2001 Volkswagen GTI review from North America

One month after I purchased the car at just over 100000 km, the mass airflow sensor went bad and needed replacing ($180 for the part, $0 for labour, since I diagnosed and replaced the part myself).

At 120000 km one of the ignition coils needed replacement because it was misfiring (although people think this is a big problem, I tend to disagree, because at 120000 km you should already be thinking of doing ignition parts replacements on the car. $45 for ignition coil, $0 labour).

Since 140000 km the car has had a check engine light because of a failed rear O2 sensor. I did not bother replacing the sensor however, because the car passed Ontario's stringent emission test with flying colours, and the rear sensor is there just to determine the integrity of the catalytic converter.

At 150000 km another ignition coil failed, same thing again ($45 for part, $0 for labour).

Just last week at 160000 km my last unchanged ignition coil (last owner replaced 1 coil at about 90K km) needed replacement, but this time I had to pay an extra $3 on top of the $45 because prices had changed slightly :P.

Although I have listed the coils on things that have gone wrong with the car, I don't think I should have, because I consider them regular maintenance. The mass airflow sensor, and the rear O2 sensor however are probably the only things that have gone wrong and are not considered maintenance parts.

Overall I think this is the best car that I have owner to date.

I used to own a 1991 Honda Prelude, as well as a 1997 Volkswagen Golf, and my current GTI has been extremely dependable and fun.

The previous owner put a GIAC performance chip on the car when it had only 8000 km, and although I was originally worried about the effects this upgrade would have on reliability, I no longer am. The car has over 160000 km on it right now and is pulling just as hard as it did when I first got it.

Just recently I dynoed the car and it put down 179 wheel hp, and 191 wheel torque, which I think is a great number considering the fact the car is almost 8 years old, and the turbo is running at almost twice the boost it was originally designed for.

Because of the fact that it is a European car, service and diagnostics costs are VERY high, which is a big downturn if you are not mechanically inclined.

With just a VAGCOM reader and a service manual, it is possible to determine almost all problems with these vehicles, saving the automatic $75 that VW charges just to plug the reader in.