RE: Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk5: Spotted

[epom]

Had one, sold it. Missed it like no car I've ever had before. Currently looking for another one so please..... sssshhhhhh don't tell anyone how good they are.

[DanoS4]

Had my Mk5 for 3 yrs. Uneventful - no mishaps or grief. Always felt like it needed more power (coming from stuff with more)....... good all-rounder, handled well, but I've got to agree with the comments that it was a little boring.

Nice but no real personality imho.

[JualMassFlyweel]

thecremeegg said:

HardMiles said:

There’s no better way to say, I’ve absolutely no imagination and I don’t like excitement...

Not driven one then? We have one, great car, especially for £4-5k!
Add a remap for £300 and it'll see off most challengers!

I had a MK2 Leon FR that is of course a MK5 Golf underneath. Really liked that car but exciting it was not.

And am I the only one who thinks 4k is expensive for this?

[hyperblue]

DanoS4 said:

Had my Mk5 for 3 yrs. Uneventful - no mishaps or grief. Always felt like it needed more power (coming from stuff with more)....... good all-rounder, handled well, but I've got to agree with the comments that it was a little boring.

Nice but no real personality imho.

I've got one and would echo these thoughts.

For a "sporty" car it is pretty dull! An exhaust note would be nice for example - really miss that and the supercharger whine from my R53 MINI Cooper S.

[p4cks]

I've got one as a daily and it's got 142K miles on it (10K by me) and I can only echo what I read somewhere about them... jack of all trades, master of none.

I keep looking at other, more expensive cars as a replacement but I can't get away with how much you get for your money with the MKV GTI and dare I say it - it doesn't look dated at all.

I wonder how many miles the OP is on now.

[Section 8]

Had one for years and thought it was a decent daily. Yeah it’s no Megane for handling or a VXR for power but it did everything I asked of it and could still give most of the general traffic a kicking. Abused mine a fair bit ( lots) and it just plodded on regardless and still lives on albeit with another owner. 95k miles in my hands on same turbo and clutch too.

BTW Comparing the Golf with the Seat and Octavia is fine until you see the Leon’s dashboard and someone tries to hail you over in the Skoda.

[JualMassFlyweel]

ManOpener said:

hyphen said:

ManOpener said:

All this really enforces is how much better then Mk5 holds its value than the the Octavia vRS and Leon FR, both of which are basically identical to it.

A 2007/57 reg Octavia with similar mileage is £2,880 from a dealer.
A 2007/07 Leon FR with similar mileage is about the same.

Did these 3 cost the same new?

I don't think they were massively different.

I sold my 2008 MK2 FR in January last year for £4750. With 141K on the clock. The OP Golf may be lower miles but is 3 years older and will probably be poverty spec compared to my Leon which was literally loaded with options and much, much better looking IMHO with btcc kit. £4k is a lot even with a better dash lol.

[DoubleD]

DanoS4 said:

Nice but no real personality imho.

I think this kind of sums it up

[HardMiles]

DoubleD said:

DanoS4 said:

Nice but no real personality imho.

I think this kind of sums it up

Pretty much what I was getting at. Got slated as expected. “Haven’t driven one then”... yes I have thanks, along with loads of other uninspiring VAG CSO’s.

White goods is a good term for them. They aren’t anything more than that...

[markrtw]

I have a 2005 gti as my daily and kind of agree/disagree with most of the comments. I hate the black lower bumpers, but mine is met black so you don't notice them. Very capable, but I found it a bit underwhelming. So I had R-Tech put a custom map on it (255bhp & 310ft) which transformed it. No change to fuel economy on the daily commute and no reliability issues to date. Parts are cheap and plenty of knowledge out there, so easy to do the spannering yourself if you wish. I have heated leather, cruise, 18s etc, so was well specced from new. The one upgrade I have done is drop in a DAB, Bluetooth RNS315 sat nav stereo from a 2013 passat (about £250 all in) . All in all, not the most amazing car ever, but pretty good fun (with the remap) and excellent for the money.

[andrewparker]

HardMiles said:

Pretty much what I was getting at. Got slated as expected.

