Some Advice Needed

Hello, im 19 coming on 20 in may, and im looking at buying a mk1 golf, only real problem is i have next to no knowledge on restoraion on cars, or mechanial side of things, but im willing to try my hands at it. What i really wanna know is the kind of money i would be looking to pay for a mk1 golf, i want one thats got all the body work done really, as i dont have a clue on that and one that runs nicely as it will be my evreyday car?

i understand that every car has its running costs on tyres and oil and bits and that they do breakdown, but are there any extra kinda of costs involved with running a mk1 golf as it is over 20 years old?

Mike

For a decent runner, look at ?1500-2000, less for a non-GTI. From experience, its much easier to work on a car if you're not relying on it for day-day use. More often than not, it takes a couple of days to order parts and await their arrival. And there's plenty of things which can break, which will keep you off the road until they are fixed.

For example I recently broke a banjo bolt on the fuel system. You can't run the car without it. VW Dealer would never have it in stock, so it takes 1-2 days to arrive.

Part of the fun of owning one is fixing it weekly! get yourself a haynes manual and some good knowledgable mates and you'll be ok. i was once in your predicament, now im on my second cabby!

Now now lads…You're making them sound unreliable!…They are old..Yes…..But I think the sheer number of mk1's left is testement to their reliability!
If I were you necrofilicat, I would have a look out for a newer mk1 cabriolet also, obviously the newer it is, the better the body should be! The Hard top is far better as a drivers car in GTI form but going topless also has it's advantages! But then again I'm biased! If you do look at a cabby, bare in mind that classic car insurance is generally for cars over 15 years old so if you are lucky enough to find a K or L reg you will have to pay more for insurance for the next year or two! Best of luck!  

one problem I'm getting with mine at the moment is 20+ year old rubber mounts tend to be pretty worn

but they are pretty simple and easy to work on, haynes manual covers pretty much everything

oh, ignore Walt about a cabby.. you want a real mk1 GTI.. tin top :y:  

8O ?4$74?%

I'm with Phill on this. What you want is a gti tin top in black! 8)

ops: just trying to keep the tin tip stats up  

either way which ever one you decide on they are both great cars, I would like to own a cabby as well one day.
They are normally very realiable but with ANY car new or old things do go wrong so try and budget for this as well. The engine is one of the best engineered ever and will last for hundreds of thousands of miles with very little maintence but theres always the odd one. The rest of the car is really straight forward in terms of maintence/repair and makes an idea DIY servicable machine unlike newer more complex cars.
Like most things you pay for what you get. yes there are some bargins but generally ?500 is going to get you something rough, a grand to spend a things get alot better but ?1500 to ?2000 should buy you something really nice that will not require any imediate work of course if you want a fully restored low mileage example with fsh then your pockets need to be alot deeper :wink:

definately not after a cabby, sorry to dissapoint some, im not scared of getting my hands dirty if need be when it breaks, but as i said it will be a daily car and i need it to be reliable, as someone said they need reparing once a week, im sure that was an exagertaion, but i know all cars are different, but what kinda things do go wrong on these regualr?

im also looking in the price range of ?2500? what cfan i get for that? as i want one preferably 100% rust free? not bothered about fsh, not even after a gti in paticualr, as a 1.3 or something would do, because i intend on modifiying the car a bit, which i can do whilst i get another years no claims or so, then put in a bigger enginge or something, as once i get hsi car i intend to keep it for a long tim )

Mike

I think you have to bare in mind your age for insurance purposes as I dont think you will be able to get classic car cover before your 25.
Any mk1 you get will look cool and as long as you can get a bit of history with the car you should find reliability not too much of a problem.

Unless of course he buys yours DjEv…Then it will just look like a heap of rusty bodged up junk!  

walt said

Unless of course he buys yours DjEv…Then it will just look like a heap of rusty bodged up junk!  

LOL. Somewhere, someone's garden can't be watered properly either…..

hey hey hey
NeCrOpHiLiCaT you could always sell yourself on the street for next to nothing, then after 20 years you should have saved up enough money and you could buy a low mileage, one owner, immaculate rivage convert like walts (dont mention its been resprayed down one side though he sulks).
And as for you paul c.
At least my second car is not a Yugo. You havent got a clue

8O

Dj Ev said

hey hey hey
NeCrOpHiLiCaT you could always sell yourself on the street for next to nothing, then after 20 years you should have saved up enough money and you could buy a low mileage, one owner, immaculate rivage convert like walts (dont mention its been resprayed down one side though he sulks).
And as for you paul c.
At least my second car is not a Yugo. You havent got a clue

So its true, about a length of garden hose forming important parts of the cooling system?

Whose got the Yugo as a 2nd car?

for ?2500 you should be able to find yourself a pretty decent Mk1

(my 'breaks weekly' statement at the bottom was only true for the first month or 2 after being off the road for 5 years  :wink: )

main problem with the tip tops is rust.. you will be able to find a pretty good one for that money!

As long as it's a Black GTI too  :y:

coclour dosent bother me because when i pay off hte loan i wil get for the car im going to save to ahve it resprrayed in a lovely midnight purple colour, so it looks black but in the light its got that nice purple tint to it just at the moment im tyring to get a feel for what its going to need doing to it to keep it running, as my dad is being a moro and trhying to persaude me to keep the vectra  :evil: but ive got my heart set on a mk1 so a mk1 will be it for me  8)

If you buy a ?500 car you would have to do work on it, to keep it roadworthy. The problem is, spending ?2000 on an apparently good car but finding that beneath the surface, it needs similar work spent. You need to leave your emotions behind and critically assess each car you look at, so you don't end up with a lemon.

If you're after a really dark colour, with a hint of purple, why not simply go for Helios Blue?

never seen the helios blue, any pics any one please :dontknow: