01 Golf - 100k milege -too much?

MR DAZ

Hi Guys,

I was looking at buying a 01 golf for the wife, went to see one last night,

The Car looked in mint condition both in side and out - never crashed, but the only negative factor is it has 100k milege on the clock. timing belt done at 87k also full service history.

Is that too high to be considering to buy?

Model is a 1.4 comfortline 01 golf.

Am i wasting my time looking at it with that milege on it?


Anyway not going to rush in

Your thoughts appreciated.

Daz

gyppo

Depends on the cash price of the car.

Its a six year old car gone over the magical 100k threshold. Keep it for 2 or 3 years, and you're in banger territory, so your best bet is drive it till it drops.

Be prepared to start shelling out on suspension parts / ancillary items such as alternators, etc.. from now onwards.

DanThe

Gyppo is spot on there, you are going to have constant maintenance items needing to be replaced and some other bits and pieces which will all add up. The 1.4 motors dont have the best reputation for pistons and rings either.

It would have to be very cheap to be considered for me. Maybe around 4K but for 7or 8K I would give it a miss.
Looking at CBG you can get low Mileage ones for the same asking price as high milers, so pick a good one.

furtzy

DanThe wrote:

Gyppo is spot on there, you are going to have constant maintenance items needing to be replaced and some other bits and pieces which will all add up. The 1.4 motors dont have the best reputation for pistons and rings either.

It would have to be very cheap to be considered for me. Maybe around 4K but for 7or 8K I would give it a miss.
Looking at CBG you can get low Mileage ones for the same asking price as high milers, so pick a good one.

Exactly that. Would need to be very cheap as it will in banger-price territory very soon

HashSlinging

If the wife is only going to be using it locally to go to the school/shops etc then it might be ok. make sure its got the essential VWSH. The golf is fairly heavy for that engine so its not really suitable for 120kph cruising, but as a run about you should be fine.

Fozzie Bear

If it's just a run about for the wife it does not sound too bad to me. I bought a 98 1.4 Golf 3 years ago with 105,000 on the clock and i never had a spot of bother with it for the 2 and bit years i had it. It had a full service history and I put 30,000 miles up on it, drove it pretty hard at times without it every breaking down. I kept it serviced every 10,000 miles, put break pads and a new cat coverter (thanks to hitting a dead badger) on it and thats as much as i had to do. When i sold it to my brother last June there was 135,000 on it and it has just passed it's NCT with flying colours before xmas. I was so confident of it reliability i sold it to him with a 6 month warranty and he is perfectly happy with it even now. He drives from Ennis to Dublin every weekend to see the quare one and it has approx 145,000 up now and still going strong.

The way i look at it, the car is German so you know it's going to be well engineered and reliable even with that much milage. As long as it has a service history and you get it checked out by a mechanic i would not be overly concerned with buying it just because it has 100,000 miles done. In this day and age 100,000 on a car is not the same as 100,000 miles on a car 10/20 years ago.

Eoin

Fozzie Bear wrote:

The way i look at it, the car is German so you know it's going to be well engineered and reliable even with that much milage.

I really think this is a misconception, and why 2nd hand golfs go for much more than they are worth. I don't think the Mark IV golf is deserving of the bullet proof image it seems to have; I didn't find my one particularly reliable or even well put together inside.

bazz26

eoin_s wrote:

I really think this is a misconception, and why 2nd hand golfs go for much more than they are worth. I don't think the Mark IV golf is deserving of the bullet proof image it seems to have; I didn't find my one particularly reliable or even well put together inside.

Exactly, but as long as people keep believing the VW adverts then silly money will continue to be paid for them. The Golf has had as many if not more problems as any other car out there.

To the OP how much are you paying for the Golf in question?

Fozzie Bear

Fozzie Bear wrote:

The way i look at it, the car is German so you know it's going to be well engineered and reliable even with that much milage. As long as it has a service history and you get it checked out by a mechanic i would not be overly concerned with buying it just because it has 100,000 miles done. In this day and age 100,000 on a car is not the same as 100,000 miles on a car 10/20 years ago.

Ask an independent mechanic about that era golf's clutch + gearbox.
.

MR DAZ

Thanks for the replies lads

@ BAZ - Right firstly i'm not buying it ...at least not yet...as i was abit stand offish due to the milage. I can get the car for 7k

Which according to some of the other replies is to much to pay for such milage. Now in saying that i have only looked at four cars to date... and i plan to look at alot more before buying, But the the car mentioned above is with out a doubt the best so far as regards condition inside and out and even to drive there didnt seem like any issues.

..but then again i know jack **** about cars so i decided to ask yee for some advice. Also before i buy i'd bring a mechanic with me to look at it...


I appreciate all the thoughts lads...keep them coming

Daz

unkel

MR DAZ wrote:

i know jack **** about cars so i decided to ask yee for some advice

And good advice you got! €7k for that car, though probably the going rate, is not good value for money imho. Any other cars on your shortlist?

hiscan

MR DAZ wrote:

Hi Guys,

I was looking at buying a 01 golf for the wife, went to see one last night,

The Car looked in mint condition both in side and out - never crashed, but the only negative factor is it has 100k milege on the clock. timing belt done at 87k also full service history.

Is that too high to be considering to buy?

Model is a 1.4 comfortline 01 golf.

Am i wasting my time looking at it with that milege on it?


Anyway not going to rush in

Your thoughts appreciated.

