03GTI
04-14-2003, 05:21 PM
It's been a looooong time since I've posted on this board, but I figured I'd get back on and pass along some info to you guys if/when you ever decide to trade-in (or sell) your GAGT's. I bought my silver coupe in June of 2000 while living in Illinois. I *LOVED* the car, and I frequented this board *many* times. By the time I was finished, I had installed a full CAI (the civic version) the dual gauge pillar with A/F ratio and tranny temp, the fan override switch, front/rear strut tower bars, the air temp tricker, and a whole slew of various interior exterior mods.
Then I moved to Houston, TX where I commute 94 miles per DAY roundtrip to and from work. That's 2,000 miles a MONTH. The gas was killing me, the car hit 40K miles and I started getting this bad-mojo feeling that she wasn't going to hold together very long. I drive HARD down here, we're talking 80-90mph on the beltway in NASCAR-style traffic. Extreme heat, extreme stopping and starting. Anyway, I started the process of figuring out what my value on the car was versus my payoff versus what I could get selling it privately versus trade-in. The dealerships will TELL YOU that the "mods hurt the value of the vehicle.." Some of them claim upwards of $1K less than the book value. DO NOT BELIEVE THIS BUNK!!!! IT IS BS. Plain and simple. Shop around, talk to different dealers, and do it at the end of the month when they're looking to move inventory. The rough value of a 00' GAGT with my options and the condition it was in (excellent) was $7K on the bottom-end (trade-in value) to $9K on the extreme high end. These were very accurate, fair, reasonable figures for the used car market down here. I ended up getting $8K for the trade-in. It was well worth shopping around.
Anyway, I've always wanted a VW GTI, even when I first bought my GAGT, a GTI was my first choice. So it was worth the wait, and the GAGT was a fantastic car to "tide me over." =) The GTI is a whole different animal playing in a different field entirely. I'll tell you guys something, for under $20K, there is NOTHING on the road that can even touch this car. Seriously. I know what it takes to make a GAGT fast, and I'd run my 1.8t with just an intake against a GAGT with a supercharger kit and come out on top. It's a totally insane ride.
Anyway, sorry for the long-winded post. Just thought I'd let ya know that the GAGT's do hold their value fairly well regardless of what a dealer might try to tell you. However, that 40-50K mile mark is the best time (in my opinion) to unload it if you're thinking about it. It's still got enough value left in it to make a trade-up worth your while.
2003 GTI 1.8t 5spd Tiptronic
Then I moved to Houston, TX where I commute 94 miles per DAY roundtrip to and from work. That's 2,000 miles a MONTH. The gas was killing me, the car hit 40K miles and I started getting this bad-mojo feeling that she wasn't going to hold together very long. I drive HARD down here, we're talking 80-90mph on the beltway in NASCAR-style traffic. Extreme heat, extreme stopping and starting. Anyway, I started the process of figuring out what my value on the car was versus my payoff versus what I could get selling it privately versus trade-in. The dealerships will TELL YOU that the "mods hurt the value of the vehicle.." Some of them claim upwards of $1K less than the book value. DO NOT BELIEVE THIS BUNK!!!! IT IS BS. Plain and simple. Shop around, talk to different dealers, and do it at the end of the month when they're looking to move inventory. The rough value of a 00' GAGT with my options and the condition it was in (excellent) was $7K on the bottom-end (trade-in value) to $9K on the extreme high end. These were very accurate, fair, reasonable figures for the used car market down here. I ended up getting $8K for the trade-in. It was well worth shopping around.
Anyway, I've always wanted a VW GTI, even when I first bought my GAGT, a GTI was my first choice. So it was worth the wait, and the GAGT was a fantastic car to "tide me over." =) The GTI is a whole different animal playing in a different field entirely. I'll tell you guys something, for under $20K, there is NOTHING on the road that can even touch this car. Seriously. I know what it takes to make a GAGT fast, and I'd run my 1.8t with just an intake against a GAGT with a supercharger kit and come out on top. It's a totally insane ride.
Anyway, sorry for the long-winded post. Just thought I'd let ya know that the GAGT's do hold their value fairly well regardless of what a dealer might try to tell you. However, that 40-50K mile mark is the best time (in my opinion) to unload it if you're thinking about it. It's still got enough value left in it to make a trade-up worth your while.
2003 GTI 1.8t 5spd Tiptronic