Hi all, long time car and motorcycle owner/driver/repairer/modifier since the late 80s, first time VW owner since April 2024. Here's the condensed story of how I ended up back on the VW bandwagon (or bandwagen) since I was a kid and my family briefly had a Beetle and Kombi.

I needed a family car because my two project vehicles were/are off the road (and one is a motorcycle) and my daughter started kindergarten this year and we were getting sick of walking or taking public transport everywhere.

Limited funds limited my choice of car, but I had been thinking that a Mk5 Golf ticked all the right boxes. My line of work during 2023 allowed me to drive more different makes and models of cars and utes than I even knew existed.

I ended up driving many Golfs from Mk4 and up (mostly 6s and 7s) and found that despite the various different newer options they were all pretty consistent and had the best ergonomics and least annoying things about them.

I was only considering a manual gearbox Golf because I'd read that DSGs are great until you need to service or rebuild them. Since I was on a budget I was also only looking at TDIs, until I learned that the older VW Diesels work great until they don't, and a typical rebuild costs more than I could pay for another Golf.

So that's basically how I ended up with a 2007 Mk5 GTI with manual box and absolutely no regrets. Did the hpfp cam follower soon after I got it (old one was not even visibly worn), recently did the timing belt myself at home, and replaced a few leaky seals in the engine and other minor things along the way in between.

Car runs and drives great, uses more fuel than a TDI would have, and is nowhere near as fast as my previous car (R33 GTR), but the GTI is a great little shopping trolley and my daughter loves it. First major mod will probably be an F23T upgrade next year when I get a bit more money together.