The Fresh Feeling of a 12-Year-Old Golf GTI

As I sat down with Richard to test drive his 12-year-old Golf GTI, I couldn't help but notice how fresh it felt despite its advanced age. The car had done only 32,000 kilometers, which is remarkably low for a car that's over a decade old. This, combined with regular servicing, has clearly taken care of the vehicle and given it a new lease on life.

The automatic gearbox was a highlight of the drive, feeling very smooth and responsive to my inputs. I have to say, I was quite impressed by how well it had been maintained, both mechanically and cosmetically. The interior was spotless, with no signs of wear or tear that you'd expect to see on a car of this age. The exterior looked equally impressive, with only a few minor scratches and scuffs to suggest that it's been driven regularly.

One thing that did need attention was the alignment, which was noticeably off due to Richard's aggressive left-turning habits. However, apart from this, the car felt incredibly fresh and fun to drive. The seats were comfortable, the fabric looked good, and the overall build quality was high. It's clear that Richard has taken great care of his car, and it shows in the way it drives.

The performance of the car was also impressive, with a 0-100mph time of just 6.7 seconds and a top speed of around 240km/h (150mph). While not as fast as some newer models, this is still an incredible performance for a car of its age and size. The acceleration felt punchy and responsive, with the DSG gearbox providing smooth and seamless shifts.

One thing that did strike me was the difference between the speedo and GPS readings. In this case, we were getting around 232km/h (144mph) on the GPS, which is significantly slower than the 260km/h (160mph) shown on the speedo. This isn't unique to this car, as I've experienced similar issues with other older models from the same era.

Despite this quirk, Richard's Golf GTI was an absolute blast to drive, and it's clear that he's a fan of high-mileage performance cars. The feeling of driving something that still performs at such a high level is incredibly satisfying, and Richard was right to be enthusiastic about his car.

For those who are interested in purchasing a used Golf GTI or similar model, this review should give you an idea of what to expect. With regular servicing and care, these cars can easily last for many years beyond their initial production date. And with prices currently low, it's an affordable way to own a performance car that still delivers on its promises.

