Easiest Car Buying Experience

I felt I should mention that my experience buying the wife's Rabbit from Dirito Brothers in Walnut Creek was the easiest time I've ever had buying a car. They also have a great service department and a "showcase" dealership. Bringing the GTI in for service is what first impressed me about them, enough to know I probably wouldn't have a hard time buying a car.

I had to really struggle when I bought my car last year from Volkswagen of Oakland. It ended with a vow never to go back for any reason over something small they could have fixed with better customer service. The Dirito Brothers Rabbit was the 13th car I've bought, including some strange scenarios (Ebay From Canada, Ebay from Florida, out of state from dealers, BMW Euro delivery, friends, relatives, a loan shark, etc.).

Car Porn

Posted in the VW Vortex forum in the context of, "it's ok your car has a factory defect because she built it for you." There have been some amusing minor problems reported of late, notably a manual car equipped with paddle shifters, a leather car with a cloth door insert and a car with no rear cup holders. These are the kind of things the JD Powers people would go nuts over, but would easily get fixed for free at the first dealer visit.

New Family Member

With 18,000 miles on the GTI, I had enough confidence to buy another one. Well, not exactly. The wife got in an accident with her Scion XB, which was totaled, and with an insurance company check in hand, we made our way to the Volkswagen dealer to buy a 2008 Rabbit.

I had spent a week agonizing over the decision of what to buy and from whom. In fact, I still regret missing the opportunity to buy a cherry 2009 Rabbit on a test drive last week, but the timing was off.

So how did I come to the decision? The only used Volkswagen Consumer Reports recommends is the 07-09 Rabbit, and I honestly couldn't deviate too far from "safe and reliable" on my wife's car for the sake of enthusiast zeal. So I started with some other cars, including a Nissan Rogue, Toyota RAV4, Subaru Forester,  Volvo S60, Ford Fusion, a new Jetta and our rental car, a Toyota Corolla. Although she liked the height of her Scion XB and the chick-utes we looked at, they were out of our budget. Even an XB with side airbags, my new requirement, was as much as the Rabbit. After test driving the 2009 Rabbit, she began to dislike the floaty feel of the rental Corolla. She wanted that confident, German handling.

The 2008 Rabbit didn't feel quite as solid as the 2009, but it was adequate. It had around the same amount of miles (35,000) but with a sunroof and better seats. It was a CPO vehicle, so it has another 2-year warranty beyond the standard one, albeit with a $50 deductible. So yeah, I had enough confidence in my own car to buy another one.

Wax vs. Polish

Here are a couple photos, the first showing the car shortly after I got it with wax, and the second with polish (Zaino). The look with wax is a kind of deep, warmth. The look with polymer polish is sharp, and highly reflective. I think wax feels more traditional while polish feels kind of techno and cutting edge. The GTI looks great in polymer (either really), while a classic car would look better with wax.

The wear advantage always goes to polymer. My single coat of Zaino lasted about six months before it began to obviously wear down, while wax is good for about three months. There's no way to get around this and even super amazing $300/tin concourse wax won't extend the wear (just the look). If you don't want to detail your car often, polymer is the way to go.

It used to be that polymers required multiple coats, bonding agents followed by polishes. Nowadays, products are all-in-one. My Zaino ZFX involves annoying mixing bottles, with a few drops of the bonding agent put in a small bottle of one time use polish. But it goes on in one coat. Inefficient for sure, as there's always some left over, but much better than applying two coats of product. Competitors mix it for you and claim better product use efficiency. I believe it.

If you want long lasting protection but also the warmth of wax, you can use a polymer polish and then wax over it to your hearts content. That's kind of what I'm going to do. My new Z1 car wash soap has some wax in it, which will add protection and I'll likely use wax between washes, although the Zaino would be just as easy.

If mentioned before that detailing is a lot like miniature painting and that's very true. The key is the prep work. If you can prep the surface so it's clean and able to take the product, then even the cheapest wax will look great. A clean surface also includes not introducing scratches into the surface unnecessarily. I've been to car gathering where people swear by their detailing prowess, only to see a dizzying amount of micro-swirls because they didn't do their prep and most importantly, scratched up their car with cotton towels.

Wax: Meguiers (2 coats)

Polymer: Zaino (1 coat)

Interior Cleaning

I got my 1Z order today from Autogeek.com, including the Blitz cleaner. I bought it for the interior, but it claims to be all purpose, usable on virtually anything. I put it in a spray bottle and followed the instructions, using a 1:20 ratio of product to water. This stuff is going to last forever.

I vacuumed the interior, just like you would if you were cleaning carpets, and took a before photo of the driver side door. Why this door? It looked the dirtiest.

I even took a photo of the towel for a true before and after test. That's not included and I'll get to that in a minute. The Blitz did a great job in removing the dusty schmutz from the armrest. It smelled like nasty carpet cleaner, so I made a point of getting it all off. Here's the after photo:

What was surprising about this was how little dirt was on the towel. Where I really saw dirt was in cleaning the rest of the car, where the passengers sat. My center armrest, door armrest and seat were relatively clean, probably from me constantly interacting with it. It was the rest of the cloth interior that was dirty, probably more dust than anything else.

Also, the two minor stains that my wife's organic herbs and spices cleaner couldn't remove were completely erased, almost before wiping it off. I think eating organic is fantastic, but if you want something cleaned or a toilet unstopped, go with the nastiest stuff you can find. Then go wash your towels in a capful of the stuff.

