Actively hunting for '18 MY car - makes sense?

[KASIplz]

Hello, first time posting!

Currently driving '11 Mini Cooper S - fairly analog car, love it to bits, but it is the time for an upgrade. Initially I was looking at new '22 Golf GTI - but (ignoring the fact that I am unable to test drive it anywhere) I am very afraid of the infotainment and the need of having to disable S/S and the lane assist from the screen during every drive makes it so difficult for me to decide on such expensive purchase. So I kept looking for alternatives and stumbled on a AW Polo GTI - which I initially wasn't interested in becouse of DSG only, but as I almost "settled" on Golf GTI which is a DSG only car anyway I thought that maybe it is not so bad! Thought that it is great that it has same engine as the Golf, same wet clutch DSG now as the Golf, so easy and safe potential is there!

Now onto the question from the topic name - does it make sense to actively search for '18 MY cars just for the sake of no GPF installed? I have heard the stock exhaust on some videos and thought it is quite nice, especially for a modern car, so would be a shame to have to have it muted down by the GPF's in newer cars. Would you take the no GPF of '18 MY over one, final year of manufacturers warranty of say '19 MY if the prices are almost exact same?

Now the facelifted Polo is not an option for me as I don't like the styling, new steering wheel, GPF installed and it - again - is quite expensive nowadays.

Finally - I am currently trying to reach as much knowledge on the platform as possble, but it is actually very difficult to find any consistent "buyers guide" for AW GTI as a used car - perhaps it is still too new. Anyway would love to hear any information that you consider as very important to know before purchase as well as during this car/engine/drivetrain ownership!

Thanks a lot!

[TheRacingRat]

If you don't want a GPF then it certainly makes sense, for a while I was looking for an 18 MY Polo but they all had red dash inserts which my wife with red hair hated so I ended up with a 20MY plate. To be honest I still think the exhaust sounds ok even with the GPF. Mind you i'm 46 and kind of over loud exhausts lol. The only thing with with the 18 cars though is they may not come with alot of options. Happy hunting!

[SRGTD]

I’m also of a age where I wouldn’t want a loud exhaust . My GTI+ is also a 2020 model year car with a GPF, and I went for the dark iron dash inserts too, rather than the red ones.

The GPF hasn’t caused me any issues and the only time I’ve been aware my car has one is when it’s done a forced regeneration - I think it’s only done one of these during 20+ months of ownership when I was aware of the symptoms described by others in the separate GPF discussion thread on the forum;
- loud exhaust note
- lumpiness / slight hesitation from the engine
- a ‘hot’ smell
- increase in fuel consumption

There were a couple of times when the exhaust note of my car was louder - I assumed the GPF was passively regenerating, as there were no other symptoms on those occasions.

Something to consider when weighing up the pros and cons of an earlier non-GPF car versus one with a GPF is the non-GPF car will be older and no longer have the benefit of the original factory warranty. Also, on the older car there may be other servicing / maintenance jobs that will need doing soon - e.g DSG service, new brake pads (and possibly new discs?), and there’s an increased chance the alloys will show signs of white worm corrosion.

[KASIplz]

I’m also of a age where I wouldn’t want a loud exhaust . My GTI+ is also a 2020 model year car with a GPF, and I went for the dark iron dash inserts too, rather than the red ones.

The GPF hasn’t caused me any issues and the only time I’ve been aware my car has one is when it’s done a forced regeneration - I think it’s only done one of these during 20+ months of ownership when I was aware of the symptoms described by others in the separate GPF discussion thread on the forum;
- loud exhaust note
- lumpiness / slight hesitation from the engine
- a ‘hot’ smell
- increase in fuel consumption

There were a couple of times when the exhaust note of my car was louder - I assumed the GPF was passively regenerating, as there were no other symptoms on those occasions.

Something to consider when weighing up the pros and cons of an earlier non-GPF car versus one with a GPF is the non-GPF car will be older and no longer have the benefit of the original factory warranty. Also, on the older car there may be other servicing / maintenance jobs that will need doing soon - e.g DSG service, new brake pads (and possibly new discs?), and there’s an increased chance the alloys will show signs of white worm corrosion.

Thank you for the answer.

When I heard the 2018 car IRL I definitly didn't feel like it is loud at all, just "pleasently audible". I am coming from a plenty loud 2012 Mini Cooper S, so that might be a factor.

Yes, the cons of buying an older car definitely are there, but if it is just about regular "maintenance" factors I belive it is fairly off set by the pricing in my case. Thanks!