This photo makes no sense on two levels… 1) Why would someone do that to a minivan? I mean, it’s a minivan for god’s sake! And 2) what’s with the girl in the photo? Is she supposed to be the soccer mom who owns the minivan? Wouldn’t it be hotter if she drove a different type of car?
Please, if you understand straight people - explain that photo to me!
When I got the R32 a year ago I was really psyched. I had waited like 6 months for it and it was in the first batch to arrive in August ‘07… My only complaint about the car is that I haven’t gotten to drive it enough - especially this year. I think it was July that we put a whopping 30 miles on it.
Nevertheless, we did manage to put about 10,000 miles on it the first year and had a great time with it. Initially I was driving to Norwalk, CT a couple a times a week on the Merritt Parkway, which is a blast with all the curves and whatnot. And on Memorial Day I drove single-handed to Chicago with a stop in Cincinatti both directions.
I haven’t gotten enough pictures of it, but here is one from the Chicago trip - this one is taken in Oak Park, near the Frank Lloyd Wright house…
Gas mileage isn’t all that great with it, but with a 3.2L, VR6, 250hp engine you don’t really expect it to be. I get about 24 mpg on the highway driving “comfortably fast”, which isn’t bad in my book. If I slowed down, I’d get better gas mileage, but that’s not why I bought an R32. (Do make sure you have a good radar detector).
One of my favorite things about the car is when Dan drops off something at the front door and then drives away to go park it in the garage. The sound (or should I say growl) of the car is just perfect. I get this big grin on my face and think “yeah, that’s my car…”
Would I get another R32? Absolutely, in a heartbeat…
We love the 2008 VW R32 we got back in August. And one of the things we like the most is the nav system. I’ve read reviews that say it’s not the best navigation system, but it does the job pretty well. The most important thing is we never argue about directions… I was raised in a family where the answer to “are we there yet” was to pass you a map and tell you to find where we were, where we were going and calculate the distance and divide by the speed. Dan has improved his navigation skills considerably since we first met, but before the nav system there were still times I’d have to either grab the map and look at it while I was driving, or pull over to look at the map… Now with “Mildred” (the name we’ve given our nav system) - none of that is necessary.
You’d think the nav system is completely wonderful, but I’m on a trip right now in Chicago and I gotta say there are times I love the nav system, and times I wish I had a map on me. What you lose with navigation systems is a sense of place and location. With a map you get a big picture and see things in relation to each other. Coming into a new city I feel a bit lost using a nav system to get me around. Sure it does a good job, but I don’t really have a clue where I am, and I miss that. I want to understand the city and the nav system doesn’t do that for me. I tried Google Maps and that helps a little, but for really getting and understanding a big map with lots of information density will beat Google Maps any day.
Earlier this year I upgraded my Valentine One radar detector - and I’m so glad I did… We went up to Toronto for the holidays and every cop I came across was using Ka band radar, which older radar detectors don’t detect (they typically just do X band and K band). It’s something I had noticed once back in September or October around the Yonkers/New York City border, but we came across nearly a dozen New York State cops on this trip and in every case it was Ka band radar. Curiously, in some cases there were two bogeys meaning the radar detector is sending out two radar signals, and in one case there was laser on top of that. Sothe NY cops appear to be using a really good radar gun with all the bells and whistles…
In other words, if you’re traveling through New York and don’t have a radar detector that detects Ka band radar - you’re dead meat if you like to drive as fast as I do… And I should mention our Valentine One did really well - I’d recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a good radar detector.
Having recently gotten our new 2008 R32 it’s time to sell our 2000 GTI. It’s been a good car, and if we hadn’t liked the car we wouldn’t be getting the R32.
It is pretty much loaded:
It has just over 67,000 miles, has a 5 speed manual transmision, is in great mechanical condition, and has NO RATTLES!
In addition it has mud flaps (to keep the car cleaner), a trailer hitch (you can tow up to 1,500 lbs), and a VW roof rack.
Asking Price: $7,900 (priced below blue book value for a quick sale)
Contact me at jay@slicksurface.com or 917/447-2572 if you’re interested…
Update: The car has been sold. There was actually a bidding war for the car (nearly everyone who saw it wanted it), and it wound up going for more than the asking price.