Should I? - Volkswagen Golf Mk IV GTI 2.0

[kingkong]

Hello all,

The wife is about to take her driving test and I'm looking for a smaller, cheaper and manual car for her to use for not much cash.

A mate has offered me his 2001 Golf GTI (mark IV) 2.0 for £1,300.

Its done 130,000 miles but he is a meticulous kind of guy who has kept a full dealer service history and is the only owner. The car will come freshly serviced with a 12 month MOT and has most of the extras, AC, CD, ABS, etc...

Seems like quite a good deal to me but I know nothing about these cars - is there anything I should look out for in particular or should I just be walking away?

Plenty of mark IV Golf's around for sale at much more than this price so I'm tempted.

Thanks for your input,

KK

 

[rag1873]

Watch out for water ingress. Numerous places, mainly caused by bad seals on the pollen filter or bad sunroof drainage as well as numerous other places! Water normally goes into the passenger footwell to start with.
Bad idling on the car would also ;oint to water ingress as the main electrical unit is under the passenger seat.
They like brake light bulbs...... no matter what make ive never had cars that go thru as many as vw's!!
Other than that ive had no problems with either my golf or passat, both 2001 models.

 

[Mudster]

Check the insurance on a GTi for someone who hasn't had a licence for 12 months.....that alone may make your decision.

 

[st13phil]

Good advice from both rag1873 & Mudster (especially: insurance costs may kill the idea).

A quick way to tell if there's water in the car is to see if it steams up readily in cool, wet, conditions with the a/c off (pretty easy to replicate that at the moment ). I've had both a Golf and a Bora of similar vintage (both from new) and they were good cars, but the Bora easily shaded the Golf GTI as a car to drive - the Golf managed to be stiffer but with poorer ride and handling. Quite an achievement.

 

[rag1873]

It took a long while for the golf to start steaming up etc, it was the idling then the smell that started for us way before the steaming up.
Id personally buy the car! If you put you as a named driver on the insurance it should bring it down too!!

 

[A210AMG]

I'm guessing insurance will make or brake your choice.

Golfs are great though. Millage is no problem if well maintained years ago my brother had a MK2 Gti and it went better with every mile, sold it on 174K

I've had a Mk3 Gti Anniversary model and loved it. It wasn't Gti quick but looked the part.

Nice well built car but I feel the insurance will be high.

 

[jimmymidnight]

i had a 2001 2.0 8v VW bora SE a couple of years ago and it was great to own, looked pretty good, got pretty good mpg for the engine and weight, was a bit slow, but never seemed to bother me! it was also quite well kitted out as standard, i had the optional climatronic system, but im pretty sure the rest was standard!

Mine had 120k on the clock and drove like new, i did 20k in the year i had it and nothing major went wrong, as long as they are well serviced, like all other newer VW's, they're pretty bulletproof! the only reason mine went was because A) i had it lowered and then hit a level crossing and had to get the engine replaced because it cracked the block and B) i got offered a nice 2.0 16v ABF corrado that i couldn't say no to as i wanted one since i could remember!

 

[High-Lo]

I'll buy it if you don't

 

[kingkong]

Thanks for the input all - the insurance is only group 10 as it is the feeble 115bhp 2.0 and actually quite slow so shouldn't be too bad to add the wife as a named driver.

Second question - any advice on how to negotiate with a friend, if at all? He said he would advertise it at £1750 but would sell it to me at £1300. I've checked this out and it does seem that £1750 is a fair price. Would it be cheeky to ask for a bit off the £1300 price?

 

[Mudster]

I've never bought a vehicle from a friend or family member, it just removes all the possible bad feeling if it eventually turns out to be a real pup.

Of course if they've had it from new and it's only a couple of years old that's different...

 

[rag1873]

See how much he would get for a trade in for it. Thats what i done when i bought my dads car, trade in prices are always that low anyway so you would get it at a good price.
To be honest £1300 for the car seems very reasonable! Id be very tempted if you werent going for it and its was an auto!!!

 

[gaz_l]

Sounds like a bargain. I've got a MkIV Golf (1999 V5) with 130K on the clock, I bought it at 120K from its first owner, it's been looked after all its life and it still runs sweet as a nut. The exterior has picked up the odd ding/scratch but the interior is still a very nice place to sit, it's got leather and aircon and all the toys. More importantly, everything still works.

The MkIV GTI is probably the least sporting version of the GTI, so don't expect it to be a great drive (or particularly quick). But it should be quick enough for a new driver. They're also pretty well kitted out safety-wise, with side airbags and that type of malarkey.

As others have said, do watch out for insurance. My V5's group 15 and seems pretty expensive even bearing that in mind; I recently bought a Fiat Barchetta (group 19) that was insured on a new policy with no NCB - that only cost me £80 more! Go figure..

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[lynall]

£1300 is a good price pay the man and be done with it

Reasonably well built and dont seem to rust like certain cars i could mention.


Lynall

 

[EdmundIJones]

I used to own a Golf GTi MK4. The 2.0 GTi isn't a proper GTi, its actually very under powered. The best GTi to go for (in my humble opinion) is the 1.8T GTi.... this is great fun and economical too (we sold ours in October for £2000.

However if I was in the market for a hot golf, with what I know now about them I'd try to find a MK4 GT TDi (the hot diesal), it has far more torque and feels really sporty, when we we're looking we test drive a 6 speed model and it was great, just couldn't afford it at the time. They come in a variety of power outputs so best research them. If you want Petrol then the 1.8T is the best.

Ed

 

[davidbilyk]

Great price, good first car, solid and reliable! Ticks most boxes, just the insurance.

 

[A-AvantGarde]

I'll buy it if you don't

Me too , sounds like a steal. Buy it if the insurance works out okay for your wife...

 

[trapperjohn]

Your mate is a true mate for offering you "Mates Rates" on that motor at that price. Snap his hand off. If you try and negotiate at that price you risk your friendship or at least denting it.

 

[A-AvantGarde]

... He said he would advertise it at £1750 but would sell it to me at £1300. I've checked this out and it does seem that £1750 is a fair price. Would it be cheeky to ask for a bit off the £1300 price?

Yes, it would be cheeky! No harm in asking but it sounds like you're already getting a cracking deal. I'd give him £1300 and buy him a couple of pints if I were you...