Used Car of the Day: 2020 Volkswagen GTI

by Tim Healey

Published: November 28th, 2023

Today's UCOTD is a 2020 Volkswagen GTI that is "tastefully" modified.

There's 36K ticks and then some on the odometer, and this one has an automatic transmission instead of our preferred manual. It's an S trim.

The mods include an ECU upgrade, rear sway bar, interior body brace, Rockford Fosgate audio, and a whole host of cosmetic/appearance changes.

Apparently the car is in mostly good cosmetic condition, save for some minor chips and such from being driven.

Check it out here, it's for sale near San Diego for $26,000.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

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4 of 35 comments

TMA1 on Nov 28, 2023

I get emails from Carfax telling me my '18 GTI SE is worth $18-19K. Same mileage as this car, no mods, manual, and will probably be under factory warranty longer than this car ('18s came with 6 years, '20s with 4 years). The only year available with the plaid/sunroof combo in the US. Something is off with one of these prices.

Like Reply
- See 1 previous
- SCE to AUX on Nov 28, 2023
  
  You're not trying to recoup the price of any mods.
  
  Like
- Theflyersfan on Nov 29, 2023
  
  When it comes to private party used car sales prices, I tend to go to Kelly Blue Book. I think Carfax is shorting you a little bit. The private party price for the one above is in the low 20s. Carvana and Carfax are lowballing my car by a couple of thousand of dollars as well as the dealer who sold me my car has already told me what they would pay for my trade and it was a bit higher than what they said.
  
  1
Hreardon on Nov 30, 2023

A 2020 GTI will likely be pretty reliable. I have a '16 that's been rock solid since I bought it 8 years ago. The three other people I know with MK7s have had similar experiences.

Driving dynamics of the MK8 are supposedly a solid improvement, but I could not stomach the interior, nor the price inflation between generations.

The asking price is actually not terrible for a dealer trade in. These would retail between $23 - $26k on a lot, and likely be taken in for between $19-$21. Private party is a slightly different story.

1 Reply

Recent Comments

Ajla No. The US government is going to put a 103% tariff on Chinese cars literally tomorrow and will very likely put on a complete ban by the end of this session. Supporting tariffs is possibly the most bipartisan thing in Washington right now.
Turbo Is Black Magic It’s only around $4K high. Honestly save a couple bucks and go find one of these in one of the great silly colors… this thing takes itself too seriously.
Jeff71960 nice car... but a little on the bland side visually... i love my Mopars and would rather have a "high impact" paint color 👍️
Eliyahu Wonderful entry/exit for the driver-I sat in one at the dealer. Not that I would drop $60,000 on a car, but how do I deselect the stupid stuff? Let's start with the grill. I am hoping that the replacement design theme is more pleasing and not worse. 21" wheels? I thought un-sprung weight mattered. Is there no way to get a lower lift-over height for the trunk? Needs to be a hatchback if they can stiffen the body enough. And we need both a Venza and a Crown? Of course the tooling costs are now sunk so I suppose they'll both be around for a few years. Maybe I'll like a used one in 5 or 6 year-priced right. Quibble, quibble...
Ajla Considering this person spent the extra markup on the Mopar accessories it was probably decently taken care of. The Magnaflow is also relatively tasteful as these things go.But $29K for an automatic 2015 Dodge RT with 60k? They made a lot of these things and you can get one newer with lower miles for the same price. Although maybe he's open to taking less.