I always thought that the red 'i' on the mk4 gti meant it was the turbo'd variant - 150 or 180 brake (anniversary) am I right or was there no rhyme nor reason to it.
It means nothing. It was rumoured that VW had planned for the red i to be used on the turbo variant GTi, but in truth the dealers just badged them as they pleased. So it correlates to nothing.
Yes never had a good reputation. Although I really enjoyed mine. In fact, we’ve had three MK4 GTI Turbos over the years and one MK4 GT TDI. I always found them good cars, with acceptable running costs for a fun driving experience.
I loved the 1.8T gti. I think the negative comments were mainly down to the 2.0 gti which had the plus 10 second 0-60. The MK4 Golf was the last well made Golf.