« Reply #9 on: 07 July 2009, 18:55 »
It is a difficult call at the moment for sure. I've been to a couple of VW dealers now to price up a new mk5.5 mk6 GTI and have been surprised to see late mk5s with massive 'run out model' specs for very similar money to the new model. All the sales people are running about doing scrappage deals on Polos and I wonder how much actual interest the new model has had. When the mk5 was launched it was so popular there were big waiting lists and depreciation was slow. Now the economic climate is very different and to try and bolster up the prices of the 'new' GTI VW seem to be making them in very limited numbers from reading between the lines of what the sales execs I've spoken to have said. They also told me that late mk5s are flying out the doors at the moment, probably because to most people the cars are so similar (excluding VWKev on the mk6 forum) and the mk5 offers so much more for your money at present.
The telling time will come in about 12 months when there are a few more mk6s available to see whether they will command the same level of depreciation proof motoring that the mk5 had for the first couple of years.
I reckon that a Pirelli or ED30 with a full spec would hold it's value very well but I'm not so sure that paying the prices a lot of dealers are asking at the moment would be sound financial sense as they are preying on the limited availabilty of decent cars either new or second hand. A better deal right now may be to get an cheaper older (say 07 plate) GTI and wait until prices have settled down to normal a bit.
New Polos on the other hand are very popular and it is extremely fortunate for VW that the scrappage deal was announced at the same time as the old Polo model run out model deals were getting underway. Bad time to be selling a late model Polo though!!!
Take it from me as someone who's been driving Golf GTIs on and off for 23 years, the mk6 doesn't drive much differently to a 200bhp mk5 GTI and despite the claims that it's quieter than the mk5, the mk6 shows up the rattles far more as it's so well sound insulated. One I drove rattled quite badly from a rear door and somewhere in the boot/back seat area on undulating, but not badly surfaced roads.
The mk6 is ahead but not by much and the R model will probably use only a very slightly modified Pirelli engine anyway.
Just my tuppence worth.........
Logged
‘25 8.5R, ‘23 8R, ‘20 8CS, ‘19 135iX, ‘19 TCR, ‘17 Ed40, ‘17 GTD, ‘15 7R, ‘13 GTI PP, ‘11 GTI, ‘09 GTI, ‘98 Ibiza Cupra, ‘05 GTI, ‘06 Polo GTI, ‘04 GT TDI, ‘05 Fabia vRS, ‘02 GTI T, ‘03 Ibiza TDI 130, ‘01 Leon 180, ‘89 mk2 16v, ‘99 Ibiza TDI, ‘96 VR6, ‘98 Ibiza TDI, ‘92 VR6, ‘88 mk2 8v, ‘92 Polo G40, ‘91 mk2 8v, ‘89 mk2 8v, 205 GTI 1.9, ‘83 mk1 GTI, ‘80 Scirocco GTI, plus some others I’ve forgotten
