Thought I might start a reader's ride thread that is hopefully a bit more interesting than the brand new cars everyone owns nowadays as I find myself a fairly new owner of a lovely 2004 Seat Toledo (1M) mk2 20v VR5 170 in silver with only 106k miles on the clock! One of only 71 left on the road! Apologies in advance for the essay - hopefully you're not minded to skip through too much!
I'd been searching feverishly for a VR5 based car for a few months, having had the glorious sound burned into my head from hundreds of youtube videos - I've also owned a number of VR6s so knew roughly what to expect and just what a fantastic engine it can be, the VR5 also has a slightly better engine note than the VR6 in my opinion.
Just for interest, my previous car list goes as follows (latest at the top):
Toyota Corolla T-Sport 1.8 VVTL-i 190 2ZZ-GE 2005 (revved to 8500rpm!)
Toyota Rav4 2.0 VVTi Mk3 2006 (Still own - fantastic workhorse!)
Audi TT Mk1 3.2 VR6 manual transmission 2005
Seat Leon FR+ Mk2 (1P) 2.0 170 CR TDI 2011
Citroen Xsara 2.0HDI VTR 110 Coupe 2003
Audi TT Mk1 3.2 VR6 DSG transmission 2004
Citroen Xsara 2.0HDI VTR 110 Coupe 2002 (Yes I owned 2 of these, great cars!)
VW Golf Mk3 2.0 16v GTI (ABF engine) 1996
VW Golf Mk2 1.8 16v GTI (KR engine) 1989
VW Golf Mk2 1.6 8v Driver 1990 (Fitted a Weber carb and GTI cam to this one!)
VW Polo Mk3 1.4 16v 75 2000
I really wanted something with 4 doors and a decent sized boot as I am now a dad and didn't want to struggle with car seats or luggage! I've never owned a new car, nor wanted to, most new cars bore me to tears, as do 99% of the engines used these days. I wanted something naturally aspirated and with more than 4 cylinders, for the pure joy you feel when driving one, but to still return a reasonable mpg when needed. I also wanted it to be ULEZ scam compliant for the foreseeable future (before they move the goalposts to screw over motorists again and usher us further into the EV hellscape.)
I'd ruled out the Passat VR5 as there were only a couple around and the chassis was a bit too lardy for my taste. The Golf mk4 VR5 was where I focussed my search, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the Golf Mk4 just looks so ordinary and boring, so I kept an eye out, knowing that some VW Bora received the VR5, as did the Seat Toledo. All the Bora I found were either rusty, or had a terrible looking interior (a VW speciality) - so I focussed my search on the Seat Toledo - there were a handful around for sale, but they dont come up very often, as they're quite a special car and owners tend to keep hold of them, with lovely interior and very well specced compared to any other VR5 based models. (Mine has full electric half leather/alcantara seats, Sat Nav double DIN head unit, 6CD changer in the glove box, cruise control, rear window retractable blind etc)
I ended up purchasing from a lovely older chap in Aberystwyth, Wales who had owned it for the last 16 years, who bought it after being impressed with the earlier 10v version, opting to upgrade to this 20v one after only a couple of years. I was enthused with the idea of owning a VR5 and my first ever saloon - It's exceedingly rare to find a car that has been owned and cared for that amount of time, today's throw-away culture being to blame and most people opting to rent cars for a couple of years instead of owning. After spending some time chatting with the owner beforehand to make sure our time wouldn't be wasted, my brother and I embarked on the 9 hour round trip to collect on an extremely cold December Saturday morning!
Arriving late morning, we spent some time talking to the owner and looking around the car, which was generally in very good condition for the year, then took her out for a test drive - The owner cared for the car, but it was now a second vehicle and spent most of its time just sitting on the driveway, doing only a few thousand miles a year, so I knew I would be buying into something of a project albeit starting from a (hopefully) very good base. Having spent a portion of its life on the Cornish coast, I was expecting some rust, but was pleasantly surprised to find the bodywork almost completely unafflicted. Looking underneath, it wasn't in such great condition, the bodywork was still very good, but the subframes in particular were heavily rusted - something I'd noted in recent MOTs - It wasn't enough to deter me and we struck a deal and off we drove.
The journey home was almost blissfully uneventful and enjoyable with the torquey and beautiful sounding 2.3 5 cylinder (aside from discovering at the petrol station that the fuel flap wouldn't pop open and had to be prised open with fingernails), racking up an impressive 38mpg from the VR5 engine for the 180mile return leg!
I purchased the car with only a little MOT left and I knew I'd need a front wiper mechanism to get it through as it had seemingly seized in the wet, cold winter months. Having fixed this small issue at a cost of £25, I (hopefully) put her through an MOT which she proceeded to fail owing to broken front coil springs (impossible to see from driveway inspection) - Not the start I wanted, but not terrible.
My plan with this car is to tastefully modify in certain areas, but otherwise return to good OEM condition and then to enjoy and maintain - so my budget isn't huge, but hopefully by opting to spend in the right areas, I can return her to glory! I decided to replace the suspension all round with Stance+ Ultra coilovers (reviews seemed decent, although I have no intention to lower the car much below a 30mm drop, just firm the handling up somewhat). While in the area, it made no sense not to replace the top mounts, I also replaced the heavily rusted front wishbones, ball joints and drop links with Febi Bilstein items. I returned her to the MOT station and this time she went through!
