What a damned roller coaster! I wasn’t “seriously” looking but was lured in by the dealer that sold a 2019 GTI to my mother. They had a Green/Brown Alltrack that I really liked but sold before I could look at it, then I discovered that they had another. It too was sold before I could look at it. So I made an appointment to drive just “any” manual trans Alltrack. That didn’t happen.
Then I was bummed...Now I’m in it you know...and I can’t even drive one...So I put in a call to Tom McParland to talk about his consulting service. Tom is a super nice guy, we chatted about the process but I needed to find one to drive before we could consider doing a search.
So I made an appointment via text at another dealer that showed three manual Alltracks on their site. They had two, an S (base) in Silk blue and an SE (as nice as you can get with three pedals) in Platinum grey. Guess which one they had ready for me to drive... Now pause to remember, I only want a green Alltrack. I told the sales guy this and he said “that’s going to be nearly impossible” as they are discontinuing the Alltrack and Sportwagen after 2019! He’s pretty sure I couldn’t order one if I wanted to.
They’ve just pulled up a grey one (fine it’s just a test drive) right next to a green one that is automatic, and the blue “S” model. Guess what, that green did nothing for me in person! To further complicate matters, I really liked the grey. I hated the blue.
So I drive the SE that has every available option, love it, then it comes time to talk numbers. The guy gives me an offers for the S and the SE then we talk about trade...They’ll give me 1-2k for my 2001 Ranger RWD 3.0 with 74,000 miles...I said well we’re way off on trade. He understands and says that they might go a little more if they see the truck but not much. Then we kind of just stopped talking, I kind of expected him to say something to see if I was still interested in the car (I was) but he didn’t. He offered to email me some info and told me the deals he offered were only good until 7/8. So I thanked him and left it was weird. Almost all of the manual Alltracks that I found (not many) had been on their lots for a long time. I figured they’d throw it at me.
Ok, now I’m super bummed. I loved that grey one! The cool wheels, the big sun roof, all of the safety features that I swore I would never have lane assist etc...My wife loved it, the baby loved it because she loves everything. My FIL is hot to buy my ranger, everything was lining up. I was a fucking sad sack Friday night. Now they’re discontinuing it too! I’m done at this point, I just want to forget that I ever started to get involved, but my wife settles me down.
I shot Tom a quick email to catch up. Then I get an email from my old man with the exact same car at a different dealer. 2019 Golf Alltrack SE, Manual, Platinum Grey, Driver Assist/Appearance PKG. Originally I thought “fuck that, fuck this, fuck it all, I’m done”. Then I slept on it, decided to give it one more try. So I called my dad in the morning and took him with me to go and look at it yesterday. He and I always/often do car/big purchases together. Neither of us know why but it’s tradition now. So I drove it, just to drive another one then I did a little negotiating, and then I bought it!
So I went from having to have a green/brown base model Alltrack to wanting and buying a grey/black SE with all of the bells and whistles. On the TD I made sure all of those extra nannies like auto braking, lane keeping etc are able to be switched off but I’m kind of down with them. I’ll take a little nudge from my car if it keeps my little girl safe.
TL;DR I finally bought a fuckin’ dad car and it’s the damn VW Alltrack I’ve yammered about for the past year or more. I did my part and bought a new manual wagon in 2019. In reality I bought a model that didn’t make VW any so likely I’ve done nothing or worse, but I got the car I’ve been after since I found out I was to be a father.
All of the interior pics I took were worse than the exterior pics, but it looks like this:
I’ll get some better pictures as I get a chance to detail it myself.
I’ll get into a review after a week or two.
Initial plans:
Do the warranty covered APR tune after break in.
Get a cargo basket, bike rack, board rack setup scenario.