Sporty and safe with great handling

The 2003 VW GTI was my first car and I still own and drive it to this day. I'll start with the pros of this car.

Pros: Above everything, this car is one of the safest cars I have been in. I have experienced two accidents in this car. One accident from being hit from the rear. The rear of the car absorbed most of the energy fortunately saving myself and my passenger from any injury. My second accident occurred when someone ran a stop sign and I hit the side of his car with the front of mine. Again, the car did a fantastic job of absorbing the impact and both of the front airbags deployed and no one was injured fortunately. I can't say enough how satisfied I am with the safety this car offers and I have the experience to prove how safe this car is. The styling design of the car is great and I love it. I have heated seats with the racing stitch style seats that came from the factory, sunroof, CD player, and it is automatic. The stereo in the car is tremendous and has great sound including a lot of bass. There is room in the trunk to add on more amps very easily. This is a very fast car with great acceleration especially for the money you're paying for it. VW really did a tremendous job on designing a great engine and fitting it into a small space. The acceleration of this car is awesome and you can definitely hear/ feel the turbo kick in at around 3,000 rpm.

Cons: The interior parts are somewhat cheap and German cars are notorious for these type of parts breaking. After about 16,000 miles on the car, the knobs for the stereo (bass, treble, etc.) started to come off. The hinge for the middle console also broke. Luckily, all these parts were covered under its warranty. The car is somewhat slippery in the snow and somewhat in the rain (but that can be expected with a front wheel drive car). I live in an area of some extreme weather conditions including snow, rain, sleet, and temperatures ranging from 10 degrees in the winter to around 100 degrees during the peak of the summertime. This car performs great in a variety of weather/ temperature conditions. I only wish they offered the GTI in all wheel drive. The two door feature looks sporty but can be annoying at times when there's more than two people in the car. Luckily they fixed this issue by offering a two and four door model for the 2008 VW GTI.

Overall: This car is great whether you're looking for a first car or just looking for a fun car to drive because the GTI definitely delivers and you won't be disappointed if you choose this car. The reliability of this car has been pretty good. Most of my car shop visits have been due to the cheap interior parts breaking but nothing major with the engine.