RE: VW Golf GTI (Mk6): PH Used Buying Guide
Discussion
NGK210 said:
Is a Mk3 “better” than a Mk6? Depends on how you define “better”.
I bought my Mk3 16v when it was 6 yrs old; kept it for 3.5 yrs. It cost now’t more than 3 annual services, 1 set of tyres, 1 set of front pads and coil replacement at 90k as a precaution. Lighter and stiffer than a 306 GTI, 150bhp/1150kg was enough for me - and everything worked, nothing fell off.
In short, my Mk3 16v was cheap, hassle-free motoring.
Of course, that’s not as exciting as a car with an engine that might detonate at any moment; has flawed OE alignment that chews tyres; perforated front wings; OE orange-peel paint; rotting alloys; randomly folding mirrors; dead aircon, etc, etc.
And reports of chain tensioner / engine problems on multiple Golf GTI enthusiasts’ forums is not exactly “internet hearsay” - it is “owner feedback”.
Buy a Mk5 GTI or save up for a Mk7; avoid the Mk6.
Okay, well let's compare it to my experience. I've owned 2 Mk5s and 1 Mk6 type vehicleI bought my Mk3 16v when it was 6 yrs old; kept it for 3.5 yrs. It cost now’t more than 3 annual services, 1 set of tyres, 1 set of front pads and coil replacement at 90k as a precaution. Lighter and stiffer than a 306 GTI, 150bhp/1150kg was enough for me - and everything worked, nothing fell off.
In short, my Mk3 16v was cheap, hassle-free motoring.
Of course, that’s not as exciting as a car with an engine that might detonate at any moment; has flawed OE alignment that chews tyres; perforated front wings; OE orange-peel paint; rotting alloys; randomly folding mirrors; dead aircon, etc, etc.
And reports of chain tensioner / engine problems on multiple Golf GTI enthusiasts’ forums is not exactly “internet hearsay” - it is “owner feedback”.
Buy a Mk5 GTI or save up for a Mk7; avoid the Mk6.
1) Golf 1.9 TDI
Bought with 99k miles, tuned it to 220hp (from 105) and never missed a beat. Sold at 150k.
2) Golf Mk5 GTI
Bought with 87k and had never left me stranded, had a blocked oil pick up pipe which was easily sorted, aside from that no issues, sold it at 115k.
3) Mk6 Scirocco CR170
Bought at around 105k, it's now on nearly 190k, running double standard horsepower (340). No major issues, no rust etc. It's broken down once, which was the clutch line breaking due to extra pressure from upgraded clutch, and gearbox went at 185k.
Let's look into your points.
" a car with an engine that might detonate at any moment" - a gross over exaggeration, as I said if you go onto a webpage no-one says "my car has performed perfectly". People only post to complain. Failure rates are very low given the numerous cars the engine was fitted to across the VAG range.
"has flawed OE alignment that chews tyres" - Apparently this is due to the alignment being for LHD markets where the road cambers are slightly different. Not a biggy either way is it, for £20 to be resolved?
"perforated front wings" - sure, front wings can go a bit rusty. Cheap to replace, covered by a 12 year warranty anyway.
"OE orange-peel paint" - excuse me have you seen modern cars
No worse than any other car, certainly not bad at all. I actually worked as a detailer for a couple of years as well as being it before and after for friends and family, so I have worked on hundreds of cars from many manufacturers from Fiat to Ferrari! I have done countless VAG cars and none of them are any worse in paint quality than any other. Infact BMW and Mercedes have some of the worst factory paint I have come across in terms of orange-peelyness. "rotting alloys" - no more so than any other car?
"randomly folding mirrors" - not come across this as a problem... ? Never happened once in the ownership of my Mk5 GTI.
"dead aircon" - again no more of an issue than any other car ??
They are not perfect by any means. Cars are designed by humans so prone to human mistakes.
But, if maintained they are reliable, dependable, they are not the most fun but as an all round package you can't really complain.
due to an enthusiast owner base many things can be sorted quickly, and cost effectively with DIY guides.
I understand if you don't LIKE the car, that's fine, and I won't try to change your opinion on that
But to say that they are all going to implode and that VAG stuff is completely unreliable is simply not a fair stance to take.
lee_erm said:
Yet there's no reliability issues to report in the Fiesta ST buyers guide. Interesting 
Fun Bus said:
Just the Fiesta ST though. The Golf Mk6 faults cover every single variant.
If someone could find the Mk6 GTi specific list that’d be great.
They're still a fairly fresh car though, the Fiesta ST's. The oldest ones are 2013, so about 5 years old. The oldest MK6 GTI's are about 9 years old.If someone could find the Mk6 GTi specific list that’d be great.
