Own a Golf GTI for less than R2 000 a month

The eagerly-anticipated arrival of the VW Golf 8 GTI has been set for the third quarter of 2021. But with virtually no stock left of the Golf 7.5 and the limited-edition GTI TCR sold out, the pre-owned market will be the only place where you can get your hands on South Africa’s epic hot hatch next few months.

Options are endless once you start browsing through online showrooms floors for GTIs. Mk I editions are very scarce as they have become collector’s items, but the odd Mk II GTI right through all the other generations including a healthy dose of TCR models can be found at the click of a button.

Golf V GTI rear

But even though the GTI is an item on many a car owners wish list, the R700 000 plus price tags of the TCRs on offer is out of the majority’s reach. But our pre-owned research has found that it’s not all doom and gloom for the average buyer. Having used a criteria of a maximum monthly repayment of R2 000 excluding insurance costs, our search has yielded a nice selection of GTIs.

Having based the calculation on a 10% deposit and 10% interest rate over 72 months with no balloon payment with the instalment being inclusive of finance charges, the maximum price we could choose from was R114 000. The best picks we found in this price range was quite a good mixture of Golf V and VI GTIs.

Golf V GTI interior

Golf’s fifth generation GTI debuted in 2004 and was fitted with a 2.0 TSI petrol engine which sent 147 kW of power and 280 Nm of torque to the front wheels. Volkswagen claimed a top speed of 235 km/h and a 0 to 100 km/h sprint time of 7.2 sec in six-speed manual guise. The six-speed DSG version managed to lower this time to 6.9 sec.

The Golf VI GTI rolled out in 2009 and featured the same 2.0 TSI powerplant and transmission options, which was uptuned to 155kW/280Nm. In DSG guise it reached a top speed of 238 km/h and 6.9 sec from a standstill to 100 km/h.

Here are our top ten pre-owned picks (monthly instalments based on a 10% deposit and interest rate of 10% over 72 months, finance costs included):

R111 900 (R1 945 p/m) – 2010 Golf VI GTI (Black) – 218 000 km

R109 995 (R1 925 p/m) – 2008 Golf V GTI DSG (Red) – 173 191 km

R109 990 (R1 925 p/m) – 1992 Golf II GTI (Grey) – 352 000 km

R109 950 (R1 924 p/m) – 2012 Golf VI GTI (White) – 219 00km

R109 900 (R1 923 p/m) – 2008 Golf V GTI (Silver) – 197 00km

R108 900 (R1 907 p/m) – 2007 Golf V GTI  (White) – 246 00km

R105 900 (R1 857 p/m) – 2008 Golf V GTI DSG (Silver) – 221 000 km

R103 900 (R1 820 p/m) – 2009 Golf VI GTI  (Black) – 184 00km

R99 900 (R1 757 p/m) – 2007 Golf V GTI (White) – 147 64km

R99 900 (R1 757 p/m) – 2011 Golf VI GTI (Red) – 200 000 km