2009 Volkswagen Jetta Wagon 2.5 Trendline

Bought it in early July of 2021, I wanted something nice that was faster than my Civic and that would be faster than the SX4 I sold earlier, and importantly, that would not require any work on it to be drivable. Went to see a TON of cars, all very different ones: ‘86 Vanagon Westfalia Syncro because it was working and very cheap, under 20k; NB ‘02 Miata SE in yellow with the rare hardtop, but someone else bought it under me and I wasn’t contacted so I would have known to get it: still regret it a lot; ‘93 WRX Type RA RHD, ‘91 Miata NA, ‘92 MR2 Turbo (that I absolutely fell in love with, but needed work on one or two things and was only drivable at low speeds, plus it was nearly undrivable due to extremely stiff clutch and PS delete), ‘92 Starlet GT Turbo RHD, ‘92 Civic EG6 RHD, ‘05 RX-8 and I’m probably skipping a few. Ended up with this thing because it was the least expensive, had the least mileage and the best history (only one owner from new), was the most practical and required absolutely nothing. And at $5,500 CAD, it was the cheapest car in my list. Plus, there’s no rust on the car.

It’s not the fastest thing or the nicest thing but it was well maintained (I’m the second owner, the first owner sold me the car and he actually ordered it rather than buying it off the dealership’s lot), had a few nice mods and looked nice.

As for the mods it has (all done by the first owner):

• H&R coilovers, I think 2” drop (rear ones were replaced with Bilstein due to the original ones breaking during previous ownership)
• rear aftermarket swaybar (brand unknown)
• 18” optional A3 rims on Conti ExtremeContact tires
• GTI interior (front seats and rear seat row replaced with ones from a GTI)
• GTI front end (honeycomb GTI grills and side grills with fogs that aren’t working because the car wasn’t optioned with fogs lol)
• resonator delete (sounds relatively aggressive but a ton of drone at highway speeds, I’ll order a catback this summer)
• protective film on the entire front end (up to the hood) as well as A-pillars

I’m planning to add a few mods on my own:

• AWE Tuning Touring Edition catback exhaust (I’m still hesitating between it and the Track edition but Touring is quieter at highway speeds)
• eventually, Magnaflow high flow cat
• foglight command retrofit (so I can get them to work)
• Integrated Engineering Ultimate Power Kit (consists of their amazing intake manifold, their matching cold air intake and their Stage 2 tune: results in gains of 40-45 hp, which gets the power up to the level of a stock GTI)
• big brake upgrade: I’d like to get 330 mm R32 brake discs and calipers, front and rear, but I might start with GTI discs front and rear with 986 Boxster calipers instead
• new rims, lighter and probably smaller: I’m thinking to Konig Hexaforms in 17” or 18”, they’re not too expensive and they’re lighter
• a few interior changes, like a center console retrofit and aluminium pedals, that kind of stuff

There are more but that’s what I’d do the first and that’s the stuff that came up first in my head.

It’s very practical and just the right size in my opinion, I’m able to transport my kayak and my road bike on the roof and random stuff in the back while still being able to sleep in the car, however I’ll buy a bigger bike rack so I can transport my mountain bike as well, since my old bike racks are too small for my mountain bike. I also ended up buying genuine VW roof bars (found a used set for cheap), since the ones the previous owner left me ended up moving slightly once when I was driving at highway speed, which broke my bike and nearly dropped my kayak from the roof.

It’s also fairly rare: the Mk5 Wagon (Sportwagen in the US) was only sold in North America for one year, which is 2009. In 2010 the front end and interior were upgraded to the Mk6 in order to fit with the new Mk6 line-up, but the car still remained a Mk5 platform and most of the parts are interchangeable between the Mk5 wagon and the Mk6 wagon. It’s also a base model, which is fairly rare because a lot of them had a sunroof, while this one does not. In fact, the owner ordered the cheapest Jetta Wagon he could, and the only option he ordered was rear side airbags because he’s got children. He also started modding it immediately lol, he told me he fitted coilovers maybe a week after he bought the car.

Went to Eurokracy 2021 with it, and I only managed to find a single other Mk5 wagon, which was a diesel with an automatic transmission. I drove maybe 6,000 km with it in my two first months of ownership, I went everywhere with it. Now it’s got about 140,000 km.

Specs:

• 2.5 inline-five cylinder 07K 20V (petrol)
  170 hp@5,700 rpm
  177 lb-ft@4,250 rpm
• 5-speed manual
• FWD
• 1,490 kg