How dearly I miss my 2007 MkV

[Siaynoq]

I had my 07 since 2018. I had moved from Washington back to Utah and one day while just out getting a coffee, a lady apparently passed out at the wheel on some prescription meds hit into me from the other side of traffic. I saw her coming at me in her white Jeep and managed to turn just in time for it not to be a full frontal collision.

This is my car after the accident as they were putting it up for auction.
https://carsbidshistory.com/make/38...VOLKSWAGEN_NEW_GTI_22410153_WVWEV71K77W037117

My friend told me at the time I shouldn't sell this car. He said instead I should get it fixed up. I wish so bad I had listened to him. But I kind of rationalized in my head that the car WAS getting older in spite of the very low miles on it. Around 70k. The car ran great and just had some minor issues with some scratches on the body and a sunroof that acted up on its own from time to time.

So anyway, instead of taking money from the insurance company to get it fixed up, I opted to sell it for about $8k. This money I used for a down payment to get a 2018 GTI S. The new car was beautiful, but I didn't like the way the turbo felt, it didn't have a sunroof and the sound system was awful. At any rate, this was my car now and I was planning on sticking with it. But that was until the wife and I had a baby and we moved to Montana for a couple of years. We got it in our heads that we needed a better car for the snow and bad roads up there. I wanted to keep the GTI ultimately but I wasn't sure I'd have peace until I got us an AWD car. So I sold the GTI and got a Jeep Cherokee. The Jeep's just awful, but that's another story.

Anyway, moved back to Utah, and now my wife and I both miss my 2018 GTI. Now as the prices on all used cars have skyrocketed, I thought at least I could go shopping for another Mk5, thinking just how expensive could they really be? They're pretty expensive, but I can afford it better now. The problem really is just finding a car that old that had either so few miles as my Mk5 or at least in as good of shape as I kept mine with as few owners as possible.

I came really close at one point with a used car dealership in Oregon. They had a silver 2007 GTI, looked exactly like mine! Had a few rough spots but I was going to make the car my project as well and fix it up as nice as I could. I was at a big disadvantage though being out of state and just as I was ready to send them the cashier's check for the car, someone else bought it from under me. Sigh....

I just love the Mk5 so much and I especially loved mine. Sometimes I google the VIN of my old car and see if there's any new info on it. I'm sure I'll never see it again, despite having nervous dreams about the car. The dreams are usually the same, where I've gotten the car back but I can also sense I'm just dreaming and I'm feeling extremely disappointed.

Well, thanks for letting me vent all this. I hope some here can relate how hard it is to get that sweet car back, or how regretful you were ever getting rid of yours. I keep looking online for a good Mk5. I'm not....too picky I suppose. As long as it has the plaid seats, is a manual and has a sunroof again (why aren't these standard anymore??), then I can compromise on other aspects of the car. But in general while it's a tough time to be shopping for a car, it's especially hard to shop for any GTI 2006-2009. They're kind of selling like hot cakes and I think dealers have really caught on to what it is they have in their inventory when they possess a GTI. There's one last sweet one up in Washington I wanted to get that was a 2006 and had less than 70K miles on it. I couldn't believe it. But the car was just too much out of my price range and considering I could spend up to a grand just to transport the car back to Utah, I'm back to square one again.

I'm not giving up, but I had to take a break from looking online and just reach out to your community here. Thanks again for letting me vent. And of course I welcome any tips/advice on getting a Mk5 today. Still trying to get one around $10k, but wow, there's not a lot around that price that aren't totally beat up.

 

[snobrdrdan]

I get it.
I regretted selling my MK5 too, and then (by random chance) I was selling a part to a local guy like 5 years ago and I checked out his car and I was saying how I had one that was very similar. Then I started looking closer at it and it turns out it was my old car!
The sad part though: the condition
The guy who had it after me did not take care of it. When I traded it in, it was mint. Not anymore & that's a shame.
I wish I could've bought it back, but not in that condition.

Sometimes you just have to move on...

 

[BurgerGuy]

So do I.

Mine's at the body shop now because a teenager rear ended me at a stop light. I want it back, but for now I'm driving around in this gutless sponge of a Nissan Versa.

