[SOLD] 2003 VW GTI 1.8T 5MT Silverstone Grey - $7500 (Denver)

[Ganthrithor]

Hey guys,

I'm moving back to California this summer and was originally going to sell my GTI in CA but since I just got the car titled + registered in CO I figured it might be easier to sell here than there. Car is currently in Denver (near DU / University Park), but I'm graduating this spring and will be going back to California sometime in June. Car will be available in a few weeks, once I've done a few things to it-- details below!

The Car:

2003 GTI 1.8T hatch (5spd manual, Silverstone Grey)
17" Monte Carlos (currently sitting on a set of Blizzaks with <1000 mi on them, but I'll be putting my Direzza Z1 Star Specs back on shortly. The Star Specs are pretty worn, but not on the wear-bars yet)
Grey leather interior
Moonroof
Monsoon audio
Heated seats / mirrors
Milltek resonated turbo-back exhaust
Poly engine mounts
Koni rear struts
Car was dropped by previous owner, I think around an inch, but I'm not sure what spring kit it's got
Tinted windows (excluding windshield; I'd guess its around 50%? Done by previous owner)
Stubby radio antenna

Mileage: ~103k

Price: $6,500

CO title in-hand, just registered it in CO last month (previously had it registered in CA). Car currently has a CEL for cat under-performance, but passes emissions in CA and CO (just passed + registered in CO about a month ago).

All service records available for my ownership (since ~62k mi).


Finally got my valence replaced and the headlights de-fogged-- the car is still pretty dirty atm but it rained today which actually made it look surprisingly good:







I bought this car in 2007 at ~62k miles and it's served as my DD since. To the best of my knowledge it's a two real-owner car (original owner in Georgia IIRC, a Colorado dealer, and myself). It's spent the majority of its time in CA since I bought it (3 winters / springs in CO while I've been attending school out here, the rest of its time has been spent in SoCal). It's never been in a major accident (did some cosmetic damage to my 20th AE front valence + bent the radiator slightly doing some unintentional offroading as a result of getting caught out in a snow storm on summer tires-- was trying my best to creep along at ~20mph at the time so more damage was done towing the car out than going off :banghead.

Since purchasing the car I've done the following (I may be forgetting a minor thing or two, but full service records are available for the car since I acquired it):

- replaced the original transmission
- replaced the original clutch (done at same time as trans-- original wasn't slipping but figured I'd get it done while they had the car pulled apart; also went to a single-mass flywheel IIRC)
- replaced original brake rotors
- 80k mile service was done soon after I bought the car (~64k mi?)-- timing belt / water pump replaced
- car was in for an ignition coilpack recall a year or two ago
- replaced a bunch of sensors (MAF, O2, thermostat, engine coolant temp)
- installed a new battery last year (original wasn't standing up to CO winters)
- replaced taillights with LED bulbs when the incandescents went out
- replaced fuel-door actuator servo
- replaced driver's side seat forward/rearward adjustment latch cable

In addition normal consumables (pads, oil, filters, etc) have been changed regularly. Mechanically the car runs well-- with the exception of the original transmission failing I've never had a serious mechanical problem with the car. The electronics are another story-- since I've owned it I don't think I've ever had the CEL off for more than ~500 miles. The car runs just fine and passes CA emissions tests, although you have to do a code reset to put the CEL out in order to have it smogged. I've pretty much taken to leaving the CEL on and just living with it, since the car runs fine and I keep it pretty rigorously maintained. If you were super paranoid about it ODB II readers are pretty inexpensive and would allow you to pull codes yourself whenever you wanted to.

Aesthetically, the car's in pretty good shape given its age. I'd say the interior is cleaner than most (just judging from browsing pics of similar cars on autotrader)-- no rips / tears / cracks / and the wheel / gearshift are in nice shape compared to a lot of the ones I've seen. There are a few scuff marks etc on the interior here and there but nothing major.

The exterior is in reasonably good shape-- the windshield has a rock chip (it's been there for years and hasn't propagated at all even through several CO winters) and the front end has a bit of road rash, but no major defects. Paint is in pretty good shape with the exception of a few scratches here and there. The driver's door somehow acquired a dent recently that didn't damage the paint but is nonetheless quite large (its also pretty shallow, to the extent that I didn't notice it for several days because you only see it when the car catches the light at certain angles). I just pulled the old 20th Anniversary Edition valence off the car a few weeks ago (it was cracked pretty badly and I think I'm just going to replace it with a normal OEM textured black valence). I'm also planning on having the headlights wetsanded before I sell it because they're pretty hazy at this point. The wheels have curb rash and a few scratches, and the clear coat has peeled inside the lug-nut recesses, which I take it isn't abnormal.

Car drives great-- the new brake / pad combination gives it a firmer pedal feel than the stock setup (which I found pretty soft/grabby in comparison). It's not Porsche-firm but its world's better than the stock setup-- for comparison it's much lighter than the pedal in something like a Porsche 993, but quite a bit firmer / less grabby than the stock setup on recent BMWs. I greatly prefer the firmer feel to the stock setup, as I find it more confidence-inspiring and it makes for much easier heel/toe downshifting.

The suspension is very firm (seems a bit over-spring and under-damped if you ask me) which is sort of a double-edged sword-- on a smoothish road it grips extremely well (especially on those star specs), but for daily driving its fairly harsh on the things Denverites call "roads," and when you're really pushing hard on substandard road surfaces you can lose some grip due to lack of compliance. Steep driveways are a pain in the ass (although with my cracked valence I didn't care too much about rubbing). On the other hand, the car is extremely quick and responsive on any kind of decently paved, twisty road. Personally I've had no problem tolerating the NVH since I've spent most of my time with this car on tight California backroads rather than commuting.

This car really is way more fun than it should be given how practical it is as a daily driver (as Chris Harris says: "The GTI: all the car you'll ever need"). It really is astonishingly quick on the twisties as long as you stick proper rubber on it (I've driven my share of much more imposing vehicles down the same roads back home and it continues to impress me how small the performance gap actually is between them and my car). And the fact that you can have that much fun while still fitting a small apartment's worth of crap in the back when you need to and still get ~28 mpg on the highway on sticky rubber is pretty cool. Truth be told, if this car were RWD I probably wouldn't be selling it, but in my quest for oversteer I've foolishly decided to throw practicality out the window and replace this car with a Subaru BRZ.

Anyway, the car looks like **** right now (it's still wearing its winter filth and I haven't installed the new front valence yet, so it just kind of looks naked and ridiculous) but I'll post pics as soon as I've spring-ified it (replacing the front valence, cleaned up the headlights, reinstalled summer tyres and given it a proper wash). Just curious to see if there's any interest out here in the rocky mountain area before I take it back to CA.

[Ganthrithor]

Bump: discovered the other day whilst CEL-hunting that my "aftermarket exhaust" (what the guys at the shop told me when I had a PPI done before buying the car and I assumed to mean a cat-back or axle back setup) is actually a full, turbo-back system complete with 200-cell sport cat. Good news: CEL is for cat under-performance (which is totally normal when running this exhaust). Bad news: making the CEL go away would require putting a shitty downpipe on or dropping $450 on a tune that disables the post-downpipe monitoring.

[Ganthrithor]

Finally replaced my front valence, put the summer tyres back on and had the headlights cleaned up. Also it rained today, which cleaned the car up a bit :3

New pics posted.

[Ganthrithor]

Sold.