Hi, my name is Dale and i live in Cornwall. So J353 SOP is actually my 3rd mk2 GTI. First one was when i was 20 (16 years ago) which was a lovely 3 door f reg 16 valver. I owned for a year. Totally standard when i bought it but I’m ashamed to say I was young and thought big bumpers on a small bumper car was a good idea, along with 17″ alloys and a twin upswept exhaust lol. What was i thinking? Anyway, owned for a year then sold the golf and moved onto a Corrado vr6 and then a mk4 R32. To be honest i was never really happy with the R32. They are lovely cars but with nothing to do to it except clean it, I missed having a car I could tinker with. Just found myself looking at mk2s for sale all the time and wishing I had one. So I took a big hit on the R32 and bought my second mk2, a black G reg gti 16 valver and that was me a happy boy again.

My brother then fell for the cars and after a road trip to Birmingham to Volkscars he ended up with a very nice one owner, low mileage, 8v GTI in pearl grey (J353 SOP). All was well until after only 8 months my brother needed to sell. This was decision time for me, keep mine or buy my brothers? Easy decision really, the pearl grey was a better more original example so sold the black valver and took ownership of J353 SOP.
Right,  so a few details about my golf. 1991 GTI 8v J reg runout model.

Current mileage 109,000. 2 owners before me and my brother. 1st owner 11 years then the 2nd for 10 years. Full service history and every MOT from new. The car was stored for my first year of ownership. In February 2014 I thought enough sitting in the garage and time for me to start using the car. I should say I’ve always had work vans so the cars have always been a weekend/show car. I carried out a full service, new cam belt and fitted a standard exhaust to replace a not very nice aftermarket item that had been fitted. I’ve managed to clock up a 1000 miles and just be doing little repairs/improvements as I go. The latest was to replace the worn gear linkage which made a massive difference. My direction and preference with these cars is original and standard.

Well that would be me done and a happy ending with me keeping this car for many years to come, except a couple of years ago I fell upon my other 4th mk2. A one owner garaged from new, full history k reg 16 valver and here’s the thing. I don’t want to keep both cars as that would mean four vehicles in my fleet which for me is too many. So after many hours of deliberating it looks like the pearl grey will shortly be up for sale. Just need to bring myself to write the ad.

I would just like to ad at this point what a great forum this is. Very friendly and knowledgeable people who have helped and guided me through many jobs tackled on my mk2s. This forum has with out doubt added to making my mk2 ownership a more enjoyable one.

That’s all and hope to meet some more of you at some shows this year

Dale