Hello everyone
my name is shaun, and after much deliberation, I have decided I want to buy a VW Golf GTi 1.8 turbo. But I have a problem. I want many things on my car, one of which is the full recaro leather interior which was on option on the mk4 , now some websites i.e whatcar.com and parkers say the full leather was only an option on the 'executive car'.
the second part of my problem is that I want to have my golf remapped by angel tuning to 190 bhp, but they have explained that they can only do this for me if I buy a mid '2000' model or later, as they cant do it for a 2000 or earlier?? is this true?
I am struggling to find one off that year with the full leather. was it replaced with the velour recaro? can I have both? meaning can I have the leather on a car that angel tuning can remap ?
thanks alot for your veiws, and please bear with me, as im a newbie to your website
I'm a newbie too

Basically leather recaro's were an option. You get 3 types of seats in the 1.8T depending on the year of the car. The earlier version's come as standard with VW sports seats. The later versions (2001 on) normally come with recaro cloths. The recaro leathers were an option, which is why you'll have a bit of trouble finding them in the car, there are plenty about though.
The garage will want a mid 2000 or later engine because the engine codes changed in that year. They went from the earlier AUM engines which has bigger port heads and a K03 turbo. The mid 2000-2001 models had an AUQ engine with a K03s turbo and was also DBW (Drive by wire, meaning no accelerator cable). This AUQ engine has more tuning posibilties because of the better turbo that came with it and because of the DBW. The mid 2000 - 2001 models with AUQ engines also came with ASR (traction control) whereas the AUM models didnt.
There are posibilitles with the AUM engine though, as different specialists work with different engines and you'd pretty much get the same power from both from different providers, however, a lot of the providers would want you to upgrade to a K03s turbo as found in the AUQ models.
Easiest way to tell if it's newer or older engine model is to look for an accelerator cable, if there aint one, its DBW and AUQ engine.
Hope that helps!