Owned 1996-99.

DevilBunny was my first junkyard find; he was sitting on top of a Triumph TR-7 at a scrapyard in Inkster, and they were all too happy to sell it to me for $250.  After some coaxing, it ran, and was  an absolute blast to drive, even with a bent rear axle, no exhaust to speak of and tires in four different sizes.

Once those quirks were addressed (except for the exhaust; I never did get a muffler on the thing), the GTI was the ultimate beater.  Most of the interior trim was rotted out.  The passenger seat was missing (it smelled funny, and I never found a replacement).  For  a while it was missing its front and rear bumpers, too, but I managed to purchase a set, along with the Golf GTI 16V wheels seen above.  DevilBunny even got a Neuspeed strut tower bar and Bilstein shocks.

Unfortunately, he also got cancer.  A move to Texas came too late to keep the rust out of the unibody under the A-pillars, and he was sold to donate his parts to another VW project when the rust became terminal.