I'd been searching feverishly for a VR5 based car for a few months, having had the glorious sound burned into my head from hundreds of youtube videos - I've also owned a number of VR6s so knew roughly what to expect and just what a fantastic engine it can be, the VR5 also has a slightly better engine note than the VR6 in my opinion.
Just for interest, my previous car list goes as follows (latest at the top):
Toyota Corolla T-Sport 1.8 VVTL-i 190 2ZZ-GE 2005 (revved to 8500rpm!)
Toyota Rav4 2.0 VVTi Mk3 2006 (Still own - fantastic workhorse!)
Audi TT Mk1 3.2 VR6 manual transmission 2005
Seat Leon FR+ Mk2 (1P) 2.0 170 CR TDI 2011
Citroen Xsara 2.0HDI VTR 110 Coupe 2003
Audi TT Mk1 3.2 VR6 DSG transmission 2004
Citroen Xsara 2.0HDI VTR 110 Coupe 2002 (Yes I owned 2 of these, great cars!)
VW Golf Mk3 2.0 16v GTI (ABF engine) 1996
VW Golf Mk2 1.8 16v GTI (KR engine) 1989
VW Golf Mk2 1.6 8v Driver 1990 (Fitted a Weber carb and GTI cam to this one!)
VW Polo Mk3 1.4 16v 75 2000
I really wanted something with 4 doors and a decent sized boot as I am now a dad and didn't want to struggle with car seats or luggage! I've never owned a new car, nor wanted to, most new cars bore me to tears, as do 99% of the engines used these days. I wanted something naturally aspirated and with more than 4 cylinders, for the pure joy you feel when driving one, but to still return a reasonable mpg when needed. I also wanted it to be ULEZ scam compliant for the foreseeable future (before they move the goalposts to screw over motorists again and usher us further into the EV hellscape.)
I'd ruled out the Passat VR5 as there were only a couple around and the chassis was a bit too lardy for my taste. The Golf mk4 VR5 was where I focussed my search, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the Golf Mk4 just looks so ordinary and boring, so I kept an eye out, knowing that some VW Bora received the VR5, as did the Seat Toledo. All the Bora I found were either rusty, or had a terrible looking interior (a VW speciality) - so I focussed my search on the Seat Toledo - there were a handful around for sale, but they dont come up very often, as they're quite a special car and owners tend to keep hold of them, with lovely interior and very well specced compared to any other VR5 based models. (Mine has full electric half leather/alcantara seats, Sat Nav double DIN head unit, 6CD changer in the glove box, cruise control, rear window retractable blind etc)
I ended up purchasing from a lovely older chap in Aberystwyth, Wales who had owned it for the last 16 years, who bought it after being impressed with the earlier 10v version, opting to upgrade to this 20v one after only a couple of years. I was enthused with the idea of owning a VR5 and my first ever saloon - It's exceedingly rare to find a car that has been owned and cared for that amount of time, today's throw-away culture being to blame and most people opting to rent cars for a couple of years instead of owning. After spending some time chatting with the owner beforehand to make sure our time wouldn't be wasted, my brother and I embarked on the 9 hour round trip to collect on an extremely cold December Saturday morning!
Arriving late morning, we spent some time talking to the owner and looking around the car, which was generally in very good condition for the year, then took her out for a test drive - The owner cared for the car, but it was now a second vehicle and spent most of its time just sitting on the driveway, doing only a few thousand miles a year, so I knew I would be buying into something of a project albeit starting from a (hopefully) very good base. Having spent a portion of its life on the Cornish coast, I was expecting some rust, but was pleasantly surprised to find the bodywork almost completely unafflicted. Looking underneath, it wasn't in such great condition, the bodywork was still very good, but the subframes in particular were heavily rusted - something I'd noted in recent MOTs - It wasn't enough to deter me and we struck a deal and off we drove.
The journey home was almost blissfully uneventful and enjoyable with the torquey and beautiful sounding 2.3 5 cylinder (aside from discovering at the petrol station that the fuel flap wouldn't pop open and had to be prised open with fingernails), racking up an impressive 38mpg from the VR5 engine for the 180mile return leg!
I purchased the car with only a little MOT left and I knew I'd need a front wiper mechanism to get it through as it had seemingly seized in the wet, cold winter months. Having fixed this small issue at a cost of £25, I (hopefully) put her through an MOT which she proceeded to fail owing to broken front coil springs (impossible to see from driveway inspection) - Not the start I wanted, but not terrible.
My plan with this car is to tastefully modify in certain areas, but otherwise return to good OEM condition and then to enjoy and maintain - so my budget isn't huge, but hopefully by opting to spend in the right areas, I can return her to glory! I decided to replace the suspension all round with Stance+ Ultra coilovers (reviews seemed decent, although I have no intention to lower the car much below a 30mm drop, just firm the handling up somewhat). While in the area, it made no sense not to replace the top mounts, I also replaced the heavily rusted front wishbones, ball joints and drop links with Febi Bilstein items. I returned her to the MOT station and this time she went through!
