New to Golf - some advice please

Hello - I am looking to buy a Mk1 golf gti convertable - is there anything i need to look out for?
The one i have seen is a 91, white, recently replaced hood, recently MOT with some new bits on.
I think i will need some new front seats and maybe some rust treatment.
any advice will be gratefully recieved

thanks
Helen

There's a comprehensive buyer's guide, link on the home page. Just don't pay over the odds, there's a few people trying to sell them for silly money!

He wants about ?1500, I was going to offer a bit less

I will have a look at the guide
ta

Hi Helen, firstly good luck in your hunt!

the buyers guide is really helpfull, and i printed it off and took a good hour + looking round every car i went to see checking the vital points against the guide.

i know your after a GTi, but i looked at around 10 cabrio's over about 6 weeks, and 2 months ago got a K plate 1.8 clipper with 116k mileage years mot, very clean inside and part service history for ?1275, i was looking at cars older with more miles and they wanted more than that so glad i held out

There's an e plate in the for sale section that looks alright ! its up for ?1200, but given current prices i think you could get a fair bit off that ….

Hi Helen, firstly good luck in your hunt!

the buyers guide is really helpfull, and i printed it off and took a good hour + looking round every car i went to see checking the vital points against the guide.

i know your after a GTi, but i looked at around 10 cabrio's over about 6 weeks, and 2 months ago got a K plate 1.8 clipper with 116k mileage years mot, very clean inside and part service history for ?1275, i was looking at cars older with more miles and they wanted more than that so glad i held out

There's an e plate in the for sale section that looks alright ! its up for ?1200, but given current prices i think you could get a fair bit off that ….

hi, mk1 white clipper 1990 owner myself, 81k genuin miles as it had all the mot certificates and tax disc's going back to when she was new, i bought an auto i wasnt originaly looking for an auto but they do seem to have less milleage and less owners than all the manuals i looked at and they were lessdesirable with boy racers, i thought in the end why not an auto im not guna be racing it im not guna be thrashing it around every where these cars are to old to be doing that nowthey'v been thro all that when they were younger , its my 1st auto and you no wot its actually nice to just sit back and drive with out all the changing gear and stuff just sit back cruise and enjoy the sun beaming down on your face so dont let auto's put you off, like they say dont pay over the odds take ya time looking round it, when i bought mine i made a priority list

1st priority,
roof had to be in good nik ( your pissin against the wind straight away if its not working or torn) but if its just replacement cables thats not so bad

2nd priority(it can be expensive 2find the original parts with 2many mods),
had to be origanal as possible as i wanted one in original cond to restore back to original, you hav to weigh up wot its goin to cost to put back to original, how many mods does it have and how easy or hard is to find the parts that have been changed as the cost soon mounts up

3rd priority,
body work, wasnt a major worry if it needed a little bit of attention here and there again tried to avoid anything that really needed to be stript and sorted or was very close to, it had to be as good as i could find, the 1st 2 prioritys were more important in my mind! a little rust here and there can be sorted quite easily and cheap to get done but i wanted to aviod holes in sills and round the front windscreen and also rot around the boot lid where the hood fits on and inside behnd the rear seats

4th priority,
the engine i wasnt to bothered about the engine can be fixed quite easilly and alot of it you can do your self saving you money on labour, this was the least important on my list

i looked at loads some looked really promising but most i had to turn and walk away from cause of all the mods on it, dont worry about the seat you can be lucky and maybe find matching seats in time or you can opt for them to be recovered, there a section in the forum where people break complete cars so could pick you self a whole matching interior if you cant find one the same, i spent months looking it can be tempting and frustrating at times but hold out resist temptation in saying "oh it'l do" giving up and buying it cause you just wanna own one now
i was lucky with mine very lucky i think, mine was up for 1250 and i got it for 1000, find everything you can wrong with it no matter how big or small the prob may be you hav to remember it may be and easy job or a cheap repaire but its coming out of your pocket every little prob is a bahtering point,

hope this helps i no not everyone does things the way i do them but any advice is great i didnt hav any advice i bought mine blind not knowing a thing on mk1's and not being a member on here to get advice' as i'v owned a few mkII's i just really looked in the area's i knew they got their usual prob's, dont be shy to list all the prob's to the person selling it either i now it can seem a bit a harsh sometimes high lighting all the prob's with it, i felt a bit bad sometimes doing it but you gotta think at the end of it all it may hav been the owners pride and joy at some point he'l want wot he think its worth to him or wot he's spent on it but you have to think wot its guna cost to put it right after you'v bought it, most cars will need something doing to it when you 1st get it, just try and keep some of their asking price in your pocket to  to go toward fixing fixin it rather than put it in their pocket

hope your hunting goes well let me know how you get on or if you have any questions or quiries i'l help if i can giv me a shout or anyone for that matter on here will help  :wink:

can look me up in your cars and projects