Volkswagen Golf GTI MKVI

Paddy@CIRL

Folks,

Following on from months of deliberation, I'm in the market for a MKVI GTI. They're quite a scarce car in Ireland, as most people during the height of the recession weren't concerning themselves with two litre turbocharged petrol cars. For me they make a lot of sense as my milage isn't quite what it used to be. They're quick, reliable, practical and subtle.

My ideal spec would be a Candy White three door manual with xenons, LED taillights, tartan interior, RNS510 navigation and bluetooth, MFSW, cruise control etc. but I'm not adverse to DSG or five door variants.

I've already got some great information from users here of what to look out for (timing chain tensioners in particular) but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot that goes wrong with them. Is this right?

Any advice or ownership experiences are very much welcome.

Thank you

PaulieC

Paddy@CIRL wrote: »

Folks,

Following on from months of deliberation, I'm in the market for a MKVI GTI. They're quite a scarce car in Ireland, as most people during the height of the recession weren't concerning themselves with two litre turbocharged petrol cars. For me they make a lot of sense as my milage isn't quite what it used to be. They're quick, reliable, practical and subtle.

My ideal spec would be a Candy White three door manual with xenons, LED taillights, tartan interior, RNS510 navigation and bluetooth, MFSW, cruise control etc. but I'm not adverse to DSG or five door variants.

I've already got some great information from users here of what to look out for (timing chain tensioners in particular) but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot that goes wrong with them. Is this right?

Any advice or ownership experiences are very much welcome.

Thank you

Not driven it, but my brother has had a MKVI, now drives a MKII and says that the difference is night and day, with the newer one being a lot better.

Paddy@CIRL

PaulieC wrote: »

Not driven it, but my brother has had a MKVI, now drives a MKII and says that the difference is night and day, with the newer one being a lot better.

I've just spent a week with a MKVII GTI with Performance Pack and would concede that it's the better car than the MKVI I drove, on the limit at least. But to be honest, for everyday use they're both on par and very hard to separate. The MKVII has got the nicer kit as standard and on paper is more efficient, but it's not enough to warrant the €10,000 price difference.

I'm hopefully viewing another 2011 MKVI on Friday: Candy White, three door, tartan and manual with MFSW. Not sure on the rest of the spec as it was only taken in yesterday but hopefully it's worth the trip.

bazz26

You might consider importing one especially if you are looking for a decent speced one. The Co2 is low enough on them so you might not be raped on VRT.

35th anniversary edition has pretty much the spec you are after but might be a bit outside your budget:


http://www.usedcarsni.com/2012-Volkswagen-Golf-GTI-Edition-35-Immaculate-136172474

Paddy@CIRL

bazz26 wrote: »

You might consider importing one especially if you are looking for a decent speced one. The Co2 is low enough on them so you might not be raped on VRT.

35th anniversary edition has pretty much the spec you are after but might be a bit outside your budget:


http://www.usedcarsni.com/2012-Volkswagen-Golf-GTI-Edition-35-Immaculate-136172474

An ED35 would be amazing although the VRT is still around €5,500 on a standard GTI. I can't see a price on that ad?

bazz26

Might be better to wait until around next Feb/March for the OMSP to drop off, you might have a better choice too. Dealer probably wants you to ring them for a price, same as the POA crap you get on carzone.

JoeA3

I don't think there's much else that goes wrong with them Paddy... Nothing out of the ordinary that I've heard or read about anyway. As I mentioned the wheels can be a costly headache to get right if they have that white-worm. If you go with DSG, make sure it's had its regular required maintenance.

The spec you have in mind sounds great but you won't find it too easily in this country. You might have to consider importing... Irish standard spec was poor enough too typically enough.

