With Focus now gone to a family member and me getting bored driving our trusty steed Corolla (221k miles with no issues and been in the family since day 1), I started looking for something a little more exciting than the Corolla. A really low bar as many of you will point out.
I ended up narrowing my search to a few different vehicles. Marketplace here is flooded with people of a certain kind that buy vehicles at auctions and then sell them post fix up as “minor damage”. Oh yeah this POS only needed a bumper and a tail light, crazy how the insurance company totaled it. Cool story dudes.
Tried using a couple of different dealers, both were annoying to deal with. One said I was looking for unicorns and the other said they didn’t understand why I had differing amount I wanted to spend depending on the year/mileage/features. Apparently value of money is a hard concept to some.
I really wanted a Taurus with the 2.0EB. But those were much rarer than I thought. Looked at a few VWs with the 2.5 that were more entertaining than the Corolla until this 2013 VR6 popped up not too far away as an estate sale. This is the SEL premium and I liked the VR6 w/DSG given that one my neighbors has a ‘12 with the same powertrain.
Got it for a great price with just under 100k miles. It’s a decent sleeper for my commute. That DSG snaps shifts off quick and the VR6 makes quick work of passing most people on my commute. It did need some work to be done - DSG fluid change, antifreeze change, leaky VCG and a busted outer CV boot were the known problems. Having to do a piston soak because it had an appetite for consuming oil (~300miles/qt) in sport mode was very much unexpected. Thus far I’ve logged just over 12k miles on it.
Pros:
1. VR6 noises with the DSG shifts. Makes me smile.
2. It’s quicker than it looks and the car is pretty quiet except for A pillar wind noise at high speeds.
3. The seats are very comfortable. Drove 900 miles in 1 day recently without issues.
4. The interior is nice and understated. I like the clean uncluttered look.
5. Fender audio is pretty good for a factory system.
6. Large trunk and the rear seats are seriously roomy.
7. The AC is frigid compared to the Corolla and the Focus.
Cons:
1. Needs 91 octane minimum. Not a big deal. Not sure if anyone knows what changed around 2016 when VW started allowing 87 octane.
2. The beige alcantara/real leather interior is nice. But that alcantara gets stained if I look at it wrong or if rain/snow get to it.
3. Unlike their turbo engines, the VR6 doesn’t have any useful tune options. APR has one that only increases the HP by 5-7.
4. RNS510 audio system is temperamental at best. If anyone knows how to swap over to the MIB2 without spending stupid money, I’d appreciate that.
I ended up narrowing my search to a few different vehicles. Marketplace here is flooded with people of a certain kind that buy vehicles at auctions and then sell them post fix up as “minor damage”. Oh yeah this POS only needed a bumper and a tail light, crazy how the insurance company totaled it. Cool story dudes.
Tried using a couple of different dealers, both were annoying to deal with. One said I was looking for unicorns and the other said they didn’t understand why I had differing amount I wanted to spend depending on the year/mileage/features. Apparently value of money is a hard concept to some.
I really wanted a Taurus with the 2.0EB. But those were much rarer than I thought. Looked at a few VWs with the 2.5 that were more entertaining than the Corolla until this 2013 VR6 popped up not too far away as an estate sale. This is the SEL premium and I liked the VR6 w/DSG given that one my neighbors has a ‘12 with the same powertrain.
Got it for a great price with just under 100k miles. It’s a decent sleeper for my commute. That DSG snaps shifts off quick and the VR6 makes quick work of passing most people on my commute. It did need some work to be done - DSG fluid change, antifreeze change, leaky VCG and a busted outer CV boot were the known problems. Having to do a piston soak because it had an appetite for consuming oil (~300miles/qt) in sport mode was very much unexpected. Thus far I’ve logged just over 12k miles on it.
Pros:
1. VR6 noises with the DSG shifts. Makes me smile.
2. It’s quicker than it looks and the car is pretty quiet except for A pillar wind noise at high speeds.
3. The seats are very comfortable. Drove 900 miles in 1 day recently without issues.
4. The interior is nice and understated. I like the clean uncluttered look.
5. Fender audio is pretty good for a factory system.
6. Large trunk and the rear seats are seriously roomy.
7. The AC is frigid compared to the Corolla and the Focus.
Cons:
1. Needs 91 octane minimum. Not a big deal. Not sure if anyone knows what changed around 2016 when VW started allowing 87 octane.
2. The beige alcantara/real leather interior is nice. But that alcantara gets stained if I look at it wrong or if rain/snow get to it.
3. Unlike their turbo engines, the VR6 doesn’t have any useful tune options. APR has one that only increases the HP by 5-7.
4. RNS510 audio system is temperamental at best. If anyone knows how to swap over to the MIB2 without spending stupid money, I’d appreciate that.
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