This.
I drove a 2.0 back from the hocking hills once with a fragged water pump, and the coolant gauge pegged hot. Everything was true enough to get by with a t-belt job and it's been perfect 15k miles later. The 5-speeds are idiot tolerant, parts are super cheap, and they go and go. I'm not too familiar with the 16v 2.0 or whatever in the GTI, but the SOHC 2.0 is solid.