1983 Volkswagen GOLF GTI

We are delighted to be able to offer you one of the most iconic cars of the 20th century, the Volkswagen Golf GTI MKI. With the latter, more powerful 1800cc engine and five-speed gearbox, it sits on the much sought after 14-inch Pirelli P-slot alloys rather than the earlier 13-inch wheels. (The Golf’s original 13-inch, nine-spoke alloy wheels are available.)

Restored by the car’s previous owner over a decade, it is being offered in a very good condition and is in need of only minor cosmetic fettling. Almost completely standard, it drives as well as a good Golf GTI should.

With most having succumbed to rust over the years, good, solid MKI GTIs are becoming harder and harder to find, making this one something very special. Having a very sensible reserve and a modest guide price, this is the chance to finally get your hands on the car of your teenage dreams.

The bodywork is in a very good condition. Freshly restored, the black coachwork gleams and glints in the sun, and someone has gone to an awful lot of trouble to get it all aligned properly, too.

There’s no rust, and no significant dents, dings, or scrapes, either. Sure, there are a few minor stonechips, but its condition is just the right side of excellent to make it usable; we’ve all bought cars that were, frankly, too good for us and while you might think you want a concours example, you really don’t because you’ll be too scared to use it – and a MKI Golf GTI is too much fun to be left languishing in a garage.

The sunroof is good, opening and closing easily, and sealing tightly. The little pop-up wind deflector is still there too, which says only good things about the quality of the restoration.

Fitted with the correct MKI Pirelli ‘P-slot’ 14-inch alloy wheels, the Golf sits on matching Pirelli P6000 tyres. (Of course; were you seriously expecting to see any other brand?) They’ve all got good tread left on ‘em, too.

As we will never tyre of explaining, our experience shows that matching high-quality tyres are an infallible sign of a caring and mechanically sympathetic owner who is prepared to spend the appropriate amount in maintaining their car properly. Their presence does not, of course, preclude the need for a thorough inspection - something the vendor would welcome, by the way – but do give you a shortcut into their attitude towards maintenance.

Other GTI accoutrements like the two-piece chin spoiler, red trim around the grille, and GTI badging are present and correct, as are the four discreet black plastic wheelarch extensions. It’s even still got the external A-pillar trims that everyone lost when they fell off 30 years ago.

Work to do? There’s a rust bubble developing under the nearside rear lights that’s going to need sorting sooner rather than later, and a decent machine mop would get rid of the swirls; black is an unforgiving colour, and it does have an unfortunate tendency to highlight even minor imperfections in the body work – of which there are a few, but these are very minor.

Other minor tweaks are a scrape to the offside plastic wheelarch trim, and the petrol cap fitted is the later, incorrect type, although the seller informs us he has the correct, original, which he is happy to supply with the car.

The GTI’s trademark striped sports seats are in great shape, being close to as firm and supportive now, as they were 168,000 miles ago. We don’t know whether that’s because they’ve been restored, but they’re largely in fine fettle and look terrific. The fabric on the driver’s seat is a little saggy in places, but that could be professionally remedied at reasonable cost.

The door cards are very good, as is the headlining. The carpets are okay, but the driver’s side is a little worn in a couple of places.

The boot is strong and solid, but the paint seems to have reacted and has a textured finish as a result. The boot mat is only average too, and we can see that the car’s new owner will almost certainly want to source a better one. The better news is that the spare is one of the original 13-inch alloys, and the parcel shelf is complete, undamaged, and hasn’t been carved up to fit aftermarket speakers.

Which reminds us, an aftermarket Kenwood CD/radio has been fitted, but we can’t help but think the Golf is crying out for a period Audioline radio/cassette player with a Fischer cassette holder in the centre console.

Speaking of which, it still sports the three gauges for oil temperature, battery charge, and oil pressure down there. However, while the oil pressure gauge is connected inside the car, it needs connecting inside the engine bay. The other two are connected and work as they should.

Work to do, aside from sorting out some period sounds, is to clean the trim on the C-pillars, maybe sort out the driver’s seat, and source and fit the outer trim piece for the passenger’s seat.