That link I gave you before to the UK owners forum is a great resource. It would be worth your while creating an account on there and asking your questions in the MK6 section, plenty of regular helpful contributors on there. The MK6 never really sold in any numbers here, it's lifespan pretty much ran parallel with the downturn! So you won't find much first hand experience of them on this forum. For what it's worth I had the MK6 GTD myself, which shares lots of bits with it's petrol sister, cosmetically and mechanically and it never gave me a moments bother. I had a MK5 GTI before that and again, no problems worth mentioning with that either. The MK6 was really just a heavy facelift of the MK5.

blingrhino

I hear they have dropped the price of the mkV11 "R" by 10k making it slightly more expensive than the Gti.
Now that would be some bus !

JoeA3

blingrhino wrote: »

I hear they have dropped the price of the mkV11 "R" by 10k making it slightly more expensive than the Gti.
Now that would be some bus !

Bit more than slightly... it's at least 10k over the GTI here!

blingrhino

JoeA3 wrote: »

Bit more than slightly... it's at least 10k over the GTI here!

2015 golf "r" 5 door Dsg ,rear camera,Cadiz blue now €46500

Decent speced Dsg Gti has to be €40 ish ?

JoeA3

blingrhino wrote: »

2015 golf "r" 5 door Dsg ,rear camera,Cadiz blue now €46500

Decent speced Dsg Gti has to be €40 ish ?

You're looking at one of the few used / demos on carzone, right? Those cars would have retailed new for closer to €55-60k! I'd imagine an ex-demo GTI in similar spec would go for closer to the 32k mark. So at €46k, it does seem like value..!

GTI starts at €34.5k but you'll easily see 40k for sure by ticking a few options. The R starts at €52k...

blingrhino

JoeA3 wrote: »

You're looking at one of the few used / demos on carzone, right? Those cars would have retailed new for closer to €55-60k! I'd imagine an ex-demo GTI in similar spec would go for closer to the 32k mark. So at €46k, it does seem like value..!

GTI starts at €34.5k but you'll easily see 40k for sure by ticking a few options. The R starts at €52k...

No Joe the price of them has been reduced ,

i know its not on the VW website yet but i have a dealer quote for a new 151 .

The second one on carzone is sold but not taken down yet.

R.O.R

blingrhino wrote: »

No Joe the price of them has been reduced ,

i know its not on the VW website yet but i have a dealer quote for a new 151 .

The second one on carzone is sold but not taken down yet.

Golf R has come down by €9,305 for 2015......

JoeA3

R.O.R wrote: »

Golf R has come down by €9,305 for 2015......

Wow, can't believe that. Have they done anything with the GTI prices? They must be pretty closely priced now, only a few K in it?

MuppetCheck

JoeA3 wrote: »

Wow, can't believe that. Have they done anything with the GTI prices? They must be pretty closely priced now, only a few K in it?

It's gone up, but looks like xenons and front and back sensors are standard. Also gets the extra spec like nav the rest get.

JoeA3

MuppetCheck wrote: »

It's gone up, but looks like xenons and front and back sensors are standard. Also gets the extra spec like nav the rest get.

If I'm reading the VW configurator correctly, it looks like they are adding quite a few extra bits as standard, bringing it close or even identical to UK spec. Prices haven't been adjusted on the configurator yet though, surely the GTI will go up a couple of K at least. Do you have the updated price list MC?
This makes the GTI uncomfortably close to the R... I'd be very pissed off if I'd bought either of them recently (more recently than me!).

D16TURBO

I wonder will the R drop in price in the rest of europe then? It starts here at 36k already. It won't do the depreciation of my GTI any good though.

Paddy@CIRL

That is cracking value on the Golf R to be fair. Although, with the deposit I'm willing to put down for a GTI, the difference would mean paying back around €600 a month for four years. Christ...

Anyways, viewed two more GTIs this week and still searching. Here's why...

First viewed a 2011 model, Candy White three door, tartan interior, LED tails and MDI under armrest with a MFSW. It had around 78,000KMs on it which isn't intergalactic by any standard, but is significantly more than any other GTI I've viewed. The car was quite clean, although the bonnet had some stone chips which showed signs of oxidation (the chips had already turned orange with rust). It was priced at €23,950 with the dealer willing to drop to €23,000. Two weeks or so previously, the same dealer sold a 2010 car which was identical to this car except for the LED tail lights but had around half the mileage. It sold for €19,000. I just couldn't justify giving €4,000 to have a newer registration plate and had to walk away from it.

