Golf GTi Mk5 vs Mk6 - prices converging?

[the-photographer]

Naldrett said:

So, my ideal car:

Silver, blue or grey
5 doors
Manual (I think, but could be open to a well-maintained DSG)
Xenons
Cloth
Satnav
17 inch alloys
Upgraded sound (RD500?)
Rear parking sensors
Sunroof
Later plate ('07-'09) - early model issues resolved, rust less likely?
1 or 2 owners
Full history with annual servicing and invoices if possible

Budget: up to £9k

Think I'll be waiting long?

That VW dealer one ticks most of the boxes except no nav and a bit earlier than I was aiming for

Here is my view;

Colour, you have picked popular colours.
5 doors, yes popular
Manual (I think, but could be open to a well-maintained DSG) yes popular
Xenons, harder and really hard to retro fit properly
Cloth, yes no problem
Satnav, can be retrofitted
17 inch alloys, can be sourced from ebay, then sell the 18" back
Upgraded sound (RD500?), this gives you 10 speakers, rare
Rear parking sensors, or Cobra retrofit which are actually smaller than OEM
Sunroof, very hard
Later plate ('07-'09) - early model issues resolved, rust less likely? Yes, but only because they are newer!

1 or 2 owners
Full history with annual servicing and invoices if possible

Last two go together.

The sunroof and xenons are going to be a very rare combination, in my recent search I can only remember two.

[the-photographer]

va1o said:

EDIT: Having said all that, for £9k a Mk6 is still your better bet! E.g. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

Edited by va1o on Monday 24th August 18:43

TIMING BELT DONE NEXT ONE DUE AT 50k OR 5 YEARS, is he really a "specialist"?

This one would need the cam tensioner done otherwise it visually looks good for 100,000 miles.

[Naldrett]

Great input again guys, thanks a lot

So, basically will aim for xenons and consider sunroof as a bonus. Seems like retrofitting other items could be the way forward - there seem to be some quite OEM looking systems that slot straight it and offer nav/Bluetooth etc

I think I read somewhere that it is easier to do nav retrofits on 2008 MY cars?

[the-photographer]

Naldrett said:

Great input again guys, thanks a lot

So, basically will aim for xenons and consider sunroof as a bonus. Seems like retrofitting other items could be the way forward - there seem to be some quite OEM looking systems that slot straight it and offer nav/Bluetooth etc

I think I read somewhere that it is easier to do nav retrofits on 2008 MY cars?

Only because newer cars have newer CANBUS controllers which stop battery drain with a RNS510 or similar (with older cars you just upgrade the CANBUS)

[Cheib]

We have a 56 Reg Mk 5 GTi which only has 32000 miles on it...we've had it since 2008. We lived in London until three months ago and only did a 1,000 miles a year or so. It had been very reliable but had the dreaded A/C compressor fixed a few months ago and recently had a problem with lumpy idling which took the dealer a couple of visits to fix.

I bought it because it's a high spec car...DSG, OEM SatNav, Xenon's, Heated Seats, Parking Sensors, Leather Seats etc Replaced the Sat Nav with a Kenwood unit a few years ago as the OEM unit was bionically st. Great car and currently I use it to drive to the station which I sometimes take the long route home on the country lanes to put a smile on my face.

I kind of fancy a change of car but I also think why spend more money on anything else when it probably won't do the job it does any better!

[AnneTeak]

Hi. I was in a similar situation and have recently bought a Mk5 GTI from a VW dealer (they do have them occasionally).

I'd recommend if you buy one, taking out the VW extended warranty. It's cheaper than WarrantyWise etc. and has no excess (the claim limit is to the value of the car). Simply drop in and no quibbles. The warranty is around £330 a year depending on the age and mileage - can be bought even if not purchased from VW, providing the history is adequate.

Official cam belt recommendation is every four years or 40,000 miles. As said, you can easily achieve 35mpg+. Also worth checking the coil pack recall has been done on the car.

The mk6 chain issues put me off (and the prices for finding a decent one), but as with anything you only hear of the ones that go wrong.

[Pingman]

AnneTeak said:

I'd recommend if you buy one, taking out the VW extended warranty. It's cheaper than WarrantyWise etc. and has no excess (the claim limit is to the value of the car). Simply drop in and no quibbles. The warranty is around £330 a year depending on the age and mileage - can be bought even if not purchased from VW, providing the history is adequate.

How does one go about doing this?