It's not like the Ford's are faultless. No car is. It's got a few things noted on the buyer's guide. Not alot though.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Thinking of viewing this. Seems like a very late Mk5, should be relatively issue free compared to an early mk6 no?
Thinking of viewing this. Seems like a very late Mk5, should be relatively issue free compared to an early mk6 no?
I went for a very late Mark 5 instead, three door manual with cloth. Superb engine, nice easy and cheap cam belt to replace and given oil changes every 10'000 miles, they run on and on. The 6 speed manual box is very good and the car felt good and solid. Of course it had one wing just starting to go and of course VW rejected a claim because it had been painted. It was the original wing, and paint has nothing to do with it - it's a get out clause. The wings rust because some dumb arse at VAG thought a big chunk of water absorbing foam between the wing and arch liner was a good idea. FFS. :roll eyes: 
It was the original wing, undamaged. I went to pull the arch liner out the other side (15 mins) to lose the foam, to find that side had already had a new wing.
The Mark 6 was a stopgap, a facelifted Mark 5 that was much cheaper to build. A nice enough car but you can keep them thanks to the chain dramas. It may not happen, but I'll go for the older car that in reality goes well enough and is more reliable. Most Mark 5 GTI's are in a pretty grim state now though. I looked at some real rubbish before getting mine.
But an excellent car. Fast, great handling, superbly comfortable and will do 40 mpg on a steady run, yet zip past dawdlers with ease. Find a mint low miler, get the arch foam out and look after it.
It was the original wing, undamaged. I went to pull the arch liner out the other side (15 mins) to lose the foam, to find that side had already had a new wing. The Mark 6 was a stopgap, a facelifted Mark 5 that was much cheaper to build. A nice enough car but you can keep them thanks to the chain dramas. It may not happen, but I'll go for the older car that in reality goes well enough and is more reliable. Most Mark 5 GTI's are in a pretty grim state now though. I looked at some real rubbish before getting mine.
But an excellent car. Fast, great handling, superbly comfortable and will do 40 mpg on a steady run, yet zip past dawdlers with ease. Find a mint low miler, get the arch foam out and look after it.
Touring442 said:
I went for a very late Mark 5 instead, three door manual with cloth. Superb engine, nice easy and cheap cam belt to replace and given oil changes every 10'000 miles, they run on and on. The 6 speed manual box is very good and the car felt good and solid. Of course it had one wing just starting to go and of course VW rejected a claim because it had been painted. It was the original wing, and paint has nothing to do with it - it's a get out clause. The wings rust because some dumb arse at VAG thought a big chunk of water absorbing foam between the wing and arch liner was a good idea. FFS. :roll eyes: It was the original wing, undamaged. I went to pull the arch liner out the other side (15 mins) to lose the foam, to find that side had already had a new wing.
The Mark 6 was a stopgap, a facelifted Mark 5 that was much cheaper to build. A nice enough car but you can keep them thanks to the chain dramas. It may not happen, but I'll go for the older car that in reality goes well enough and is more reliable. Most Mark 5 GTI's are in a pretty grim state now though. I looked at some real rubbish before getting mine.
But an excellent car. Fast, great handling, superbly comfortable and will do 40 mpg on a steady run, yet zip past dawdlers with ease. Find a mint low miler, get the arch foam out and look after it.
A friend of mine who had owned a MK4 Golf GTI for 12 years and clocked up 175,000 miles asked me to help find a mk6 last autumn. In the end we found a lovely low mileage (70,000) 2008/57 plate Mk5 5 door in united grey with full VW history. We've since dealt with the front wing issue, cambelt, water pump, oiler cooler and new Pirelli P-Zeros all round. It was the original wing, undamaged. I went to pull the arch liner out the other side (15 mins) to lose the foam, to find that side had already had a new wing. The Mark 6 was a stopgap, a facelifted Mark 5 that was much cheaper to build. A nice enough car but you can keep them thanks to the chain dramas. It may not happen, but I'll go for the older car that in reality goes well enough and is more reliable. Most Mark 5 GTI's are in a pretty grim state now though. I looked at some real rubbish before getting mine.
But an excellent car. Fast, great handling, superbly comfortable and will do 40 mpg on a steady run, yet zip past dawdlers with ease. Find a mint low miler, get the arch foam out and look after it.
It was still considerably cheaper than an earlier mk6 and in my opinion a better drivers car. It should give her plenty of years great service.
Funny how PH always describe performance Golfs as dull, when Chris Harris (who can drive and has experience of quite a few performance machines) specifically stated this wasn't at all the case with the 7 R, and Clarkson (who also has driven the odd decent car here and there) bought a 7 GTI for daily use.
But what do those guys know against some people online, eh?
But what do those guys know against some people online, eh?
