Bought Myself a New DD

Current DD is a 2003 Golf and its getting up in years, mileage and rust. So I was casually looking around.

My affinity for low-cost German Hatchbacks was dutifully followed:

2008 VW Rabbit

2.5L, 5spd, about 130k miles under $2K CAD. Scratches and dents as expected, but it passed the Safety Inspection with no work.

I also picked up a set RS4 reps with new Firestones on it for $240.

So far - very pleased. Much quieter and more comfortable than the Golf, way more power (170Hp vs. 115Hp) and economy is close.

Nice score!  Sounds like a good deal.

Now you can tell your friends you have half an R8 V10 in your car.

It's almost as though cars got better in the intervening 5 years.

Crazy.  

I've always loved rabbits thanks to my wife's 1984 4 door rabbit. I would love to hear what your experience is like with this one. I always wondered why they put the 2.5 in it instead of the 1.8t. 

Oh look, a picture of a VW in its natural habitat....being towed. 

Sorry, couldn't resist, it was just sitting there waiting to be said.  Congrats!!  Does seem like a great deal!

dculberson said:

I've always loved rabbits thanks to my wife's 1984 4 door rabbit. I would love to hear what your experience is like with this one. I always wondered why they put the 2.5 in it instead of the 1.8t. 

I wouldn't have bought one with a 1.8T. All the VW CEL jokes are mostly because of the 1.8T. I also won't have a DD that requires Premium.

I will try to remember to update this. Definitely want a 08 and up - upgraded to 170Hp (from 150) and better durability on the Timing Chain. Early (05-06) 2.5L apparently had timing chain issues (from the research I did).  Otherwise the 2.5L has a reputation of being bulletproof.

Klayfish said:

Oh look, a picture of a VW in its natural habitat....being towed. 

Sorry, couldn't resist, it was just sitting there waiting to be said.  Congrats!!  Does seem like a great deal!

No longer being towed!!

BTW - no centre caps with the RS4 reps. I found a 1 1/2" ABS cap fits perfectly after a couple of taps with a hammer!!

That seems like a lot of car for the money.

i thought about something like that for my 16 yo but I bought my wife a new car and gave him our 2010 Saab 9-3 which has been great but seems to be about worthless now.  Please keep us updated how it behaves.

NGTD said:

dculberson said:

I've always loved rabbits thanks to my wife's 1984 4 door rabbit. I would love to hear what your experience is like with this one. I always wondered why they put the 2.5 in it instead of the 1.8t. 

I wouldn't have bought one with a 1.8T. All the VW CEL jokes are mostly because of the 1.8T. I also won't have a DD that requires Premium.

I will try to remember to update this. Definitely want a 08 and up - upgraded to 170Hp (from 150) and better durability on the Timing Chain. Early (05-06) 2.5L apparently had timing chain issues (from the research I did).  Otherwise the 2.5L has a reputation of being bulletproof.

The timing chain issues were mostly long OCI related.

The pre-07 engines have a high likelihood of having a forged crank.  Post-07, I think the only forged cranks were in the TTRS/RS3 engine.  Probably not a concern for you, people have made 500+ on the cast cranks, the forgings are nice to have if you are shooting for over a thousand though.

Sorry for the VW-ignorant question, so they called them Rabbits again for how many years?

Nice car. I want to want one of these (I love weird engines) but they just scare me too much.

My family has owned an 85 GLI, 94 GLX, 97 Jetta 2.0, 91 GTI, 2003 GTI 1.8t, 2004 R32, 2004 s4 Avante, 2015 S4. For what it's worth these cars have never left us stranded. Some minor problems but the driving experience worth owning. 

Getting into Rabbit minutiae, I don't think the US got the 170hp with a five door. I looked for a while, it seemed like the year they bumped it to 170 they only sold three doors. Or at least I could not find a 2.5l 170hp manual five door Rabbit/Golf when I was looking. The torque and bulletproof aspect is inviting. Are you throwing on a tune? APR,etc...

CyberEric said:

Sorry for the VW-ignorant question, so they called them Rabbits again for how many years?

Nice car. I want to want one of these (I love weird engines) but they just scare me too much.

In Canada - 2006-2010.

In 2011 they went back to naming it a Golf.

In reply to GTwannaB :

No plans to tune it. I haven't seen many tunes for NA engines that make much of a difference.

Good news - it passed the Safety Inspection with no issues!

I had its twin when it was new. 5cyl, 5spd black on black 2008 crew cab with cold weather package.

I am curious if you notice the fact that it doesn't engine brake. It drove me crazy. At least on mine you could take your foot off the throttle at 45 mph and it would just coast like it was in neutral. It didn't slow the car like every other manual trans car I have ever had. At one point I got so used to the coasting so I didn't realize I was going so slow and at 20mph in 4th gear it DID kick in and engine brake, violently. I almost bashed my face on the steering wheel when it happened.

In reply to NGTD :

The IE intake manifold + tune makes some good power:

https://performancebyie.com/products/ie-ecu-tune-vw-25l-5cyl

Jumper K Balls (Trent) said:

I had its twin when it was new. 5cyl, 5spd black on black 2008 crew cab with cold weather package.

I am curious if you notice the fact that it doesn't engine brake. It drove me crazy. At least on mine you could take your foot off the throttle at 45 mph and it would just coast like it was in neutral. It didn't slow the car like every other manual trans car I have ever had. At one point I got so used to the coasting so I didn't realize I was going so slow and at 20mph in 4th gear it DID kick in and engine brake, violently. I almost bashed my face on the steering wheel when it happened.

 

Yup, I noticed this. I bet it's some sort of emission tuning thing. It's like a throttle hang. Mine does start to slow after a brief period of coasting.

Well, I am 2.5 months into ownership on this:

• I have put 16k kms (10k miles) on it.
• That includes over 4000 miles on a trip to Texas to visit my sister and BIL.
• I am averaging about 33 mpg (imperial) - 27.6 mpg (US). This is about what I expected. Roughly 2.5 mpg less than my 03 Golf.
• It continues to be a much more pleasant ride than the 03. Quieter, much better power and roomier.
• I'm actually considering removing the sub-woofer and amp that came in the car because they take up too much space in the hatch.
• When I was in Texas, I figured out that the AC doesn't work. :-( but even though I haven't been a fan of these, I enjoyed it.

• Had a few problems
• Front door sag has resulted in paint getting scraped off. Will have to fix in spring.
• Last night the hood latch warning started going off. Thankfully VW hasn't done anything stupid like not let the Windshield washers work because it thinks the hood is open or make the alarm go off because it thinks the hood has been opened!!!!!!
• Managed to fix that issue in a few minutes with some liberal use of WD-40 on connections and the hood latch to clean up the contacts. Probably some salt water from our crappy winter.

I'll just leave this here.  The 5 cyl is nasty with a turbo kit...

MOAR TURBONIUM

Funny this should be bumped today. My dad just called to tell me he finally bought himself a new car (been driving the truck for about a year, which was never meant to be a DD for  him). 2019 GTI Rabbit in Cornflower Blue. DSG. 

Hoping that it gets delivered by Sunday so I can drive it!

Well, I'm a little past a year, but I've put 60k kms (37k miles) on it this year.

I'm averaging better than 30 mpg and the car has been pretty reliable. Just finished putting a LF axle in it, the old one was rattling going around corners. I've done plugs, air filter, some exhaust work and an O2 sensor.

Pretty happy with it still. The 5 cyl makes short work of passing on the 2-lane roads I take to work.

I really want a 2.5 to do dirty things to.  

I saw this yesterday.  Lots of shuttle mods and it sounded nasty/fantastic.