it depends on how hard you drive your car daily. if you speed a lot, you're bound to brake a lot as well. so during rainy days where road is wet and slippery, if you dont speed, you wont be needing the ABS cause you wont do hard braking that will lock your tires. but u never know what will happen, sometimes you might need to jam brake and its when ABS can help out a bit haha. unless you are damn pro to keep pressing and let go your brakes and try to simulate the ABS pulsing lol... the fella behind you will wonder wtf are you doing.
its just a safety sort of small system in the GTi to market it. afterall, its a performance car, and ABS + airbag etc in it brands it higher than its current breed of other satrias.
slipar: well braking still works, just that when the ABS has problem, either dirty or faulty, replace it and then settle already. ABS works as it should, to prevent you from locking your tires, and allowing you to lock and turn as compared to lock and keep going straight. normal braking, good brake pads + steelbraided hoses can improve your braking.
xinghonh: maybe your friend's ABS is dirty already. I encountered that problem before where any braking point will activate the ABS and cause the brake pedal to be bouncy. i think i sent to clean it and stuff and it was fine. sometimes that ABS check light always seem to be on and annoying