Freshly serviced last August, the Golf has also been fitted with a recent new battery, as well as a new cambelt and water pump. The owner assures us that it drives very well, displaying every inch of the dynamic prowess these cars are famous for. We’ve driven it, and can confirm that it starts, runs, drives, stops and steers as it should. Please see the video to watch it start and tickover.

The engine bay is neat and clean, but not obsessively detailed. We don’t mind it as it is but can see that it wouldn’t take too much effort to bring it up to the sort of condition whereby you can leave your bonnet propped open with a degree of confidence.

The underside looks to be good and solid.

The Golf’s MOT certificate expires in October 2020, and was gained without a single advisory point, a record it’s been racking up since 2014. And the previous online MOT history entries don’t show anything of any concern either.

The Golf also comes with a number of expired MOT certificates plus a thick sheaf of invoices and bills to confirm the work that has been done to it over the years, plus a series of handwritten notes detailing its restoration from 2009 onwards.

It also comes with two keys, the original owner’s handbook, a Haynes workshop manual, an indoor car cover, and some photos of some of the restorative work being carried out.

The Golf’s original 13-inch, nine-spoke alloy wheels are available by separate negotiation. They’re in a very good condition, and shod with matching Dunlop tyres.

Please visit the documents section of the gallery of this listing where you will find photos of this and other paperwork to support our claim that this car has been maintained to a very good standard.

If you’d like to inspect the car prior to placing a bid – something we would encourage – then please use the Contact Seller button to arrange an appointment. NB. We know that many of you will be limiting your social exposure over the coming days and weeks, so if you’d rather not come to see the car in person, please give us a call and we can shoot a personal video of the car honing in on any areas you’d like us to concentrate on.  

Or, even better, why not contact us with your mobile number and we can set up a WhatsApp video call? You get to direct us in real-time, giving you a virtual personal viewing experience while maintaining the lockdown. We like to call it ‘The Market’s 2020 Vision’…

Many of us will have driven secondhand MKI Golf GTIs back in the day, doing so not so much to save money but because they were already extinct having been replaced by the heavier, slower, less agile MKII version by the time we could afford to buy (and insure…) one.

(In fact, the Golf is a lesson in how creeping safety standards and consumer expectations corrupt a car over time, leaving it better equipped and much safer but also less agile, less fun, and less pure.)

So, we drove used examples because that’s all that was available back when the MKI Golf GTI might have been appreciated but had yet to appreciate enough to make it worth spending the sort of money on them that would have been necessary to preserve them properly.

Of course, now we’re older and wiser - and possibly a little better off - we could probably afford to restore one, but that’s a fraught process and one that inevitably turns out to be way more expensive than even the most pessimistic projection might suggest.

Which, is a long-winded way of saying that we think the final hammer price will be somewhere between £10,000 to £15,000 – and that’s not a lot of money for a MKI Golf GTI these days and only a fraction of what you’d be looking at if it had a blue oval on the front grille; and this is, remember, a far better car than anything that came out of Dagenham during the same period.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; to arrange an appointment please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.

If needed, please remember we have a network of trusted suppliers we work with regularly and can recommend: Classic & Sportscar Finance for purchase-financing, Footman James for classic car insurance Thames Valley Car Storage for storing your car and AnyVan for transporting it.

BORING, but IMPORTANT: Please note that whilst we at The Market always aim to offer the most descriptive and transparent auction listings available, we cannot claim they are perfect analyses of any of the vehicles for sale. We offer far greater opportunity for bidders to view, or arrange inspections for each vehicle thoroughly prior to bidding than traditional auctions, and we never stop encouraging bidders to take advantage of this. We do take a good look at the vehicles delivered to our premises for sale, but this only results in our unbiased personal observations, not those of a qualified inspector or other professional, or the result of a long test drive.

Additionally, please note that most of the videos on our site have been recorded using simple cameras which often result in 'average' sound quality; in particular, engines and exhausts notes can sound a little different to how they are in reality.

Please note that this is sold as seen and that, as is normal for used goods bought at auction, the Sale of Goods Act 1979 does not apply. See our FAQs for more info, and feel free to inspect any vehicle as much as you wish.