Hi all, quick introduction.
I've been part of the GTI club for almost a year now, and the VW club for much longer. I learned to drive in the unique Polo Dune 1.4 (lifted faux-4x4 polo from the early noughties).
The first proper car I bought was a mk7 golf. I spent a long time looking for the right spec in budget, ending up with a 1.4tsi SE with 122ps, and the key options (to me at the time!) of electric folding mirrors and front and rear parking sensors. It was a fantastic car, with a great engine. Coming from the 75bhp polo the 122hp turbocharged golf was a whole new level. Combine that with being able to get almost 60mpg on a sensible long run, and 17 inch wheels on fat donut tyres meant this was the ultimate comfortable daily.
I was very happy with this, and it made a lot of financial sense. In November 2020, my brother was looking for a new car and settled on a similar age mk7 golf which he was going to buy from the inchcape dealer in Exeter. I couldn't possibly let him go ahead with this without doing some test drives, having wanted a gti since before I could drive. I spied an opportunity to sell on my current golf and finally scratch the itch.
I started looking at slightly newer gtis but still mk7. My budget was an end of life mk7 pp, or at a stretch a mk7.5 230. I did several test drives, both mk7 and mk7.5, as well as dsg and manual. I settled on (and my budget crept up to) a 7.5 230ps in indium grey and manual. I decided that going for the facelift would be a bigger upgrade over the current mk7, and that for what I use the car for (round town and commuting), the updated interior, AID and lower miles of the 7.5 was preferential to the bigger brakes and LSD on the mk7 pp.
So the deal was done in Dec 2020:
It's a standard 67 plate non-pp with (as far as I know) no options ticked. This is absolutely fine for me as the base car is pretty fully loaded. Would have liked a pan roof but not a deal breaker.
I've kept it standard for the past 10 months, just enjoying the car in its excellent standard form. However after a long time lurking on this forum and doing a lot of reading, last week I pulled the trigger on a TCR muffler which I'm hoping will be here as soon as possible to give the car the sound it deserves. I'm also considering some Bola Flc in silver for next summer. Don't want to go mad on the car, but some subtle OEM+ stuff is inevitable!
