I'm going to start with the car that I have the most history with, and the one that I still miss to this day:
2010 VW GTI MK6, DSG
History
I was looking for my true "first car" that wasn't a hand me down from my parents (2000 Honda Civic EX, anyone?). Originally, I went to look at a 2009 Civic Si 4-door, but my lack of manual driving skills and the fact that no one else except my dad knew how to drive stick meant that my parents strongly hinted that I should buy an automatic car so that other family members could use it if needed. In order to sweeten the pot they agreed to kick in some money as DCT-equipped cars during that era were significantly more expensive. The Civic Si that I was looking at retailing at 23k for example, and the GTI and the Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart (not the Evo, but the detuned version below it) were above 30k.
We went to the Mitsubishi dealer across from Richmond Costco, and they acted like their crap didn't smell, even though the showroom was dead and no one else were really looking. They wouldn't even budge a single dollar on MSRP. At Mitsubishi! My dad got extremely pissed off at the sales guy, and told me that we were going elsewhere. On the way home, we stopped by Clarksdale VW, which happened to have two GTIs in stock - a 2-door manual, and a 4-door DSG. Went to sit in the black 4-door DSG, with less than 100km on the odo, and it immediately felt like home. Everything felt natural and came to hand easily. That interior was such a delightful experience after coming from the hard plastic of the Lancer, and the hatch made it super practical.
The sales guy was a young dude not much older than I was at the time, and clearly another car enthusiast. We got talking, we took the GTI out for a test drive as it was already parked out front. When we came up to the stop light at Cambie & King Ed, he told me to turn off TC/ESP, put the gearbox in S, hold the brake hard, and smash the gas. Launch control when the light went green. I was hooked! This little hatch could pull!
Some negotiating later, I took delivery of that exact GTI one day before my birthday. It was a 2010 4-door GTI in Deep Black Pearl, DSG, with the leather package, and nothing else. Still loved it.
Day 1
I immediately broke it in by going to autocross right after I crossed 1500km on the odo.
Slush Jan 2010
Picked up a set of winter wheels and tires from TSS - and then went and did snow auto-x, as well as go to Whistler, Cypress etc.
When it was less snowy, I had a set of Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2's that I got for the car. Those were some good looking wheels.
There was a Mission track day in there somewhere but I don't seem to have pictures.
I was once two hours late to a date because I was washing the car. True story.
I loved that car. It was super practical, had a surprising amount of space, rode really well, and was still incredibly fun to drive (if all that you were used to were Honda Civic, Accords, and Odysseys!). The DSG farts never got old to me, I loved hearing the car upshift. The interior was an incredibly nice place to spend time in. Definitely did not turn off any dates.
Of course, being young dumb and having disposable income, I modified the thing. First things first were the euro tail lights. I was in on the original, very first Mk6 tail light group buy direct from Germany. That came out to be about 650CAD for the tails landed. Still the best mod I ever made for that car.
Good old Pitt Meadows pad, I miss ye.
Tune, intake, exhaust, coils and big RSB got installed on the car eventually, and it kind of ruined the car a bit now that I look back at it. I would approach the modifications list differently now that I have more experience, but at the time I wanted to throw parts at that car lol.
Eventually, I got a job out of town near Prince George, and I felt that the GTI wouldn't do well up there in the snow and wilderness lol. I "sold" it to my brother, and got a Subaru Forester XT.
Years later, I came back to town, and my brother left Vancouver for NY. He no longer needed a car, and I was driving a Ram 1500 which is huge when you drive it around town here. I sold the Ram, regained ownership of the GTI, and drove it a couple years longer. It was like coming back to a childhood friend after years apart. You both had gained some mileage, wear and tear, creaks and noises, but you still meshed well with each other.
I started restoring the car a bit back to stock - my brother had questionable taste in wheels, for example, and doing some neglected maintenance.
Then, I got the crazy idea to do a TSD rally.
We both survived with no lasting damage, even with a couple of offs into a ditch.
