MK5's now being abandoned

[neil]

Was down south heading for Hume the other week M7 a Mk5 Golf GT with wheel missing and sticker on window and coming back a few days later north side near Campbelltown a MK5 Golf bonnet and hatch open with sticker on window , mk5 worth nothing these days , doesnt seem like 12 years ago I joined this forum after buying mk5 jetta.

[feenix74]

After the wife's Mk5 blew a turbo on Christmas Eve which cost us just over $2K to replace with a new OEM one, I can see why some people may end up abandoning them.

They are 10-15 years old, they are relatively complicated mechanically with turbos and other bits that are expensive to replace. They have also come into the price range that many young P-platers can afford them as a first or second car. So some get thrashed and not properly maintained.

If my memory serves me correctly, the Mk5 GT has the Siemens piezoelectric injectors which had a tendency to fail and cost $1k-$2k to replace.

[brad]

There was a MK5 TDI on FB Marketplace this morning for FREE!

Description:
"I stopped car at service station. I'm sick of it"

[jets]

They are 10-15 years old, they are relatively complicated mechanically with turbos and other bits that are expensive to replace.

Ours was built in late '05, so just over 13 years. It has been the best car I have owned & that includes 2 x Mercedes [both manual] & 2 Porsches [a 356B & a 911L]. The only replacement so far has been an EGR valve that cost around $150,a driveshaft boot from memory around $25, the usual service items- rear brake pads & tyres. I think the Mk5 is very underrated & I would have loved to buy my car now for $5k or whatever it's now worth instead of the $36,000 + orc that I paid new. You can see where this trend will go. As on a previous Top Gear show, reasonably good cars were purchased for 1 pound otherwise the owners had to pay to get rid of them.
Most people these days only want a new car. A couple of people I know, trade their cars in well before the end of warranty. One was 2 years the other every 4 years & they were both low mileage. There was not a problem with either one & both bought the same brand again. It costs them a fortune.

[feenix74]

Agree with you. In my personal opinion, the Mk5 is still the pinnacle of VW engineering excellence. Mk6 was all about beancounters reducing the cost of building a Golf, Mk7 was trying to fix the corner cutting done on the Mk6. The Mk8 is a fancy Mk7 but I worry about the reliability of a glass cockpit display with no backup instruments (in an aircraft glass cockpit, they install backup basic instruments in case of glass cockpit failure).

My wife's Mk5 was originally bought new by my brother, so we have the full history of that car. My brother changed the clutch before he sold it to us, since we bought it 3 years ago, we have had a few minor repairs done (intercooler hose replacement, head gasket replacement, coolant flange replacement). The turbo was the first big expensive repair. Wife and I are very keen to keep the Mk5 for as long as we possibly can as she loves driving it.

Personally, I still prefer the mechanical simplicity and reliability of my Mk3 but it is hard to beat the efficiency and performance of the Mk5 2.0 TDI (with a Stage 1 remap).

[Kachingg]

Agree with you. In my personal opinion, the Mk5 is still the pinnacle of VW engineering excellence. Mk6 was all about beancounters reducing the cost of building a Golf, Mk7 was trying to fix the corner cutting done on the Mk6. The Mk8 is a fancy Mk7 but I worry about the reliability of a glass cockpit display with no backup instruments (in an aircraft glass cockpit, they install backup basic instruments in case of glass cockpit failure).

My wife's Mk5 was originally bought new by my brother, so we have the full history of that car. My brother changed the clutch before he sold it to us, since we bought it 3 years ago, we have had a few minor repairs done (intercooler hose replacement, head gasket replacement, coolant flange replacement). The turbo was the first big expensive repair. Wife and I are very keen to keep the Mk5 for as long as we possibly can as she loves driving it.

Personally, I still prefer the mechanical simplicity and reliability of my Mk3 but it is hard to beat the efficiency and performance of the Mk5 2.0 TDI (with a Stage 1 remap).

Yes indeed hard to beat the torque of a tuned tdi it is intoxicating indeed hope you have a long partnership with your mark 5
My old mark 6 tdi is with my daughter now (all the boys at the tafe course she is doing are very jealous of it)and still going strong
My mark 7.5 is tuned and i love it to bits the 40klm to 100klm is just stomped with a wall of torque

[saabman]

I had a mk5 1.6 new in 2005 and it was awesome lovely to drive, economical, comfortable. My ex wife took it when she left...

My daughter bought herself a mk5 2.0FSI about 18months ago. When it goes it’s great but the amount of time I spend looking for faults that just shouldn’t exist.
The insulation on the wireing harness is so brittle it breaks just looking at it.

It came very close to been wrecked only a few weeks ago because I’m sick of the failures. The complexity is an engineering marvel but just way too complicated to keep on the road. If we were paying a mechanic to keep it on the road it wouldn’t have lasted 12 months. Dads labor is free

She should have stuck with her ‘75 beetle - when it broke down she could at least find the faulty part and replace it.

[AUC-05L]

i just picked up a mk5 2.0 tdi 6 speed manual with 188k kms and service history for $1100..... needed a few bulbs and a couple tyres and now its registered.......was meant to be a donor car for my mk1 golf..... but my sister want to learn manual on it

[feenix74]

Bloody hell, you got a great deal on that one.