Conclusion

As I finished up my test drive with Richard, I couldn't help but feel impressed by his Golf GTI. Despite being 12 years old, the car felt incredibly fresh and fun to drive, with impressive performance and handling characteristics. While not without its quirks, this car is a great example of what can be achieved when regular servicing and care are taken seriously.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's cute how ugly it is and uh well i do appreciate that mindset that steering wheel is so crooked it's very bad okay here we go full throttle yay what's up ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this pov review by auto top now my name is max and today we are continuing our series of affordable fun cars and this is again a viewers car this is richard's vw golf mark v gti and it is a limited edition 240 which is a special edition made by the importer for the netherlands boom they made this special edition because they had 300 of these mark 5 gti's left and the golf mark 6 was announced so they had to get rid of these mark 5 gti so they decided to instead of just giving a discount on these cars to get rid of them to make something cool and special and uh well i do appreciate that mindset so today i'm going to show you around it show you all the things that are special to this car and then we'll take it for a drive towards the old man for an automan blast but before we begin don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell if you want to receive updates when we upload a new video and check us out on instagram if you like at autodopanal for some behind the scenes footage now uh this limited edition the limited edition 240 has 240 horsepower as you might suspect and 330 newton meters of torque now this is one of the uh specials about this limited edition this has a chiptune by opt so stock this car had 200 horsepower and 280 newton meters of torque then came the gti edition 30 with 230 horsepower and 300 newton meters and then you have this gti limited edition 240 with 240 horsepower and 330 newton meters and after that you got the uh mark 5 r32 with 250 horsepower but only 320 newton meters of torque so this has 10 more yay um so that's the first thing that was special about this car the next thing is that there were only 300 of these made 100 in white 100 in black 100 in red this is a white car as you can see classic golf mark v with that red line in the grille the big a bit of a roundish front end and the gti mark v was the beginning of the resurrection of the gti it was the return of a proper gti the mark iv gti was rubbish uh and with this one they finally decided to do it well again and it's also the base for the cars that came uh after the the golf six seven eight it all they all have basically this same setup with a two liter four cylinder turbocharged engine and the dsg gearbox now we've got 18 inch wheels the classic mark v gti wheels with red brake calipers a nice black side skirt down there this car's bone stock i really like that it even has the uh plastic bumper like this is not in body color this wasn't painted and i just like that it's it's cute how ugly it is and we've got a limited edition 240 batch on the rear as well you can see that they just threw on these badges it's it's it's very like like they improvised like they decided on the last day of the month like oh frick we have to make a special edition oh yeah okay we'll make some badges and and put the badges on uh but it's just i don't know i like it i like that i like that it feels a bit improvised and it just they only uh made these between october and november of 2008 uh that's the 300. yeah i just i just like that it's better than what people do now i think this is much more creative so here we have the two-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine explained all the numbers already to you guys so no need to go into that much further there's not much to see here anyway so let's take a look inside because we've got the classic tartan of course on the seats now these seats are actually really good i just came out of the new 2021 audi s3 and these seats are better i'm not kidding these are much much lower and they are much more supportive and uh i like the tartan as well and there was also an option to go for a leather package on this edition 240. you can even see the plaque here limited edition 240 this is number 263 of 300 so i guess the last 100 are white another thing you got on this special edition is as standard by xenon lights and some kind of pioneer navigation slash infotainment system don't know where i left the key here it is but i'm not sure that this is it i i think so but it looks i i think it looks quite modern so i think this is a later version of it i don't know what this is i think this is a later version of the uh vw software anyway we've got a gti steering wheel as well with a nice logo here and the car has done 232 000 kilometers but i have to say it actually feels pretty fresh especially the automatic gearbox feels really good um we're going to take it for drive now and that gives me an opportunity to show you something that's not quite right with the car uh it desperately needs an alignment it is it's it's very very bad uh but it's basically the only thing you can yeah this is like i'm always turning left that's too much that's not okay uh but other than that it feels really fresh the interior looks good the exterior looks good the the seats the fabric the interior it all looks pretty good for a car that's 12 years old and uh has done two 32 000 kilometers so we'll put the dsg gearbox in sport floored ones we've got paddle shifters even and i have to say that the power feels pretty nice actually so sound wise we don't have a different exhaust or anything so it's just a basic gti sound which means that you've got a little bit of a corral but it's nothing crazy but it is still after all these years i i still think that this is a valid uh hold hack especially for the money now i mean uh these are not very expensive and you still have a nice fun to drive old hatch which apparently