I wouldn’t worry about it, some people have difficulty articulating their thoughts without coming across like an ahole. Expect you’ve got used to it by now.

[Gidders77]

I've got a 3 door manual,that over the last year has had everything sorted,love it and done quite a few track days etc in it

[vacant-100]

I picked up one of these just before Christmas, I've put about 1800 miles on it so far, and with the exception of a headlight bulb, nothing has gone wrong - touch wood. Mine was expensive-ish at just under 6k, but was low-ish miles and had all the important work done, plus was spotless inside and out. I'd looked at some tattier ones at the lower end of price range but decided I'd rather spend a little extra for a decent one.

It's not a fully balls-out motor, but it's quick enough and competent on the B-roads. Plus it looks relatively understated on the 17" wheels in black, which is what I was after.

[BFleming]

I almost forgot, whilst I have driven a few Mk5 Golfs, I've never driven the powerful ones. But I have driven a Fucus ST with a 280bhp remap and a Leon K1 with a similar output on the Nurburgring, back to back. I am not a Ford fan, but the Focus was amazing. Very fast, very planted. The Leon was as quick, but skittish, nowhere near as rewarding to drive. As I said, I've never driven a Golf 5 in anger, but the Leon experience wasn't endearing.
The spec thing can be overcome. I had a Passat B6 a few years back & put heated leather, and a fully functional Golf GTI multi function steering wheel in there. Very 'modular' are these VW's.

[blearyeyedboy]

ManOpener said:

All this really enforces is how much better then Mk5 holds its value than the the Octavia vRS and Leon FR, both of which are basically identical to it.

A 2007/57 reg Octavia with similar mileage is £2,880 from a dealer.
A 2007/07 Leon FR with similar mileage is about the same.

I beg to differ, at this vintage anyway.
To give you some perspective, when I bought a 56 plate Octavia in 2010 for £8.5k, similar Golf GTi's were selling for nearer £13k.

Having sold the Octavia for £2k, you could reasonably say I'd lost £6.5k in depreciation instead of the £9k I would have lost on a Golf. "They hold their value better" over a 10 year lifespan just means you pay more and lose more in total.

What I would agree with is that £3-4k is near the bottom of the market for a Golf GTi that isn't a basketcase, and while I wouldn't go calling one an "investment" car yet, I think in time it will be.

[richthebike]

My dad picked one up last year as his daily and loves it. Somebody drove into his 235i in the snow and wrote it off, his mate had a Mk5 GTi for sale for 5ish. He got it as a stop gap and now he's hooked.

I always tease him about his grey golf, but it does exactly what he needs.
He's got a Mini race car, and rents an Exige for other bits. This just gets him there and back, and probably has enough excitement for a daily. It's alarmingly quick down a b road too.

[Amanitin]

daemon said:

+1

It needs a £15 headlight restorer kit applied and 30 mins effort.

Polishing will remove the haze. For 1-2 years maybe.
But you will not ever remove the gradual darkening of the stty plastic which will get worse at an accelerating rate. The car in the ad seems to be well progressed down that road.
I prefer my headlights clear _and_ colorless, thank you.

[Veeayt]

I've driven one only on a racetrack, and it was terrific - engaging, nimble and agile, if a little bit dull. Much better track car than a Golf R32, which I've driven only on a racetrack as well.

[KurtB]

I was a lifelong VW fan, had over 10 Mk1 and 2 Golf GTI’s but the brand has changed. I sold a 2008 Scirocco after a years ownership, just because it was so very dull. Drive around in a 2005 Mini Cooper S now, much more like it! For serious kicks though, I do have an S1 Exige nestled in the garage too.

[HardMiles]

andrewparker said:

I wouldn’t worry about it, some people have difficulty articulating their thoughts without coming across like an ahole. Expect you’ve got used to it by now.

Ha! To be fair I’m an opinionated bugger myself, along the Clarkson linage of being a tad harsh for extra entertainment value! Everyone is different and that’s th spice of life. They are all entitled to their opinions, but only mine is right!