Tayler Leary | August 2021

I’d love to introduce Tayler Leary – member #703. She was born and raised in Portland, Oregon! She currently works full time at Armstrong Volkswagen in Gladstone Oregon as a service advisor! She also works for FunctionWerks as a sales rep, who sell aftermarket suspension and wheels for all makes and models! Her whole family even her grandparents have been into Volkswagen/ Audi since before she was born. Growing up being around them all the time she’s become very bias towards VW/Audi and to this day has been the only thing I’ve ever owned! Tayler's dad uncle and grandpa owned a company called German Auto Wholesale that sold used VW/Audi only. When she was about 8 years old, she saw her first mk4 and instantly fell in love and knew one day she'd buy one. She has owned 3 and currently still own the 3rd. Being raised in a family that only owned VW it was never really an option or a question more a matter of time! She had purchased her mk4 from an ex bf who was selling his and retuned to stock after she had crashed her second mk4. “It took about 2-3 months to get everything swapped over from one car to the other since they were at my friends shop over an hour away from my house while also parting out the crashed one alone.” Her future plans for it are: euro bumpers/ lips and shaved R32 hatch to be installed then paint the entire car! Her favorite part of her car is her bags, which she absolutely loves! “The mk4 community was a big influence because there are people on there who have had their cars since brand new and really showed me what I wanted mine to look like, all before she could even drive!”

“Being a female in the car community, it’s definitely different being a female, a lot of stigmas behind it.” But she enjoys meeting other like-minded females. Her best advice to any new female in the car community would be, "don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do on your car!" Lastly Tayler would like to shout out Tyler Simons and Josh Westby who have been a really big help in getting her car where it is today! Thank you! Tayler currently owns a 2005 Volkswagen GTI.

Exterior modifications: She has 3-piece CCW LM20’s with polished lips/ brushed faces 18x9.5 squared wrapped in 215/35/18 atlas tires. Her suspension is an airlift performance slam series bags with 3p management. Gil side skirts, 20th front and rear valances, genuine Hella magic clears installed from BNIB, R32 shaved hatch (not installed yet), euro bumpers with 25th anni valances imported from Germany (not installed yet) bonrath single wiper, genuine FK front bumper vents.

Her interior modifications 20th headliner/ handle swap, corbeau LG1 bucket seats, 20th cluster, double din touch screen, 20th brushed interior pieces (not installed yet) ECS exhaust, stage 2 tune with 2 step, clear side markers, hybrid Jetta oil pan, 007 DV, cold air intake, BNIB IDF lower control arms, swoops camber plates, CHS raised subframe, 1 inch motor mounts.

Thanks for taking the time to share your story and progress with us, Tayler, and thank you for being a guiding light in this hobby. We all can use some encouragement from time to time and we love that we have a group determined to offer that for its members. You can keep up with Tayler and her dub by following them on IG @mk4_tay and don’t forget to follow the Official VW Girls Facebook page and IG @VWGIRLS for updates and current events!

Written by: Krystin Proctor