Used Car of the Day: 2004 Volkswagen Golf R32

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Today's UCOTD is a nearly two-decade-old hot hatch with some mods. Hit the jump for more on this 2004 Volkswagen Golf R32.


The seller says the car is in good condition with a clean title and it recently passed North Carolina state inspection. The mileage is just under 140K.

Mods include a Forge intake, Magnaflow exhaust, high-flow cats, H&R springs, adjustable rear lower control arms, and more. Oh, and the car is, of course, tuned.

The asking price for this ride is $18,000. Click here to check it out, and to read up on the mods I didn't list.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey
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.

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  • JMII JMII on Oct 17, 2023

    My brother had one of these and for some reason VW leased it to him as if it was a normal Golf. VeeDub fans on the Vortex know this is a rare and special car so they seek it out. So when his lease ran out he immediately flipped it for a $6k profit. Can't say that about many cars. After riding in it I can tell you it was a rocketship with great handling in its day, the brakes were amazing for a stock vehicle. My brother continued his German love affair with a Golf R and now a collection of Porsches. Me? I had a B5 Passat 1.8T and learned my lesson after suffering thru multiple problems and failures - so no more VWs for me. I've always found it interesting how my brothers experience with the brand were so different then mine. However in his defense he has always traded his VWs after 3 years where we kept that Passat for nearly 7 despite its issues. I noticed around year 4 the German engineering fails right on schedule when the warranty expires.

  • Zerofoo Zerofoo on Oct 17, 2023

    Early 2000s VWs, Mercs, Porsches with the IMS bearing failure, and Audi V8s with timing chains on the REAR of the engine turned me off of German cars for life.


    I get it - they drive well - but everything else about owning a German car is painful.

  • Jeff Overall I prefer the 59 GM cars to the 58s because of less chrome but I have a new appreciation of the 58 Cadillac Eldorados after reading this series. I use to not like the 58 Eldorados but I now don't mind them. Overall I prefer the 55-57s GMs over most of the 58-60s GMs. For the most part I like the 61 GMs. Chryslers I like the 57 and 58s. Fords I liked the 55 thru 57s but the 58s and 59s not as much with the exception of Mercury which I for the most part like all those. As the 60s progressed the tail fins started to go away and the amount of chrome was reduced. More understated.
  • Theflyersfan Nissan could have the best auto lineup of any carmaker (they don't), but until they improve one major issue, the best cars out there won't matter. That is the dealership experience. Year after year in multiple customer service surveys from groups like JD Power and CR, Nissan frequency scrapes the bottom. Personally, I really like the never seen new Z, but after having several truly awful Nissan dealer experiences, my shadow will never darken a Nissan showroom. I'm painting with broad strokes here, but maybe it is so ingrained in their culture to try to take advantage of people who might not be savvy enough in the buying experience that they by default treat everyone like idiots and saps. All of this has to be frustrating to Nissan HQ as they are improving their lineup but their dealers drag them down.
  • SPPPP I am actually a pretty big Alfa fan ... and that is why I hate this car.
  • SCE to AUX They're spending billions on this venture, so I hope so.Investing during a lull in the EV market seems like a smart move - "buy low, sell high" and all that.Key for Honda will be achieving high efficiency in its EVs, something not everybody can do.
  • ChristianWimmer It might be overpriced for most, but probably not for the affluent city-dwellers who these are targeted at - we have tons of them in Munich where I live so I “get it”. I just think these look so terribly cheap and weird from a design POV.
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