2008 VOLKSWAGEN GTI

Great performance. Poor reliabilty

Comfort Rating: 3 Performance Rating: 5 Interior Rating: 4 Reliability Rating: 1 Safety Rating: 3 Technology Rating: 4 Value Rating: 3

This car has phenomenal performance, but man does it have things go wrong with it. A few things you should know of you buy this car. You're going to replace the coil packs on this car every 30-40K miles and when the first one goes, replace them all. In fact, carry a spare in your car at all times along with a code reader. When you get a misfire, read the code, find out which cylinder it is and replace it yourself. Here is a list of all the things I've had to replace since I bought the car with 21K miles on it (it has 54K now): 4 coil packs, 4 spark plugs, 1 thermostat, 1 vacuum pump, 1 intake line, 1 headlight bulb and both headlight auto-leveling motors. I haven't even had to replace the brakes yet... Think about that. All in, I've spent about $4,000 in repairs on this car. No one should go through this many repairs for a car that has less than 55K miles. In the last 9 months I've spent half of those dollars on repairs for parts that just brake. I love this car, but if/when I get another, I'm leasing it. I'll never buy a Volkswagen again. A real shame too, because the fun factor is a 10. Reliability factor is a 3.