Mk5 or Mk6 Golf GTI?

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I've been playing that old game of scanning the classifieds for your next car in lockdown and wondering about selling our 2 ageing Fords and buying one newer car. A £7,500 budget is interesting as it includes stuff like the Mk7 Fiesta ST and also seems to be the starting point for Mk6 Golf GTIs. I am amazed in truth how expensive these Mk6 GTIs are relative to the MK5. I mean the oldest Mk6s are now coming up to 11 years old, yet a MK5 can easily be had for half the money and has in fairness been available for less than £4K for quite some time. So I'm just after some feedback from those who've owned both. Is the Mk6 really worth double the money of a Mk5? Considering the early MK6s have the timing chain issue, I must admit I'm not sure. The MK5 sure seems to be a bargain and for me is ticking a lot of boxes, half my budget and unlikely to depreciate from this point. Only caveat is this, at 14-15 years old, are they getting a bit tired?!

Oh and you can get an early Scirocco for less than Golf Mk6 GTI money too. Interesting as I think they share the same engine don't they?

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Yes, the MK5 seems to be a particular sweet spot, a bit like the Mk2 16 valve. It was a big step up over the MK4, whereas the Mk6 and Mk7 seem to have represented incrementally smaller steps over the MK5. The MK5 is only 20BHP down on a base model MK7 I believe......

If anyone who has driven both can give a personal perspective I would still like to hear it. Surely someone on the VAG sub section of PH must have owned or driven both?!