is is quite reliable and uh does stand up to the test of time because i was not expecting it to feel this fresh but this of course all comes down to servicing we've seen that with that 300 000 kilometer golf r-32 recently too which was just immaculate because it was serviced right i think that's the case with this car as well because it looks really really good and it drives really well and just i i really like that i like driving high mileage cars old high mileage cars that feel this fresh it's just it's very satisfying to me i don't know why all righty we're going to get the speedo cam going and take it to the ultimate we've got winter tires limited to 240 kilometers an hour and that should be right on the money because the top speed of this car should be 240 kilometers an hour 241 kilometers an hour and the zero to 100 is 6.7 so here we go on the ultramar full throttle i think it's a little bit busy here so we have to yeah there we go we have to wait a bit for everything to clear but performance wise that's not bad that steering wheel is so crooked it's it's very bad okay here we go full throttle i think we've got the space now and we are at 200 kilos an hour now of course we also measured our 100 to 200 which this car actually performed pretty well we measured at eight we measured an 18.02 run which is quicker than that r32 i was talking about earlier which had a manual gearbox but still v6 250 horsepower it is impressive it's also only one second slower than the new ford focus st with an automatic gearbox with 280 horsepower so the performance is there it is performing pretty well we are now at 250 kilometers an hour on the speedo and we are still now this is 260 almost i think but that was it basically it you need a lot of space to go any quicker than that but i have to say that the accelerations in between are really not bad the only problem is that there is quite a significant uh difference between this speedo which is very enthusiastic and the gps speedo that speed we were just doing around 260 on the speedo i think is about 232 kilometers an hour uh gps so yeah there is quite a big difference but that is something that we are experiencing with a lot of these cars from this era from that like late naughties late zeros uh era that these speedos are very enthusiastic we saw that with that e92 bmw m3 as well which is just the king of over achieving speedos but this is a good one as well but hey it doesn't really matter right don't really care about that if your buddy is sitting next to you he won't know so it doesn't really matter so we are back at the gas station almost last little pool i'm i'm telling you i'm serious this is pretty quick it feels really punchy and fresh and i really really like that i love these high mileage performance cars that still perform and still feel this good so richard thanks very much for bringing your car to us uh you have a very special very limited car so i guess you are very happy with it and you should because it is really cool just get that steering wheel alive other than that awesome car thanks so much and to you guys thanks for watching you can subscribe by clicking the big button in the middle you can also check out this video or go check out this playlist see you the next one byeit's cute how ugly it is and uh well i do appreciate that mindset that steering wheel is so crooked it's very bad okay here we go full throttle yay what's up ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this pov review by auto top now my name is max and today we are continuing our series of affordable fun cars and this is again a viewers car this is richard's vw golf mark v gti and it is a limited edition 240 which is a special edition made by the importer for the netherlands boom they made this special edition because they had 300 of these mark 5 gti's left and the golf mark 6 was announced so they had to get rid of these mark 5 gti so they decided to instead of just giving a discount on these cars to get rid of them to make something cool and special and uh well i do appreciate that mindset so today i'm going to show you around it show you all the things that are special to this car and then we'll take it for a drive towards the old man for an automan blast but before we begin don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell if you want to receive updates when we upload a new video and check us out on instagram if you like at autodopanal for some behind the scenes footage now uh this limited edition the limited edition 240 has 240 horsepower as you might suspect and 330 newton meters of torque now this is one of the uh specials about this limited edition this has a chiptune by opt so stock this car had 200 horsepower and 280 newton meters of torque then came the gti edition 30 with 230 horsepower and 300 newton meters and then you have this gti limited edition 240 with 240 horsepower and 330 newton meters and after that you got the uh mark 5 r32 with 250 horsepower but only 320 newton meters of torque so this has 10 more yay um so that's the first thing that was special about this car the next thing is that there were only 300 of these made 100 in white 100 in black 100 in red this is a white car as you can see classic golf mark v with that red line in the grille the big a bit of a roundish front end and the gti mark v was the beginning of the resurrection of the gti it was the return of a proper gti the mark iv gti was rubbish uh and with this one they finally decided to do it well again and it's also the base for the cars that came uh after the the golf six seven eight it all they all have basically this same setup with a two liter four cylinder turbocharged engine and the dsg gearbox now we've got 18 inch wheels the classic mark v gti wheels with red brake calipers a nice black side skirt down there this car's bone stock i really like that it even has the uh plastic bumper like this is not in body color this wasn't painted and i just like that it's it's cute how ugly it is and we've got a limited edition 240 batch on the rear as well you can see that they just threw on these badges