Sorry for your loss. I've seen a few decent examples on CarGurus. A lot of MKVs have high miles these days, but there are some that are still sub 100k. Just remember if you find a '08.5 and newer MKV it'll have the gen 1 EA888 TSI engine which is much more capable from a modification perspective (ie: no HPFP for stage 2 power, no aftermarket injectors to go K04, etc.). The DSG used on that engine can also take a lot more torque than the one on the FSI.

 

[doktorslowburn]

I just bought my MK5 last year. I can definitely see how you miss it so much. Mines still under 100k miles- bought it at 92k and it’s up to 97k now. Spent about 6 months dumping a lot of time and money into maintenance for it. And I’m also guessing it needs a carbon cleaning, as I have no record of it ever being done, but it doesn’t misfire and idles like butter.

It’s a manual and has the plaid seats, no sunroof though, unfortunately. I might be willing to part with it, if there’d be any way to coordinate the sale from California. But it sounds like the lack of a roof is a dealbreaker.

I bought it for about 9k last year before used cars got crazy expensive. It’s by no means pristine, but it’s in pretty damn good condition for an 07. I’m the 3rd owner, the previous two owners seem to have taken good care of it as well.

 

[Siaynoq]

So do I.

Mine's at the body shop now because a teenager rear ended me at a stop light. I want it back, but for now I'm driving around in this gutless sponge of a Nissan Versa.

Sorry for your loss. I've seen a few decent examples on CarGurus. A lot of MKVs have high miles these days, but there are some that are still sub 100k. Just remember if you find a '08.5 and newer MKV it'll have the gen 1 EA888 TSI engine which is much more capable from a modification perspective (ie: no HPFP for stage 2 power, no aftermarket injectors to go K04, etc.). The DSG used on that engine can also take a lot more torque than the one on the FSI.

Geez, I hope you have your car back by now or soon. Luckily, as I'm writing this today, yes! I did find a MkV GTI on Cargurus and it was delivered just today to me which reminded me to check in on this forum. I hope to become more active here cause I got a lot to learn about fixing cars now that I just bought an 07. The color is just like my old one and the rims too. Craziest thing is it had only 1 owner and 67k miles on it. That's about the same amount of miles my original 07 had. Only thing now is that the engine is stuttering at 3000 rpms but there's not check engine light or anything. So I'm trying to research it before I take it in for a diagnostic.

I get it.
I regretted selling my MK5 too, and then (by random chance) I was selling a part to a local guy like 5 years ago and I checked out his car and I was saying how I had one that was very similar. Then I started looking closer at it and it turns out it was my old car!
The sad part though: the condition
The guy who had it after me did not take care of it. When I traded it in, it was mint. Not anymore & that's a shame.
I wish I could've bought it back, but not in that condition.

Sometimes you just have to move on...

That's pretty crazy you found your original car, ha! I would imagine if I had found my old one it would seem different by then from whoever had owned it.

I just bought my MK5 last year. I can definitely see how you miss it so much. Mines still under 100k miles- bought it at 92k and it’s up to 97k now. Spent about 6 months dumping a lot of time and money into maintenance for it. And I’m also guessing it needs a carbon cleaning, as I have no record of it ever being done, but it doesn’t misfire and idles like butter.

It’s a manual and has the plaid seats, no sunroof though, unfortunately. I might be willing to part with it, if there’d be any way to coordinate the sale from California. But it sounds like the lack of a roof is a dealbreaker.

I bought it for about 9k last year before used cars got crazy expensive. It’s by no means pristine, but it’s in pretty damn good condition for an 07. I’m the 3rd owner, the previous two owners seem to have taken good care of it as well.

Ah, I really appreciate the hope you offered there. Yeah as I wrote above, I just found and bought a 2007 with one owner and 67k miles on it. But the idling doesn't feel good on it, and the engine stutters really bad at 3000rpm's. No check engine light. I gotta start a separate thread about it to tap the community for ideas. Carbon cleaning seems to be one of the things I come across as the potential problem.

 

[BurgerGuy]

Best to scan the car before you throw parts and labor at it. First thoughts are coil packs and spark plugs, but yea a carbon cleaning would do some good especially if it's never been done before. You may want to check the cam follower as well since that can cause bigger issues if it fails.

Oh, and I do have the car back.