Alfahorn said:
A friend of mine who had owned a MK4 Golf GTI for 12 years and clocked up 175,000 miles asked me to help find a mk6 last autumn. In the end we found a lovely low mileage (70,000) 2008/57 plate Mk5 5 door in united grey with full VW history. We've since dealt with the front wing issue, cambelt, water pump, oiler cooler and new Pirelli P-Zeros all round.
It was still considerably cheaper than an earlier mk6 and in my opinion a better drivers car. It should give her plenty of years great service.
You think the Mk5 is a better drivers car than a MK6? *edit: typo*It was still considerably cheaper than an earlier mk6 and in my opinion a better drivers car. It should give her plenty of years great service.
Interesting how you could come to that conclusion given the major components are the same
- Steering rack
- Suspension geometery
- Suspension bushes
In actual fact the Mk6 bodyshell is slightly stiffer and generally the dampers are better (adaptive dampers are really good on those) .
The TSI gets a bad rep, everyone goes on about timing chains but in reality the 2.0 TSI engine was fitted to hundreds of thousands of cars , Golfs, Passats, Superbs, Sciroccos, etc and it's a very low proportion of them that fail.
It's also worth noting that overall interior quality on the MK6 is a step up, as is the infotainment, climate controls, etc. Just nicer, the Mk5 is very dated inside now.
The TSI engine is actually theoretically more reliable and efficient mainly due to not having a crappy cam lobe driven fuel pump which is the cause of many issues.
Edited by xjay1337 on Sunday 2nd June 20:01
Edited by xjay1337 on Sunday 2nd June 21:37
Boobonman said:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Thinking of viewing this. Seems like a very late Mk5, should be relatively issue free compared to an early mk6 no?
£4K is strong money for a car that's done 136K milesThinking of viewing this. Seems like a very late Mk5, should be relatively issue free compared to an early mk6 no?
It should be £2.5K - £3K
xjay1337 said:
Alfahorn said:
A friend of mine who had owned a MK4 Golf GTI for 12 years and clocked up 175,000 miles asked me to help find a mk6 last autumn. In the end we found a lovely low mileage (70,000) 2008/57 plate Mk5 5 door in united grey with full VW history. We've since dealt with the front wing issue, cambelt, water pump, oiler cooler and new Pirelli P-Zeros all round.
It was still considerably cheaper than an earlier mk6 and in my opinion a better drivers car. It should give her plenty of years great service.
You think the Mk6 is a better drivers car than a MK5?It was still considerably cheaper than an earlier mk6 and in my opinion a better drivers car. It should give her plenty of years great service.
Interesting how you could come to that conclusion given the major components are the same
- Steering rack
- Suspension geometery
- Suspension bushes
In actual fact the Mk6 bodyshell is slightly stiffer and generally the dampers are better (adaptive dampers are really good on those) .
The TSI gets a bad rep, everyone goes on about timing chains but in reality the 2.0 TSI engine was fitted to hundreds of thousands of cars , Golfs, Passats, Superbs, Sciroccos, etc and it's a very low proportion of them that fail.
It's also worth noting that overall interior quality on the MK6 is a step up, as is the infotainment, climate controls, etc. Just nicer, the Mk5 is very dated inside now.
The TSI engine is actually theoretically more reliable and efficient mainly due to not having a crappy cam lobe driven fuel pump which is the cause of many issues.
Edited by xjay1337 on Sunday 2nd June 20:01
MDMA . said:
xjay1337 said:
Alfahorn said:
A friend of mine who had owned a MK4 Golf GTI for 12 years and clocked up 175,000 miles asked me to help find a mk6 last autumn. In the end we found a lovely low mileage (70,000) 2008/57 plate Mk5 5 door in united grey with full VW history. We've since dealt with the front wing issue, cambelt, water pump, oiler cooler and new Pirelli P-Zeros all round.
It was still considerably cheaper than an earlier mk6 and in my opinion a better drivers car. It should give her plenty of years great service.
You think the Mk6 is a better drivers car than a MK5?It was still considerably cheaper than an earlier mk6 and in my opinion a better drivers car. It should give her plenty of years great service.
Interesting how you could come to that conclusion given the major components are the same
- Steering rack
- Suspension geometery
- Suspension bushes
In actual fact the Mk6 bodyshell is slightly stiffer and generally the dampers are better (adaptive dampers are really good on those) .
The TSI gets a bad rep, everyone goes on about timing chains but in reality the 2.0 TSI engine was fitted to hundreds of thousands of cars , Golfs, Passats, Superbs, Sciroccos, etc and it's a very low proportion of them that fail.
It's also worth noting that overall interior quality on the MK6 is a step up, as is the infotainment, climate controls, etc. Just nicer, the Mk5 is very dated inside now.