Gas Mileage

I love to drive, and when I say that, it means I love driving with some ... alacrity. I want to feel how the car transitions its weight in the corners. I want the apex to matter. Most of my driving is my commute, a four-lane divided highway known more for its scenery than anything else, Interstate 4 (I've been told not to call it "The Four," like a SoCal dweeb). It can be frustrating driving this rode as a commute, especially during retailer hours (what I do), as it tends to get clogged up by those looking at the scenery. It's a fantastic road to drive with lots of curves, a steep grade, rolling hills and plenty of livestock to gaze out at.

Last week I was one of those people looking at the scenery, as I was recovering from the flu. My mileage to work was a stunning 32 MPG, compared to my usual 29 MPG. That differential, 3MPG is the damage I do driving in my usual manner (it's actually a little worse on the way home due to traffic). So how bad could it be?

Let's do the math:
46.2 mile round trip commute
$4.50/gallon for premium fuel (because it is Geerrrman)
12,012 miles per year

373.38 gallons driving Miss Daisy = $1,681.21
414.20 gallons driving like I stole it = $1,863.90
Difference: $182.69 or $15/month

Besides the environmental impact of spewing 40 gallons worth of hydrocarbons into the air each year (I imagine lighting fire to a 50 gallon drum in my back yard), there is also the cost of the car itself. If I drove like Miss Daisy a standard Volkswagen Golf would have done the trick, which would have saved me another $120/month. And there's my vice, right there.

On the plus side, I've been moving my consumption down over the years, from thirsty V8's (540i, Dodge Magnum) to smooth 6's (330i, Mazda 6), even a horrible, buzzy 5-cylinder (Acura TL), and now the GTI turbo 4. I get just as much enjoyment out of that little 4 as I did the bigger engines (although that E39 540i was a dream car), while doing what little I can not to destroy the world (you can thank me later).

Spring Detailing

Spent $100 today on auto detailing products, a small price to pay, I suppose, considering I do all my washing by hand. I figure I save about $20/month (2, $10 washes/month) this way, compared to my last car, so that's already $200 for the 10 months I've had the car. Plus, I get exercise and my car is pretty much scratch free compared to even the best automatic car wash.

So what got me on the detailing tangent? I just got back from vacation with a car covered in Spring bugs. The Zaino polymer is wearing off and the finish is in need of a 6-month clay bar treatment. The bugs have really taken their toll. A lot of the car care products I've been using are about to run out at the same time, plus I need a good cloth interior cleaner, since my passengers are slobs, apparently. They weren't eating in the car, but they apparently exude stain causing fluids.

The driver for this particular order are several products I've fallen in love with from 1Z Einszett. The first is their Kristall Klar Windshield Washer Fluid. It's insanely powerful, yet safe for paint. It's the kind of German fluid that used to come standard in new VW's, but you could never get again when it ran out because of government restrictions. Since the Einszett website was out of this stuff, the entire order ended up going to Autogeek.net. I should mention that almost all the high end stuff like this isn't available in auto parts stores. Also, in case you think this is a crazy product, this $9 bottle will likely end up lasting me a full year, and I'm one of those guys who cleans the windows constantly.

The second "must have" product has been the Einszett Anti-Insekt Pre-Cleaner. This is a product I spray on the front bumper, hood and side mirrors and then go fill my wash bucket. When I come back out, the Anti-Instekt cleaner has loosened up the bug debris without damaging the paint or polish, making it easy to clean them off without scrubbing (which damages the paint).

The other product I use in this pre-cleaning phase is a wheel cleaner. I've been using off the shelf Meguiars Hot Rims Wheel Cleaner for the wheels and exhaust tips. The stuff is nasty if you get even a whiff of it, but it works well. I figured I would give Einszett some more business with their Einszett Wheel Cleaner Feigen Reiniger.Who doesn't need their figs cleaned (I Google translated it)?

What else? My off the shelf Meguiars Gold Glass car wash soap smells like horrible 80's cologne and made me feel like a self conscious douche bag whenever I washed my car (I might be one, but don't want to feel like one). I went with a bottle of Einszett Perls Shampoo Premium Car Wash, even though I've got a quarter of the Brute-smelling Mequiars left. I don't know much about the Perls, but I'm in the mode of trusting Einszett right now.

Next I picked up Einszett Blitz All-Purpose Cleaner, for cleaning my cloth interior, and if you believe the instructions, it's also a suitable washing detergent for your microfiber towels. Love it! Lets close the loop entirely and sell me a car detailing washer/dryer. In any case, it's hard to find a good cloth stain remover for the car that doesn't smell like something horrible. My wife has some organic crap that smells like herbs and spices that does a fine job, but come on.

Finally, got a Grit Guard for my wash bucket. The concept being that it sits in the bottom of your bucket, the grit falls to the bottom, and your water remains mostly clean. This helps prevent scratches being introduced into your paint from your wash mitt. Most scratches come from detailing, so for $10, not a bad deal (can't fathom spending $20 for a bucket combo though).

All this stuff, plus a case for my clay bar ($4) that's currently stuck to the bottom of my detailing caddy, a clay bar applicator ($10) because I always drop it on the ground and swear in front of my young son, and shipping (minus a quickly Googled $8 coupon). The total was $90. A large bucket and squeegee from OSH for removing Spring bugs between washes brought the total to $100.