I truly regret not buying one of these new. At the time my uncle was still working for VW and I could have had one on the cheap. Instead I was messing around with a silly RX8 at the time. This sentiment is too little too late as there are precious few good examples out there on the used market these days. What you can find is overpriced or modified beyond reason. Here is a neat, if not a little dirty low mile R32 on the east coast.
2004 Volkswagen R32 for Sale:
From the seller -
“WHAT CAN I SAY A TRUE RARE VEHICLE,OWNED BY SAME FAMILY SINCE NEW,ONLY 15320 MILES,YES IT HAS LEATHER SEATS,NO ACCIDENTS,RUNS OUT 100%.THIS IS ONE OF ONLY 2000 MADE IN BLUE FOR 2004.ANYONE WHO KNOWS THESE CARS WILL REALIZE WHAT A RARE OPPORTUNITY THIS IS.”
Kind of a lazy ad, is there a car selling manual somewhere that preaches the use of caps to help sell cars? Between that, the lack of details, the overall cleanliness of the car, and the half arsed pictures it makes me wonder what the seller is thinking. Maybe they are not, I just happen to be of the opinion that this car deserves every chance to looks its best and potential buyers deserve an appropriate amount of detail around this car they are looking to buy sight unseen.
It matters none, the car is at $17k and the reserve is off. This car will sell and I think a final selling price of $19k seems reasonable. Congrats to whomever ends up with this excellent example.
~Aaron.
I test drove an identical R32 when new. Dealership couldn’t get rid of them and even knocked the price down to ~$26,000. Crazy how well they have held their value! Fun car & love the VR6 sound!
would love to have this, but my 4 door MKV will have to suffice
Damn kids!
I know this is a special model, but I can’t help but shudder every time I see a MkIV Golf or Jetta. After owning a 2000 GTI 2.0, I can’t help but think Volkswagen invited some Italians to Wolfsburg to slap those things together. If I wanted a finicky car, I’d just go ahead and buy an Alfa Romeo or an old British sports car. At least I would know what I was getting into.
Aaron, you nailed it – what an incredibly pathetic effort on the seller’s part!
Fortunately for him, this car – with it’s low miles and serious rarity – pretty much sells itself. Still, it could probably draw $1-2K more with a little clean up and a better listing and photos.
If he couldn’t bother with any of that, did he bother with appropriate care and maintenance? That, combined with the car-abusive NY metro area location, make this “opportunity” a lot less appealing.
The early R32′s didn’t sell well because they weren’t competitively priced. Period. It also didn’t help that there wasn’t a 4-door version (VW didn’t want to impact A4/S4 sales), and of course, the US market has this idiotic aversion to hatchacks in general.
The 2-door-only decision also effectively limited the buyer pool – younger males with no kids – eventually resulting in plenty of R32′s that were crashed or hideously modified, and of course, horrific insurance rates (trust me – call your agent before buying).
On the other hand, all this means there are very few nice examples of this great car left – which (ironically) seems to be boosting resale values even higher.
@Paul H. You must have had the 1.8L T. My 2003 Jetta GLS with the 2.0L and manual transmission was tough as nails. It had the sunroof leak which VW finally addressed after a class action suit but mechanically it was fine for the 6 years that I owned it.
HOLY CRAP! This thing sold for $26,800.
(No, I’m not kidding. Check the auction.)
The ultra-low-mileage wildcard was clearly in play here. Drove the price a good 40% higher than it really should have been (IMHO).
Well, Aaron, I’d say the crappy listing and prep didn’t hold the price back at all…
Wow, that’s strong money for an R32!
Dealerships were having a hard time selling NEW at discounted prices of $26K!!
You’re right, Steve. Someone just bought a 7-year-old 15K-mile for the “as new” price!
In fact, $26800 will easily buy:
1. A clean 2008 Mk5 R32 with less than 30K miles (sure they were DSG-only, but Mk5′s are much better cars).
2. A brand new, very well-equipped 2011 GTI, with a full warranty.
Which would you choose?
My wife drives a ’10 GTI and I’m quite impressed with it.
$26.8k! Let’s see of the seller gets paid. Either someone really wanted this R32 or they are just messing around. That is crazy $$$ for any MK IV R32.
Good question, Aaron.
Usually, I’d think the same thing – one of the usual suspects: sham bidder, bidder’s remorse, bidder playing around, bidder without spousal approval, or bidder without adequate funds.
Then again, there were 3 different bidders in the last hour driving the pricing, and all three were placing bids over $24K.