The second car was a 2012 model with 44,000KM. It was United Grey in colour, three door, LED tails, manual gearbox and with heated leather and a MFSW. It's been advertised for around 6-8 weeks and I've honestly no idea why. It was mint and with a fully stamped history. The only negative being the slightest of wear on the leather bolsters on both the driver and passenger side. It's listed at €24,950 with the dealer likely to come down to around the €24,500 mark. It's outside my budget, but whoever buys it will get a great car IMO.

That's pretty much every MKVI GTI in a dealership in this country viewed, asides from one in Donegal. At least I'm narrowing down my own criteria at the moment and will likely have to wait for a 2010 car to come up. The search continues...

Neilw

What price is the golf R now? 3 door DSG.

JoeA3

Neilw wrote: »

What price is the golf R now? 3 door DSG.

€45k.

MuppetCheck

And it's got 19s, basic nav...only task thing I'd add to one would be the winter pack.

blingrhino

Does anyone think there would be a big difference MPG wise between an R and Gti . Obviously if you are hammering therevwill be,but in normal day to day life.?
Seriously considering one for January but I'm coming from a 520 and worried the running costs will make me get rid of it in 6 months !

D16TURBO

My MK7 is doing 10l/100km pretty much since I bought it. That's generally commuting 10 to twenty mins on back roads and slow traffic. The R shouldn't be much worse.
I had an R out on test drive for a few hours and I seen that over the 4000 km it had done it sat at around 12 l/100km. As a demo it would have gotten a hard life too. Not long after I went for a spin in an xdrive m135i and it was reading 15l/100km.

bazz26

To be fair if coming from a diesel car and running costs are a major concern then there is probably no point in looking at a 300bhp petrol car.

Paddy@CIRL

I've not drive an R, but I have spent a week with a new S3 which is the same engine / turbo combination as the R. IMO, the MKVII GTI was far easier to live with - economy wise - than the S3. That being said, the S3 is a whole other level of quick compared to the GTI.

MuppetCheck

Paddy@CIRL wrote: »

I've not drive an R, but I have spent a week with a new S3 which is the same engine / turbo combination as the R. IMO, the MKVII GTI was far easier to live with - economy wise - than the S3. That being said, the S3 is a whole other level of quick compared to the GTI.

If you want toys how about an older model S3? It will be a couple of years older and use a little more fuel but it can be bought cheaper and they generally have a much higher spec than a GTI.



http://www.carzone.ie/search/Audi/S3/2.0-TFSI/92414132184289840/advert?channel=CARS



http://www.carzone.ie/search/Audi/S3/2.0-TFSI/201428225312248/advert?channel=CARS

JoeA3

I believe that the 2nd S3 you linked there MC has a slightly dubious history - Think Fran/Nidge in Love/Hate if you catch my drift

MuppetCheck

JoeA3 wrote: »

I believe that the 2nd S3 you linked there MC has a slightly dubious history - Think Fran/Nidge in Love/Hate if you catch my drift

Thought that by the pics:pac:

noelf

According to completecar.ie the Golf R is E42445 plus E2280 of extra kit added which makes it E1780 more over the top spec gti .. E43465 on vw configurator

carsfan

I wonder would the insurance be huge on the R versus the gti?
Reading some reviews, they say the R isn't really much better than the gti anyway but I imagine it would be an incredible all rounder.
The new spec and prices must leave recent purchasers of either model rightly annoyed.
I wonder would VW Ireland compensate you if you had just bought at the higher prices

MuppetCheck

carsfan wrote: »

I wonder would VW Ireland compensate you if you had just bought at the higher prices

Bahahahahahahaha...they would in their hole!

carsfan

That's what I would think too!
However, I think I have a vague recollection that a few years ago that Subaru in the UK compensated owners when they reduced the price of impreza wrx due to slow sales.