The TSI engine is actually theoretically more reliable and efficient mainly due to not having a crappy cam lobe driven fuel pump which is the cause of many issues.
Edited by xjay1337 on Sunday 2nd June 20:01
Alfahorn said:
MDMA . said:
xjay1337 said:
Alfahorn said:
A friend of mine who had owned a MK4 Golf GTI for 12 years and clocked up 175,000 miles asked me to help find a mk6 last autumn. In the end we found a lovely low mileage (70,000) 2008/57 plate Mk5 5 door in united grey with full VW history. We've since dealt with the front wing issue, cambelt, water pump, oiler cooler and new Pirelli P-Zeros all round.
It was still considerably cheaper than an earlier mk6 and in my opinion a better drivers car. It should give her plenty of years great service.
You think the Mk6 is a better drivers car than a MK5?It was still considerably cheaper than an earlier mk6 and in my opinion a better drivers car. It should give her plenty of years great service.
Interesting how you could come to that conclusion given the major components are the same
- Steering rack
- Suspension geometery
- Suspension bushes
In actual fact the Mk6 bodyshell is slightly stiffer and generally the dampers are better (adaptive dampers are really good on those) .
The TSI gets a bad rep, everyone goes on about timing chains but in reality the 2.0 TSI engine was fitted to hundreds of thousands of cars , Golfs, Passats, Superbs, Sciroccos, etc and it's a very low proportion of them that fail.
It's also worth noting that overall interior quality on the MK6 is a step up, as is the infotainment, climate controls, etc. Just nicer, the Mk5 is very dated inside now.
The TSI engine is actually theoretically more reliable and efficient mainly due to not having a crappy cam lobe driven fuel pump which is the cause of many issues.
Edited by xjay1337 on Sunday 2nd June 20:01
I said it the wrong way round.
The whole of my post is related to the suggestion that the "Mk5 is a better drivers car" than a MK6 so would have thought if the rest of the post was read it would have been obvious.
So I'd be interested to hear your response to my points :-)
Edited by xjay1337 on Sunday 2nd June 21:39
xjay1337 said:
Alfahorn said:
MDMA . said:
xjay1337 said:
Alfahorn said:
A friend of mine who had owned a MK4 Golf GTI for 12 years and clocked up 175,000 miles asked me to help find a mk6 last autumn. In the end we found a lovely low mileage (70,000) 2008/57 plate Mk5 5 door in united grey with full VW history. We've since dealt with the front wing issue, cambelt, water pump, oiler cooler and new Pirelli P-Zeros all round.
It was still considerably cheaper than an earlier mk6 and in my opinion a better drivers car. It should give her plenty of years great service.
You think the Mk6 is a better drivers car than a MK5?It was still considerably cheaper than an earlier mk6 and in my opinion a better drivers car. It should give her plenty of years great service.
Interesting how you could come to that conclusion given the major components are the same
- Steering rack
- Suspension geometery
- Suspension bushes
In actual fact the Mk6 bodyshell is slightly stiffer and generally the dampers are better (adaptive dampers are really good on those) .
The TSI gets a bad rep, everyone goes on about timing chains but in reality the 2.0 TSI engine was fitted to hundreds of thousands of cars , Golfs, Passats, Superbs, Sciroccos, etc and it's a very low proportion of them that fail.
It's also worth noting that overall interior quality on the MK6 is a step up, as is the infotainment, climate controls, etc. Just nicer, the Mk5 is very dated inside now.
The TSI engine is actually theoretically more reliable and efficient mainly due to not having a crappy cam lobe driven fuel pump which is the cause of many issues.
Edited by xjay1337 on Sunday 2nd June 20:01
I said it the wrong way round.
The whole of my post is related to the suggestion that the "Mk5 is a better drivers car" than a MK6 so would have thought if the rest of the post was read it would have been obvious.
So I'd be interested to hear your response to my points :-)
Edited by xjay1337 on Sunday 2nd June 21:39
Is that so hard to grasp? Or do you want to continue to argue the point?
MDMA . said:
Well if you read Alfahorns post, he says in his opinion, the MK5 is a better drivers car than the MK6. So I'd take a guess that he likes the MK5 better than the MK6.
Is that so hard to grasp? Or do you want to continue to argue the point?
Right, well this is a forum where people post stuff and conversely get stuff posted back about what they originally posted about - I'm not looking to argue, Is that so hard to grasp? Or do you want to continue to argue the point?
I'm looking to engage in a debate - Since the Mk5 is , underneath, largely the same as a Mk6 , however the Mk6 has many small improvements which actually make it quantifiably better, I am looking to see what sort of experiences or views alfahorn has on why he thinks the Mk5 is a "better drivers car" , as I find his opinion hard to understand....
Is that so hard to grasp?
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