MK1 road trip?...anyone doen some serious miles?

as you might be aware i'm looking for a MK1,

for the last seven years i have been driving a veriety of rubbish cars for insurance reasons…this didn't stop me getting the most out of them.

i've driven a h reg polo 1.0 to 2300m above sea level on a snowboarding trip with no problems,i managed to squeeze 108mph down hill with a good tail wind on the way back from the alps.

i've also done the same trip in a M reg 2.0L cavaleer taht me and a mate bought for ?400, alpine roads and it's blemonge like hadleing…scarry.

the summer before last my misses got a job for the summer working for a holliday firm in a place called chamonix (in french alps right next to MT blanc.) I drove there in my '01 pergeot 106 1.1! set fo from manchester at 12.00 midnight and arrived there at about 4.00pm the next day doing 100 at 5.5 thousand revs for most of the way. we dropped her stuff off and set off the next day to the south of france through the alps and down to Nice…saw some awesome roads just inland of Nice, went to Monaco and drove the GP route, then camped at most of the majior place along the coast, cannes, st tropez etc. between MOT's i'd done 22.000 miles that year. i used to travel a lot between manchster and llandunno at the time to vistit the affore mentioned misses which racked up the miles. the car was been fine and still is.just needed new zorst and a tyre or two.

happy days!

how do you think a MK1 would fare up to this kind of trip?!?

:dontknow:  if it was a "goodun" and mechanically sound i dont see why it wouldnt do it, i have driven all my 5 mk1`s both sensibly and not so sensibly ops:  and not had any major agro with them, i used my Lhasa green GTI every day for 7 years!!! and it only let me down on a few occasions, most major one was it stuck in 3rd gear as one of the selector fingers bent, other than that it was normal stuff, like flat battery, that was down to the clifford alarm though!  and a few minor silly things like a fuse blowing, a split braided fuel pipe, and a bad earth connection, i racked up around 7-9k per year and it would of done more im sure, just depends on the car you get?

I've owned six of them and have found them to be pretty reliable. -Maybe not quite as dependable as the Polo, but pretty close.

Main probs I've encountered is with failure of the alternator and the starter motor -due mostly I guess to the age of the vehicle and often previous lack of use which the electrical systems really hate! If you buy a Mk1, make sure you budget for a recon alternator!!  Some Mk1s have really slow windscreen wipers, but I haven't had this problem with all my cars.

Carbs on the 1500 models can play up sometimes (I've had no trouble with manual choke carbs on 1300s though)…..Make sure you change inline fuel filter regularly as dirt/rust can lead to rough running

Mk1s are great to drive, but pretty tiring over the distances you are describing because they are quite low geared (excepting the 5 speed models) and all drink fuel rapidly at high revs. their favourite speed is usually 50-55 and they relish twisty "B" roads! :wink:

Cheers

Mal
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1982 GL auto
1977 LT28 camper