 they did a limited run of cornflower blue GTI "Rabbit" editions, but that was for 2019 only. About 2-3 months ago, we were driving on 55S and I happen to see a cornflower blue GTI and commented about how sharp that color was in person but thought nothing of it, just assumed it was a rabbit edition (I don't know if it was a rabbit or a 2021 version).

I saw that new GLI's had trim levels like the GTI's have had and initially I was looking at those online and saw VW had some really good deals on them. So I started surfing on cars.com and autotrader.com to see what inventory was like locally. I wanted a grey with the black appearance package or a red with the black appearance package in DSG but could not really find one in stock locally. This led me to going straight to local VW dealers websites and low and behold, I saw a cornflower blue GTI in inventory at one of the dealers. I hopped back on cars.com and started searching for all cornflower blue GTI's in Chicagoland and saw there were only 5. 3 or 4 were DSG and 1 was manual. This was over Ester weekend. Monday morning I start calling dealers, 1 was already sold. This left 4 in the area on cars.com. One of the dealer site had it marked as "sale pending", so this left 3. One of the dealers happened to be the same dealership (City VW Evanston - formerly of the Autobahn VW group) where I bought my GLI. So Tuesday morning I called them and the same salesguy (Mario Grbavac - he gave me a good deal on both cars, go see him!) who I bought my GLI from was still working there and we negotiated a sale price and they matched the Carvana/Vroom estimates on my GLI, so after work I drove to Evanston and did the trade.

He had all the sales paperwork ready for me, I was done signing his papers in under 3 minutes from walking in the door, I just had to wait for the Finance manager, as one tends to do.

No major mods, but I can never leave a car alone.

Already got tints installed, Llumar Ceramic tints all around.
50% on the windshield
35% on the rest of the windows
Smoked Transparent Vinyl over the triangle windows by the mirrors (done by my tint guy)

I had some of that same smoked vinyl that I previously used on part of the tails and mirrors caps on the GLI but I ran out. I ordered some more, or what I thought was more but it was the wrong color, it was light smoke and very light for what I wanted. But I didn't let it go to waste, so I put it on the rear bumper reflectors which darkened it up just enough.

Some Yellow Lamin-x foglight film has been ordered and will be arriving this week and a Euro Auto DRL switch so I can run the foglights independently.
Also ordered some DSG flappy paddle extensions off eBay (blue aluminum ones)
Tentatively have an appointment with lo.run from ILLdub to have him do a gloss black vinyl on the rear of the roof this weekend.

Other mods planned -
Badgeskins for the front and rear VW emblems
OBDeleven or VAGCOM to disable the soundkator.
Some kind of CBE or Downpipe so I can have more of the DSG cracks and pops.

Posting on a PC, will reply from mobile with pics.

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blue-sun

TCG Elite Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2020
Did some spirited driving today, including a run on the highway to Downers Grove at lunchtime today. Lots of great noises from the intake.

Family has not gone for a ride in it, I’m sure they’ll all complain at the noise, but it’s staying on for now!
 

blue-sun

TCG Elite Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2020
No complaints or mentions of the loud intake noise by any of the females in my house, so that's good.

I have noticed that my overall MPG has gone to shit, but that's probably because I drive like an asshole and want to hear that WHOOOOOOOSH WHOOOOOOOSH noise.

Also, saw this and makes me rethink just going APR tune and say f it and get the DTR kit next year.


I decided to do a review on this kit as I couldn't find much information out before I purchased it. I have a 2015 GTI that has had APR Stage 1 and a cat back for years, so I will be discussing the difference between the two. I actually only got the kit because my factory turbo blew and if I was going to drop the money to replace it, I wanted to do so with something better. The dtr6054 was my choice due to not having to change the downpipe and overall smog concerns. I got the basic kit which includes the turbo, ecu & hardware. I also installed performance plugs, APR coil packs, APR intake and got the tcu tuned as well.


How does it drive:

With stage 1 I'd feel the boost coming on around 3300 rpm and when it did you got that sudden and aggressive hit. With the dtr6054 boost comes around 4k rpm and does so a bit more linear than with stage 1. There is a bit more lag especially when you feel the difference between being on boost vs not. When the boost hits, it HITS and does so all the way to redline in every gear, where stage 1 would fall off at 6k rpm. The car is stupid fast at any speed and it a completely different beast now. I've owed a modded 335i & modded 06 GTO and seat of pants it feels faster than both of them. Anyone I've taken for a ride in it ends up smiling ear to ear and says something along the lines of "**** that thing is fast....WTF"

I'm not a fan of the car in sport mode anymore as it doesn't seem to match well with this turbo. For spirted driving it performs much better using the paddle shifters. The exhaust got noticeably louder under hard acceleration but nothing too crazy. During normal day to day driving, it drives pretty much like it did before the dtr6054. I've had it installed for a couple of months now and no issues. For the money you can't beat this kit and the power puts the car into a whole other class now. I'd highly recommend it.
 

RedBeard

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Joined
Apr 19, 2009
Location
Windsor, CO
Yeah I just wish that APR offered a tune for upgraded HPFP and E-blend for the GTI w/ the DTR6054.

But I guess the GTI has stricter emissions than the R/A3/S3 so that’s only available on those.
 

blue-sun

TCG Elite Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2020
My plates get renewed in May each year. May 2022 while at the DMV renewing them, I mentioned that my plates were starting to bubble. They said I'd get new plates in the mail. I waited patiently, nothing.

May 2023 (technically, April 21st), I go back and again mention that my plates are starting to bubble and that last year I requested them. They said yup, you'll automatically get them in 6-8 weeks in the mail.

I wait 4 months and no plates. I called the Secretary of State down in Springfield and they said, actually, it can take up to 6 months. 6 months to the date would be Oct 21, and I've been waiting to call and ask where my plates are at.

Today, in my USPS Daily Dashboard email I see this at the bottom:

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!?!?!?!

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Plates aren't TERRIBLE, I've seen far far worse out there on the road. I still have some of the reflective material left and only a few spots of bare metal, but still.
 

blue-sun

TCG Elite Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2020
Drove into the office this AM, as I was getting out of the car and grabbing my stuff out of the backseat, I noticed the rear window/match/spoiler trim has started to get a bit loose. The Pass side has no gap, the side pieces sit flush. The drivers side does not. I will grab pics of the Pass side later .

I'm unsure if it's the top part of the spoiler/hatch that's loose or the side piece.

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