it's it's it's very like like they improvised like they decided on the last day of the month like oh frick we have to make a special edition oh yeah okay we'll make some badges and and put the badges on uh but it's just i don't know i like it i like that i like that it feels a bit improvised and it just they only uh made these between october and november of 2008 uh that's the 300. yeah i just i just like that it's better than what people do now i think this is much more creative so here we have the two-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine explained all the numbers already to you guys so no need to go into that much further there's not much to see here anyway so let's take a look inside because we've got the classic tartan of course on the seats now these seats are actually really good i just came out of the new 2021 audi s3 and these seats are better i'm not kidding these are much much lower and they are much more supportive and uh i like the tartan as well and there was also an option to go for a leather package on this edition 240. you can even see the plaque here limited edition 240 this is number 263 of 300 so i guess the last 100 are white another thing you got on this special edition is as standard by xenon lights and some kind of pioneer navigation slash infotainment system don't know where i left the key here it is but i'm not sure that this is it i i think so but it looks i i think it looks quite modern so i think this is a later version of it i don't know what this is i think this is a later version of the uh vw software anyway we've got a gti steering wheel as well with a nice logo here and the car has done 232 000 kilometers but i have to say it actually feels pretty fresh especially the automatic gearbox feels really good um we're going to take it for drive now and that gives me an opportunity to show you something that's not quite right with the car uh it desperately needs an alignment it is it's it's very very bad uh but it's basically the only thing you can yeah this is like i'm always turning left that's too much that's not okay uh but other than that it feels really fresh the interior looks good the exterior looks good the the seats the fabric the interior it all looks pretty good for a car that's 12 years old and uh has done two 32 000 kilometers so we'll put the dsg gearbox in sport floored ones we've got paddle shifters even and i have to say that the power feels pretty nice actually so sound wise we don't have a different exhaust or anything so it's just a basic gti sound which means that you've got a little bit of a corral but it's nothing crazy but it is still after all these years i i still think that this is a valid uh hold hack especially for the money now i mean uh these are not very expensive and you still have a nice fun to drive old hatch which apparently is is quite reliable and uh does stand up to the test of time because i was not expecting it to feel this fresh but this of course all comes down to servicing we've seen that with that 300 000 kilometer golf r-32 recently too which was just immaculate because it was serviced right i think that's the case with this car as well because it looks really really good and it drives really well and just i i really like that i like driving high mileage cars old high mileage cars that feel this fresh it's just it's very satisfying to me i don't know why all righty we're going to get the speedo cam going and take it to the ultimate we've got winter tires limited to 240 kilometers an hour and that should be right on the money because the top speed of this car should be 240 kilometers an hour 241 kilometers an hour and the zero to 100 is 6.7 so here we go on the ultramar full throttle i think it's a little bit busy here so we have to yeah there we go we have to wait a bit for everything to clear but performance wise that's not bad that steering wheel is so crooked it's it's very bad okay here we go full throttle i think we've got the space now and we are at 200 kilos an hour now of course we also measured our 100 to 200 which this car actually performed pretty well we measured at eight we measured an 18.02 run which is quicker than that r32 i was talking about earlier which had a manual gearbox but still v6 250 horsepower it is impressive it's also only one second slower than the new ford focus st with an automatic gearbox with 280 horsepower so the performance is there it is performing pretty well we are now at 250 kilometers an hour on the speedo and we are still now this is 260 almost i think but that was it basically it you need a lot of space to go any quicker than that but i have to say that the accelerations in between are really not bad the only problem is that there is quite a significant uh difference between this speedo which is very enthusiastic and the gps speedo that speed we were just doing around 260 on the speedo i think is about 232 kilometers an hour uh gps so yeah there is quite a big difference but that is something that we are experiencing with a lot of these cars from this era from that like late naughties late zeros uh era that these speedos are very enthusiastic we saw that with that e92 bmw m3 as well which is just the king of over achieving speedos but this is a good one as well but hey it doesn't really matter right don't really care about that if your buddy is sitting next to you he won't know so it doesn't really matter so we are back at the gas station almost last little pool i'm i'm telling you i'm serious this is pretty quick it feels really punchy and fresh and i really really like that i love these high mileage performance cars that still perform and still feel this good so richard thanks very much for bringing your car to us uh you have a very special very limited car so i guess you are very happy with it and you should because it is really cool just get that steering wheel alive other than that awesome car thanks so much and to you guys thanks for watching you can subscribe by clicking the big button in the middle you can also check out this video or go check out this playlist see you the next one bye\n"