This Three-Door Mk6 VW Golf GTI Is A £7000 Sensible-Ish Hot Hatch Bargain
This week, we’ve received yet another sign that three-door hatchbacks are on their way out. Having already displayed a particular keenness purge its ranks of these less practical but much more handsome machines, it’s now looking like VW Group won’t bother making anything other than a five-door Golf when the next version arrives.
Rather than blubbing in the corner, however, we’ll do exactly what we did to console ourselves last time another batch of three-door deaths were reported: pluck something out of the classifieds.
Last time we took a closer look at a three-door, previous-generation Audi S3. Since this latest news concerns the Golf, a GTI makes perfect sense upon this occasion, doesn’t it? Specifically, a Mk6.
The fifth-generation car this hot hatch replaced is widely accepted to be the point at which the Golf GTI sorted itself out following the iffy Mk3 and Mk4 cars. It’s perhaps for this reason that VW didn’t fiddle with the recipe all that much - it’s powerful but not as pokey as some rivals, fun to drive yet not the last word in driving excitement. Power did increase, but only by a mere 10bhp.
That said, there were plenty of new bits and pieces to enjoy. Firstly, that engine - the 207bhp 2.0-litre inline-four turbo was an all-new design which debuted in the Scirocco. The hot sixth-gen Golf also pinched a set of adaptive dampers from its curvaceous cousin, and it was the first GTI to be given VW’s ‘XDS’ electronic differential.
With the oldest models now getting on for 10 years old, you don’t need a huge amount of money to buy one. Examples with galactic mileage start at as little as £6000, and if you up that budget by a grand or so, you’ll have plenty of choice.
This one weighs in at £6995, and while it’s leggier than we’d ideally like with 109,000 miles on the clock, it does tick a lot of boxes. It’s a three-door, it’s in Tornado Red, and it has a six-speed manual gearbox. It has a full leather interior rather than the legendary tartan ‘Clark Plaid’ fabric, but hey, you can’t have everything.
It has a full service history and only two previous owners. Tempted?
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
God you guys are a broken record. “Don’t forget to blame SUV’s for the demise of small sporty cars”.
I believe that’s a little thing called “Satire”
Id rather get an e46
another case of people completely missing the point of hot hatches
So would I, but there are lots of people that need a car that is cheap to run. This Golf GTI may have a few electrical issues a few years down the line, but that’s much easier to sort than fixing a cracked rear subframe or a VANOS system.
I just drove home in my white 3 door Gti mk 6, with DSG.. Its pushing up on 150,000 miles in the next few weeks. I still look forward to driving it every day, and find time to just go for a drive every chance i get.
The car is tons of fun, and one of the best all around cars you can buy, period. I have had my fair share of repairs and maintainence but nothing totally out of the ordinary. Gti’s are truly a joy.
thats really nice to hear!
when did you buy it?
I agree, I’m sitting in my 5 door mk6 gti dsg, and the fact that it’s the perfect all round sports car makes it very special. You can smoke a bunch of cars and sports cars and still get like 30mpg (idk how much exactly) when driving normally. It sounds good, drives very well, looks good and very practical if you’re short or average height. (Tall people, y’all get a 3 door)