If your looking for a 5 speed manual, then that grey one is the one to go for right now.
Mine left last night sadly.....sucked watching that car drive off.

As for the IS300, there is not a lot out there to do with the car aside from aesthetics. You can put a header on there but its pointless as the gains are so minimal due to the self learning ECU.
This is why I was planning on doing the turbo setup. Proper gains but sadly was not able to get that done.

I still have the turbo kit and wheels from my IS for sale tho. If you are looking for parts when you get yours.

The 5 speed autos are decent as well. The auto is a great tranny in the IS.

If you're new to cars you're probably better off buying something stock and adding mods yourself. The last thing you want to do is to buy someone else's can of worms.

A MKV GTI on a $10k budget might be a tad optimistic unless you are looking at rebuilts or Kingsway dealerships.

Curious, how come you sold your is300 anyways?

It didnt make sense to keep the car when all I do with it is drive to and from work. Never really got to go out and drive the car and it made more sense to have the $$ in the bank rather than tied up in the car.

Wanted to put the Advans on the new car but not going to work out so there selling and the new owner bought the car without the turbo setup.

I had someone test drive the IS300 and apparently they said the gear grinded a little. On top of that the paint on the front bumper was peeling off (he probably got it done by someone that wasn't that great) and it has cigarette smoke residue in the car. Idk if that's worth it then

as a past owner of a mk5 gti, i am forced to disagree... worst car i've ever owned :(

Grinding gears can occasionally be fixed by replacing the fluid with something better suited for the car, but not always. It could also be a sign of bad synchro's or even a faulty clutch system. The first is a cheap fix, the last two not so much.

As someone has already said, you might want to rethink buying a car that's already been modified. Unless you get into the nitty gritty, it's often hard to see what's been properly modified and what has had corners cut. That goes especially for anything that's not a simple bolt on (think ecu mapping, upgraded cams, etc). If it's only a cat-back or coilovers, those are pretty easy to see and eventually swap out, but at the very least have someone who knows wtf they're doing to put it up in the air so you can see if bolts are properly in place or if questionable repairs were done to fit them in.

The IS300 has a common 4th grind because of how the gears are set in the case.
Running thicker gear oil solves the problem. Most only grind when there hot if its this problem. If it grinds in other gear then chances are its been driven rather hard. The W55 is a rather weak transmission.

The gray IS was also checked out by the guy who bought my car and he said it was clear the car was driven hard and not taken care of well. No reciepts for work done, past due for a timing belt but the owner claimed his mechanic said it does not need it yet (replace riming belt every 5 years of 120k). Car had 140+ and is over 10 years old.

These cars a are reliable but have there common problems. Weak standard trans, common security light staying on problem but thats about it.

Check things like the auto leveling light system. Lots of people disconnect it because the motors stop working especially on lowered ones.

What did you replace it with? I would've thought an IS would be a great DD.

:(

OP should just go lease the new GTI and call it a day

Funny, mine was great. I literally never had one issue in 3 years and I beat the fuck out of that car.
To OP I'd suggest the is300. Toyota reliability is always going to be better than german, not to mention they look great and are RWD. As for mods, buy a car you like in stock form. Modding cars is great, but not if you need to mod it to like it. Thats why I'd never buy a VW ever again other than a golf R maybe. They just need some tweaking to look and drive better, then all of a sudden you've doubled your purchase price.

It was a great DD, no question but just more car than I needed to get me around. The only thing I was not overly happy with was the fuel mileage. Given a 6th speed the car would do much better but 95% highway driving and I averaged 19-21mpg.
Sell it, buy something cheaper (both cost to buy and to keep running) but something I will still enjoy and bank the rest.

I have to go in for surgery tomorrow so I will be picking up the replacement on Saturday morning.

i wish i were that lucky. the longest i was without it while the dealer tried to fix the car was 23 days. went through two service loaners during that time because the jetta they gave me broke down as well :(