2012 Volkswagen Jetta GLI – Lemon Szyda

CARPHOTO-3874

Although a self-confessed diehard VW fan, months of service issues and electrical gremlins almost caused Derick Szyda to throw in the towel. He’d been down an arduous path together with his Jetta TDI and reached breaking point. But like every gearhead, he persevered and emerged better for it.

It was actually disheartening, in all honesty. I’d heard so many great things about the Jetta TDI and ultimately bought one but, obviously, mine was the one-in-a-million lemon that spent more time in the dealer than on the road, Szyda said.

At about the moment Derick didn’t think he could take any more, VW bought back the TDI beneath the lemon law, freeing him from any VW obligations. Yet like a true VW aficionado, he didn’t run to the doors, but alternatively approached the dealer using a counterattack. If they could possibly get me just what I wanted, I told them I’d stick to a VW: A silver GLI six-speed with an Autobahn Package with out sunroof. It absolutely was very specific and super-difficult to find, but weeks later they located one in Wisconsin and a few more weeks later it absolutely was parked in my driveway, he stated proudly.that was featured in eurotuner and can be found at eurotuner.com Fitted with a big turbo, lowered on air-ride and repainted having a pearl effect, the car was actually a star back in 2010.

Regarding his background, it had been inevitable that whenever the TDI had to be returned, Szyda had his work cut out to bring back it to stock. I hated the car’s trailing beam rear axle so had swapped the Audi A3’s independent rear suspension into the TDI and fitted Air Lift suspension. Fortunately, I could swap the majority of the air ride over to the GLI, together with my brakes and CCW wheels, he told us. I got the TDI back to stock just in time for it to be acquired.

More lemons were in his future, though having a brand new car with a full air-ride kit, CCW rollers and Forge Motorsport big brakes would normally be the ideal thing worldwide. Owning the GLI of my dreams and having it modded throughout the first week was awesome, but bad luck struck again as i hit a 6×6 on the road. It destroyed a bunch of parts, including my CCWs, he explained.

Coming on the coat tails of your TDI debacle, most people will have called it quits, but Derick bound to it. I decided to turn the not so good luck into my chance to totally rethink my reasoning behindabout the wheels for which felt like forever. These were too expensive, thus i considered some cheaper alternatives.., even though i wanted ADV.1s for years. Then one day I chose to get what I really wanted, no matter what it took mainly because it was going to cause me to happy, he was quoted saying.

The pursuit of happiness took the sort of a pair of ADV.1 7TF three-piece wheels measuring 19×8.5 front and 19×9 rear. The ultra-exclusive rollers were covered with Michelin Pilot Super Sport rubber along with the entire ensemble rotates round the 356mm Forge Motorsport rotors and six-piston big brakes up front – one of the more positive leftovers from his TDI experience.

If finalizing the wheel choice was good, then upgrading the suspension would be better yet. I always wanted the car to possess show and go, with the ability to get low at shows but preserve the car’s capabilities elsewhere, he said. That old air-ride kits were only damped correctly at certain heights and lacked the provisions for sway bars, so I went for the latest Air Lift kit as it works just like it looks.

The Atmosphere Lift Performance Kit included adjustable camber plates in the beginning and used an AccuAir e-Level management system. The combo in the e-Level brains controller and 30-way adjustable dampers meant the GLI can go as low as you want while still maintaining stellar handling when needed. You wouldn’t believe how well the auto rides and handles. I can’t count how many people I’ve taken for a drive who accustomed to think air-ride was useless but would leave the automobile realizing it might be every bit as good as a coilover system, he told us.

2012 volkswagen jetta GLI jetta hybrid LED taillight 12

2012 volkswagen jetta GLI front grille 06

2012 volkswagen jetta GLI replica jetta hybrid headlight 10

Big Turbo

Szyda wanted the GLI for several reasons, one of that was the TSI motor. Working closely with software specialist Unitronic meant the 2.0T was about to acquire a serious kick in the pants. The Unitronic K04 combo made 348hp and 330 lb-ft on the in-house Dynapac dyno with equal doses of civility. Makes more than 100hp more, even though it spools only 100rpm later than stock! he explained.

The entire package is built around Unitronic’s larger K04 turbo kit and fortified by its stage 2 software along with Unitronic DV re-route kit, cold-air intake, front-mount intercooler along with a full 3 turbo-back exhaust system, as Szyda mentioned. Lets keep in mind the Snow Performance Stage 3 methanol kit at the same time, which keeps the octane up and intake air temps low.

I toyed with adding a much bigger turbo, but it will be useless ever since the car just spins the tires already – basically if i ever went that route I’d must convert it to AWD with a system from the Golf R or R32, he added.

For GREAT deals on a new or used Toyota check out Joseph Toyota of Cincinnati TODAY!