Eventually, the GTI got traded in for the Audi, and I was kind of sad to see it go. But the wifey wanted something larger and comfortable for daily.
I still think about that GTI, and if I didn't have the S2000 I think I might've looked at picking another up. Or a Golf R from that era.
OK, back to the actual review part.
Review
Exterior: This car fixed the fat jellybean look of the MK5 GTI. It had a far more athletic look, with more defined body lines and less of a slab sided look which made the Mk5 look fat and shapeless. The Euro tail lights were a thing of beauty, looking closer to Audi tail lights compared to what North America got, which was bland and uninspired. The headlights were also beautiful, with detailing in the lenses that made the active cornering lights look alive, and of course, the original "Detroit" wheels (which I didn't have) were very striking and bold in their design for the era. The paint quality was superb, and there were lots of nice little touches everywhere a step above most other cars in the class. To be fair, it was more expensive than the others as well such as the Mazdaspeed 3, the Civic Si, and the Cobalt SS. The Mini CS JCW was more expensive, and the WRX was priced the same.
Overall it was very understated and blended in if you didn't know to look for the dual exhaust and the red GTI stripe.
Interior: Very German. Very utilitarian. But it was built very well, and aged very well. I think it's an almost timeless simple design that wasn't busy or overcomplicated. The build quality in the Mk6 was leaps and bounds ahead of the Mk5, which got criticized for the poor interior, and VW responded. The seats are still some of the most comfortable for me, and the flat bottomed steering wheel (rare for the time) aped the Audi R8.
At 12 years old and 160+ KM, my GTI's interior held up well to use and sometimes abuse. The seats had some creases and my butt caused stretch marks but don't we all have lines as we age? I updated the head unit with a Chinese VW OEM unit that had Android Auto and Carplay, took all of 10 minutes and no coding. Brought the car back up into the 2020s, steering wheel controls worked perfectly.
The hatch and the relatively square body shape does amazing things with the cargo space. I managed to fit so much crap in that car that I thought wouldn't fit. I used it to go to the dump when renovating our place, and the people there were amazed at how much we had in the back piled to the ceiling. IKEA runs were no challenge, and four people + ski gear + suitcase fit just fine on trips.
Reliability: It's a German car. You have to keep up with the maintenance. It's never left me stranded, and I never had problems because I was on top of everything. However, my brother wasn't as on the ball as I was. He had a misfire issue, false neutral DSG drop issue, and intake manifold flapper issue.
Misfire was solved by getting new plugs and coils, which it needed as it was due for a plug change anyways.
False neutral DSG issue was solved with DSG service. Also he managed to crack the trans pan going to a cabin somehow.
Intake manifold was replaced (known problem) and issue disappeared. Did walnut blast and other related services during this time but that's the direct injection life.
Other than a slight oil burn (1L per 5000KM which is nothing by VW standards, really) this EA888 was rock solid. Just needed regular maintenance.
Performance: It wasn't fast stock but it wasn't slow either. 200hp/200lb-ft is still plenty, and since it didn't have a LSD the GTI had problems putting down the power sometimes if you launched hard. It wasn't until I stuck RE-71R tires on the car that it could launch reliably without spinning out badly. On the highway it pulled hard, and same on the track. It was eager to turn but ended up in terminal understeer when you hit 8/10ths or higher, especially on track. The brakes were pretty decent. The pads lasted much longer than I expected - well over 80,000km with over 2 dozen auto-x events, a track day or two, and lots of daily driving.
Once you put a tune on it, you unleashed easily another 50hp or so. Stage 2 was good for 270hp and 280lbft with a lot more room under the table, and approached the limits of the stock DSG and FWD traction without adding in aftermarket LSDs. A big rear sway cured some of the understeer but also ruined the ride a little bit as it got quite stiff.
Was it the fastest thing out there? No. Was it the rawest thing out there? Also no. But man the GTI was a great compromise car, and it had some personality to it.
I miss my GTI.