If it's been well maintained and not hacked by a broke teenage boy previous owner (like most VWs unfortunately) it should be reliable. Is she a good, alert driver though? A GTI has almost no passive safety--ABS, airbags, crash protection, etc.--so she better be ready to avoid trouble at all times. Not a description I would give to most teenage girls...
Actual quote from my sister at age 16: "The deer just, like, jumped on the hood."
