I went with a buddy to buy him a new car today. A 2009 GTI, which is replacing his very rusty 2001 Protege. We both test drove it, the seller seemed legit and the price was right. 4600 bucks.
It’s far from perfect, some interior imperfections like the leather peeling off the shift knob, and the sunglasses holder broken off. Outside rust on the front corners of the rocker panel, and the bottom corners of the hatch. Mechanically all seems well, aside from a MAF problem that causes an odd idle. When you rev it up, and let it go back down to idle it kinda of does it in stages like 1500rpm.pause.1400.pause. 1300pause and so on until it hits a happy idle of 1000-8000rpm. It has been maintained, new timing chain, new tires, ball joints up front, sway bar end links. All done recently with receipts. Only mods are an Injen cold arid intake, and blow off valve. It also came with a new MAF(or is it a MAP?)
If this car had been 6k I would have said RUN but for 4600 bucks it’s a lot of car, with a few problems. Oh and yes it has the plaid seats and a manual trans.