Daz

a car with 100000 genuine miles is better than a clocked one with 40000

tonedef

All I can say on the matter is I have a 2003 mark IV TDI Golf with 130k miles on the clock and it has never missed a beat. I bought it 14 months ago or so at auction in the UK, it was a rep car, had 110k miles on it then and everyone told me I was nuts to buy it but I couldn't be happier.

Maybe I just got luck but I'll def be taking the same route when it comes to buying my next car

bazz26

MR DAZ wrote:

Thanks for the replies lads

@ BAZ - Right firstly i'm not buying it ...at least not yet...as i was abit stand offish due to the milage. I can get the car for 7k

Which according to some of the other replies is to much to pay for such milage. Now in saying that i have only looked at four cars to date... and i plan to look at alot more before buying, But the the car mentioned above is with out a doubt the best so far as regards condition inside and out and even to drive there didnt seem like any issues.

..but then again i know jack **** about cars so i decided to ask yee for some advice. Also before i buy i'd bring a mechanic with me to look at it...


I appreciate all the thoughts lads...keep them coming

Daz

€7k sounds a bit pricy to me too.

DanThe

dillon1 wrote:

All I can say on the matter is I have a 2003 mark IV TDI Golf with 130k miles on the clock and it has never missed a beat. I bought it 14 months ago or so at auction in the UK, it was a rep car, had 110k miles on it then and everyone told me I was nuts to buy it but I couldn't be happier.

Maybe I just got luck but I'll def be taking the same route when it comes to buying my next car

A TDi is a different kettle of fish really, you should see 200k in one of those without too many problems. Some of the 1.4s are lucky to make it to 80K.

@ Hiscan, Good point about the mileage, there are so many clocked cars around, it is hard to know what your getting.

gyppo

A point regarding high mileage cars:

High mileage cars which have spent their life tramping up and down the motorways in the UK have had a much easier life that a similar mileage car worked here.

In fact, many high mileage cars are in far better shape mechanically than a low mileage car that has never been out of city traffic.

The unfortunate thing is, most buyers of secondhand cars home in on low mileage cars. There is still an ingrained perception in Joe Publics mind that once a car passes the 100k milestone, its next stop is the scrapheap.
Because of this, its not going to be an attractive proposition, and therefore would need to be priced to sell.

Fozzie Bear

ronoc wrote:

Ask an independent mechanic about that era golf's clutch + gearbox.
.

The asking price of 7k is too much yes, but the milage should not be the sole reason he walks away from this car. I find it hard to believe i am the one person in the entire country who got lucky and bought a fluke model or something. I did ask a mechanic about all of that when i bought mine and he had absolutely no problem with them. As a matter of fact my brother thought the gearbox and clutch had gone on the Golf i sold him. It would not go into all but 3rd and 5th gear and this happened on the Naas motorway one Friday evening. So he forced it into gear and made it all the way into Harolds cross somehow where the smell from the burning clutch would have killed a horse. He had the car towed from there to a garage where they informed him that a linkage had simply slipped off and that he would more then likely need a new clutch going on the smell. However when they popped the linkage back on and tried to move the car they found it was perfect again. No problems with putting it into gear or driving it. That was at the end of November and it has not broken down on him since, so if anything the clutch and gearbox are remarkable to be able to have taken that abuse on a car with 145,000 miles and still keep going! But my Golf is obviously a fluke....

I wonder how many of the above who are poo-pooing the Golf have actually owned and driven a 1.4 base model Golf with that much milage around for a few years? Or are they going on hearsay or something their Friends-uncles-third cousins-sister in laws-second daughters boyfriend, "Anto" said?

Having 100,000 miles up is not a big deal anymore, people really need to get over their miopic views on it.

unkel

Fozzie Bear wrote:

Having 100,000 miles up is not a big deal anymore, people really need to get over their miopic views on it.

And most of the posters above have no issue with high miles in terms of reliability, etc. Fact remains that most high mileage cars are very hard to sell in this country unless the price is dramatically reduced (some exceptions, like diesels)

Eoin

Fozzie Bear wrote:

I wonder how many of the above who are poo-pooing the Golf have actually owned and driven a 1.4 base model Golf with that much milage around for a few years? Or are they going on hearsay or something their Friends-uncles-third cousins-sister in laws-second daughters boyfriend, "Anto" said?

Believe me - having also driven an Alfa, I am not keen on opinions based on what someone heard from a friend's friend about a car.

I drove a Golf Mark IV for a year, and found it over priced for what I got. It was sluggish when running smoothly, bulbs went constantly, and I found the plastics on the dash - particularly the cup holders - very flimsy. Luckily it wasn't the base model, I can't believe that electric windows were an extra until 2001 or so.

The throttle body stuck on more than one occasion, meaning accelerating onto a main road was a gamble because I never knew when the revs wouldn't be there for me.

DanThe

Fozzie Bear wrote:

I wonder how many of the above who are poo-pooing the Golf have actually owned and driven a 1.4 base model Golf with that much milage around for a few years? Or are they going on hearsay or something their Friends-uncles-third cousins-sister in laws-second daughters boyfriend, "Anto" said?

Having 100,000 miles up is not a big deal anymore, people really need to get over their miopic views on it.

Well I bought a new one a few years ago, 1.4 straight deal I got it for what people were paying for second hand ones! It was grand, no probs. But I see so many that are trashed and abused, they don't hold up.

Ask Junkyard or crosstown about piston/Bore probs on the 1.4's with 50k miles:eek:

I have a high miller vag diesel now and it is grand, But it's got through 1K of parts in 2 years, and it will need ongoing maintenance to keep it in good nick.

Ps Who buys a base golf anyway, windey windows on a 02 no thanks..