Is a Golf GTI a good first car or should I look elsewhere?

I currently daily a 2000 Beetle GLX. It isn't the most powerful car, and to quote a Youtube review, it handles "like an aluminum boat with an outboard motor" but it sure is a lot of fun. The 1.8l turbo motor actually gives the car quite a bit of punch. There is nothing more I like to do than to roll the windows down and floor it, and listen to the engine growl and turbo whine. (I use my common sense and don't speed excessively) Then again, maybe I only find it fun because I learned to drive on an SUV. [canoe removed]

Unfortunately the Beetle is dying. The traction control, ABS, airbag, and check engine lights are all on. Dealership gave a 2000 dollar quote to swap out the computer and ABS pump which is far more than the cars value. So now we are shopping for a replacement. This is despite only having 80k miles at the time of failure.

The GTI ticked all of my boxes: Manual transmission, sporty engine, good handling, and compact size. All of this plus a high quality interior. That said, I have heard that VWs tend to have a lot of maintenance issues. How likely is a GTI going to fail on me? Is it easy to learn to drive? What alternatives should I look to?

What gen GTI were you looking into?

Highly likely 

also, dealers are the worst place to take a car for service when it’s out of warranty 

Look into a Mazda 3. It’s fun to drive coupled with Japanese reliability 

BintuGomes said:

. All of this plus a high quality interior. That said, I have heard that VWs tend to have a lot of maintenance issues. How likely is a GTI going to fail on me? Is it easy to learn to drive? What alternatives should I look to?

Nothing about VWs are "high quality".  Fun to drive, sure, but definitely not quality.  How likely is the car to fail on you?  Count on it. 

Alternatives would be Focus ST, Civic Si, Mazda3, even things like Hyundai/Kia N line.

On the counter side of Klayfish, I've put hundreds of thousands of trouble free miles on VAG products.  And they're much, much nicer to live with and drive compared to pretty much all the cars he lists as alternatives.

People here love to hate on VAG products when they buy some cheap, neglected POS and then act surprised when it breaks down on them.  Buy a good one, that's been taken care of, then take care of it and it'll take care of you.

Buy a neglected one and then neglect it yourself and watch it strand you and empty your wallet in short order.

I spent FAR more maintaining my 07 Lexus GX470 from 115k miles to 125k miles than I did on ANY of my VAG cars at that same mileage interval.

A mk4 VW and your Beetle are not that different, other than being able to easily replace headlight bulbs on the GTI. Newer ones are a different story, and I would go with one with the newer TSI motors over early FSI ones. 

I think a budget to spend and the generation you are interested in will get a lot more insight.

I've put about 30k miles on my '07 GTI as the second owner and I have no complaints. Although the interior isn't as pristine and luxury as a Ford or Kia of similar vintage, it barely squeaks or rattles! It's failed me nearly everyday when it gets me to work with no problems or tackles a full track weekend needing nothing but gas and brake bleeding. Everything on it has let me down and broken so badly that it actually works like it did new. Much like Klayfish, I can't advise picking up a well researched VAG product that will get you to work everyday and even take you to the track when you could be overpaying for a riced out boyracer Civic instead. 

As for TSI vs FSI, I have the FSI and have had no problems. If you are looking late MkV and early MkVI, you would be well served looking closely at the engine as the early years of the TSI had some known issues.

If you're a feature fanatic and absolutely can't live without an extra set of doors, the newer GTI's are probably for you. 

Before you give up on the Beetle have you searched for a replacement ABS pump/module from a salvage yard?  This went bad in my 2010 GTI a year ago and I got a salvage part for $150 then spent another $150 at a VW dealership who was able to recode it and calibrate the sensors after installing it myself.

The ABS pump and computer control module will be two different parts, each with distinct part numbers. The easiest way to source a salvage replacement is to find a part that has the same part numbers that your car has.

Because of how Volkswagen updates their parts there are probably a number of other pump/module combinations that will work, but it's hard to know what those are unless you have access to dealership data. Best bet is to just get an exact match as you know that it can be coded. 

Why is there a link to a website I've never heard of, written in Korean, in your post?

Brett_Murphy said:

Why is there a link to a website I've never heard of, written in Korean, in your post?

That's the best comment in this thread so far.   I've found a car's reliability directly proportional to how well it is maintained. 

Brett_Murphy & Dootz said:

Why is there a link to a website I've never heard of, written in Korean, in your post?

Canoe Removed, user disabled.

I was keeping an eye on this one too, supposedly it's a copy/paste from reddit.