The first thing to improve for owners of the Golf Mk5 is how it handles. Drop the car 35mm and change the dampers; bigger drops will almost always need more changes. When you buy a car with the sporty suspension (GTi & R), it is already about 15mm lower than the normal suspension....
mk3 Golfs were not fantastic cars, the GTi had lost it's magic so thankfully to address this there were plenty of aftermarket Golf tuning parts created allowing you to achieve the "GTi ideal" on your mk3 model. Fourth generation (Mk4/A4,Typ1J 1997–2005) The MK4 (mkIV) and mk5 (mkV...
VW MKIV (A4) Golf Brochure (pdf) VW MKIV (A4) GTI Brochure (pdf) VW MKIV (A4) Jetta Brochure (pdf) VW MKV (B6) Passat Brochure (pdf) VW Paeton Brochure (pdf) VW Touareg Brochure (pdf) VW & Audi Maintenance Schedules Audi Audi 1997 Maintenance Schedules (pdf) Audi 1998 Maintenance...
apart from a remap, or turbo upgrade. Competition cams are not great at low RPM and can be quite lump, which makes driving in traffic quite tricky and you'll need a higher tick over to avoid stalling.
The later diesel turbo engines have a lot to offer as well but for some reason the 1.9 TDi from the Golf GTi with 150bhp was not an option. All the larger powered diesel engines respond very well from a remap. Upgrades to the Jetta's Handling and Suspension ...