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Fantastic VW GTI for sale. This is a fantastic fun car but the time has come to put the sensible family needs before the fun quotient! (Hence the sale). Really sad to see it go - this is a great car which is brilliant fun to drive and has given me many many miles of enjoyment. My kids call it "Daddy's small fast car".

This is a 1997 stock VW GTI for sale. If you don't know much about the car, this is a version 3 2-door Golf GTI hatchback. It's a small fast car with various parts uprated from the standard Golf - premium sound, wide tires, improved styling such as the smoked tail-lights, etc. It will seat four adults although not 4 tall adults comfortably. Our family of 2 adults and 2 kids fit perfectly. It actually has three seat belts in the rear - two shoulder belts and one middle lap belt but I wouldn't honestly recommend fitting 5 in it for anything but short trips. It has a split 60/40 rear seat which folds forward to create a flat bed in the rear if you need it plus a hatchback style tailgate.

Features

• 2.0l Fuel Injected I4 VW engine
• Central locking including tailgate
• Anti-theft alarm
• Original premium GTI factory speakers
• Original allow wheels
• Fantastic all-round disc brakes with Anti-lock Braking System (ABS). I swear I'm never going to buy another car without all-round disc brakes - it's like night and day compared to disc+drum.
• A/C (needs recharging - see below)
• Powered sunroof (tips up or slides completely back).
• Aftermarket sterero wth USB port. Loud!
• Original factory California-style tinted windows (all rear windows tinted).
• Driver and passenger airbags.

Condition

condition is fairly typical for this mileage -

• Only 141414 miles :-) original engine; still running well
• Tires are in great condition. They have a few months of wear but are all wearing nice and even.
• Central locking works perfectly. There's no remote on this model - the central locking and alarm work on the key in a side door. The tailgate can be opened via a button on the center console or by a push-button on the tailgate itself - it also locks with the central locking system.
• The alarm works perfectly (set when centrally locked). I hate alarms which go off at the slightest little thing and create a nuisance. This one doesn't.
• Check engine light comes on when the weather changes (evap codes always come up when this happens - may be sensor since the fuel system passes the pressure test). Smogged this year - it always passes with low emissions. Won't need smogging for another 2 years. I can dig out the certificate if you want to see it - or you can check it online (go here for CA smog history - select the "VIN" option and copy/paste the VIN in ( 3VWDB81H9VM065073 ).
The engine always runs at the right temperature - I've never had a car which has been more consistent. Once it warms up the temperature gauge sits straight upright in the middle of the guage and doesn't budge no matter what the weather or how hard it's driven.
• A/C - the air conditioning compressor works and it was blowing cold last summer. However it slowly got less cold towards winter and no longer blows cold. I think there's a slow leak so it probably needs recharging and the leak found - I believe that the compressor is working fine. However I have not taken it in to an AC shop to get it checked.
• Original seats are showing wear but are perfectly servicable.
• Paintwork is in good condition - absolutely no rust anywhere (SoCal car) and no "bald" spots etc. Evidently this was a good factory paint job.
• No major dents in bodywork. I noticed this weekend that there is one very small ding on the front lip of the hood - quite incredible that this is all there is after 140,000 miles (IMHO).
• As far as I know it's not been in an accident - all the panels appear to be original plus have the original VW glass (see pictures) with the original factory tint. The tint is in excellent condition - presumably because it was tinted at the factory, there are no bubbles, tears, warping or ripples. There are a couple of tiny scratches but you have to look real hard to find them.
• The transmission and clutch were replaced last year and are running perfectly - so there should be plenty of miles left on those.
• The water pump was replaced earlier this year - thankfully I caught it leaking before it became a disaster. These tend to go around 100k miles so this wasn't a total surprise.
• The ABS works - found that out in a parking lot recently as somebody pulled out in front of me! For those of you who don't know, ABS can dramatically reduce your stopping distance in emergency situations.
• The GTI badge on the front grille is missing (was when I bought it) ... the rear GTI badge is present. Both VW badges are present and in good condition.