Our quick survey of three leading used car classified sites finds that the most expensive Mk1 and Mk2 Golf GTIs are being advertised for up to £24,000. In contrast, the most expensive Mk3, a 2.0-litre 16v Japanese import with 36,000 miles, is £8995, and most cars of this generation are around £1500.
What’s the Mk3’s problem? After all, it’s a Golf GTI and it’s almost 30 years old (launched in 1992, replaced by the Mk4 in 1997). Ergo, it’s a modern classic for which people should be queuing around the block.
Unfortunately, almost from launch, the Mk3 was dismissed as the unsuccessful follow-up to its brilliant predecessors. Heavy, underpowered and dull, said the critics. Its cause wasn’t helped by the arrival, towards the end of its life, by sharper rivals such as the Peugeot 306 GTi-6. Launched in 1996, this model was powered by a 2.0-litre engine producing 165bhp compared with the Golf 2.0 GTI 16v’s 148bhp. What’s more, it had a close-ratio six-speed gearbox, whereas the Golf had only five gears. In short, the 306 GTi-6 appeared to have caught the Golf GTI napping.
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GTi-6 survivors are rare today, but there are plenty of Golf GTI Mk3s in a range of conditions and at reasonable prices. Happily, the model appears to have dodged the curse of the modern classic and its inflated price, which is why now is a good time to ignore the naysayers and discover the Golf GTI Mk3 for yourself.
Its story begins in 1992 with the launch of the 2.0-litre 8v model. With just 113bhp to its name, it took a lazy 9.6sec to do 0-62mph. On a more positive note, standard equipment included alloy wheels, a colourcoded grille, black wheel-arch spats, a rear spoiler and twin tailpipes. Inside were sports seats, split folding rear seats, power windows and a height-adjustable sports steering wheel. At least in the showroom, the new model was everything a GTI buyer could wish for, but away from the potted palms there were grumblings about its lack of fizz. Accordingly, Volkswagen added the 148bhp 2.0-litre 16v engine to the line-up the following year. This brought the GTI’s 0-62mph sprint down to a sportier eight seconds. In addition to its discreet ‘16v’ badge, the new model had traction control, a bee-sting aerial and a brake wear indicator. This was more like it
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@Citytiger
The mark 3 GTI was VW at its most cynical: They knew that the UK loved the model, so they basically just threw us a trim line, rather than bothering with any mechanical enhancements. If I remember rightly they did sell the same model in other Europen markets but labelled it more honestly. The author seems to be trying to re-write history here, I wonder if VW asked him to write this?
The mk3 was that bad they didnt even produce a GTI version for the German market.