MK1 AS A DAILY DRIVER?

Hi

I used to have a couple of campaigns. In fact my first car was a black campaign (which I wrote off  ops: )
Then I had a silver one which got nicked  

Since then I have had a series of uninteresting buses, but now I have had enough of looking at everyone elses nice mk 1's and decided I want another one so i can enjoy driving again

My question is how viable is it to have one as a daily driver. I probably only cover 20-30 miles a day

I realise it will need a lot more looking after than a 'normal' car, but that doesn't put me off one bit

Ideally I would like a standard as possible campaign and my budget is about ?3500

Hi Jools182 - welcome to the site.  I have a Clipper Cabrio which I drive on a daily basis and apart from the CV joint which I had to replace last year, she has been fine.  She's been my daily drive for the past 2 years now and I still love driving her (okay, its the admiring glances from the other jealous car drivers that I really like   ).

Hey Jools, welcome to the site

Providing you listen to any warning signs/noises and dont miss out on the Sunday morning tinker theres no reason atall why a mk1 wont make a good daily car, loads of people on here do it.  I did when the circumstances allowed.

TBH you cant expect 10k miles of driving without lifting the bonnet, but it's all part of the fun.  As long as you dont mind getting your hands dirty once in a while, you'll arrive to work much happier than all those people driving in their boring, all look the same, boxes.

Enjoy

hello , should be fine, more reliable than alot of modern cars on the road today. depending on the car you get once all servicing has been done upto scratch  mk1 will be ideal, especially round new mills, over cat & fiddle ect  :twisted:

Hi Jools,

I have used my mk1 cabbie for the past 2 years as a daily driver and it has only let me down once (flat battery - could happen to any car!)

I check the oil and water every week and take it to my dad's if I hear a new rattle - its easy to pick out the 'abnormal' ones!!

Good luck! You should get a real decent one for that kind of money  :mrgreen:

Rach

Good luck! You should get a real decent one for that kind of money

I hope so

It's just finding one that will be the problem  

Hi, i recently sold my Campaign and was doing 80 miles per day.  She never let me down once

hi Jools,
           My citi is an everyday car, lugging kids to and from school, shopping, meets etc, service your car regulary and any parts that need replacing.
Not forgetting to wash, wax, polish car twice weekly to keep it in good nick, well this is what i do
Pete  :wink:

Just make sure you pick a good 'un and you can't go far wrong. I've used mine daily for ages and family and friends' modern cars have all had major things 'go' on them which have costs hundreds for an 'expert' to put right, and mines just chugged along without a hitch the whole time. The beauty of the mk1 is, if something eventually does need replacing/fixing you can get to it without 'special' tools, easily get parts cheap, and do it yourself if you want. That's my experience, I'm sure most mk1's out there would do 20-30 miles a day without any hassle. Good luck, you should get a corker for ?3500!  :wink:

I drive my cabriolet on a round trip of 30 miles a day, it's never let me down, but does need a fair bit of general maintenance to keep it running sweet.  

The only downside is when it does have to have some work done, it can sometimes be a bit more tricky to obtain parts, so make sure you have an alturnative mode of transport to work available for that time when something has failed, and you've got to wait for parts. Saying that, you'd have the same problems with many modern cars too, but the chances of something going wrong on a 23+ yr old car are obviously slightly higher.  

Apart from that, choose a good well looked after car, and you shouldn't have any trouble at all with that sort of journey.

Mike.

mk1jim said

hello , should be fine, more reliable than alot of modern cars on the road today.

I have been using my Golf Cab Quartett (picts at this thread: http://www.vwgolfmk1.o…ms&file=viewtopic&t=24404) for the last 6 months not only as daily driver, but also as the only car, although here in Italy we have a silly regulation so that the so-called "Euro 0" cannot circulate in some cities during the week end or during a certain days of the week.

How's the situation for cars without catalitic converter in the UK?

Ben

I have used mine daily for the past two and a half years and apart from a flat battery and the exhaust replacing I haven't needed much doing. My mechanic friend loves it as he says he can open the bonnet and see and get to everything he needs to without any hassle.

I'm selling mine - she's a  1983 1.1 Formel E 5 door - take a look at:
http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=24335
But I only want around ?800 for her but I suspect you're after a bigger engine.  :dontknow:

Hope you find what you're looking for!

One of the Classic car mags as an article about big 1960/70s MBs in Germany and it mentions that owners are retro fitting catalyts so that they can drive them in cities  :x  

How long before that law makes it across here?

The road tax situation is already tilting in favour of newer cars, ?35 for my new fester and the full fat ?180 for the MK1s, even though they only do a fraction of the milage combined.

Soon stuff like big Jags and Range Rovers are going to scrapped at @6-8 years old 'cause no 2nd had buyer will want to pay the ?400+ tax and 20mpg. How environmently friendly is that junking a perfectly good vehicle that took massive resources to build.

Sorry bit off topic but glad to have got the sunday morning rant out of the way

I was just wondering about milage on these old girls

If I am buying one the youngest it can be is 24 years old, which I would say equates to about 250000 miles!

Should this put me off?

How expensive is a replacement engine?

Not very many mk1s have that high mileage, not even the diesels!    It depends on the cars own history and individual 'merits'. i.e - a car with 250,000 miles on the clock but just a couple of careful owners and full service history that's never wanted for anything will be much better than a lower mileage car that's been neglected/mistreated a lot of the time!

I had a diesel with 325000 miles on it,it was ?100 and never missed a beat,timworm ate it or it would still be mine now!! PNT553X rip.
Bert

my mot is up 16th june, so far this yr shes done 21000 sweet singing miles and is on 170000
so
yes
in a word

i use mine as a daily it hasn't missed a beat yet (touch wood)

hi jools, welcome to the site.
as you will see loads of people use their Mk1's as daily drivers, including me. i've had mine for about 3 years, i'm on my 2nd engine now, but don't let that put you off. if you find the right man, i got my replaced for ?200, supply and fit.

its never been better.  

oh, mines a carb not a gti.

old dubs just keep going.