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test drive

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 1:06 pm
by david burton
Well, I've test driven the car. "Purple" 16v with 61k miles. There's not a ding on the car, but lots of stone chips from motorway miles. It feels tighter than my 1.0L and is in mint condition inside. To be honest the bonnet needs a respray and there's a scratch on the passenger door which would need seeing to. Then a couple of stonechips to touch up. Two of the indianapolis alloys are marked. That's it though.

It's going for £3999 but I think I could drop it to £3750 and then spend £250 on the alloys and resprayed bonnet. Seems like a good price to me.

Anyone got any thoughts? Tempted but I really could do with seeing a good condition one to compare it to. There's none for sale locally though!

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 1:45 pm
by jakethesnake
What year is it ?.

Look in Performance VW or The Golf magazine several companies will refurb wheels for approx £40 each wheel.

Has it had a cambelt change ?. If not haggle the price down by at least £400 to cover the cost of a new belt/ water pump and tensioners. It's a fairly time consuming job so costs about £400. It's essential this work is done on a car with that sort of mileage.

I would suggest you try and find a few others to look at to give yourself a better idea of condition etc, even if you have to travel a bit.

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 2:11 pm
by david burton
It's a 1999 T reg.

Cambelt was done at 42k, but that's all it said - didn't go into whether the tensioner was done, who did it etc. Is the water pump usually replaced with this job then?

I will try to find a comparison. It's not my number 1 colour either but it's nice enough....

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 8:25 pm
by jakethesnake
It's a wise idea to replace the waterpump same time as the cambelt. The cambelt drives the waterpump, if the pump bearings sieze up, the belt will snap :cry: .

Sounds like you're not sold on the colour :lol: try not to buy the first car you look at unless it's exactly what you want. There's plenty of others out there.

Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2004 12:09 am
by david burton
OK.

My ideal car would be black or a dark metallic colour. With around 40k on the clock. So it's not perfect. I'll keep looking - I'm happy with the decision to go for a 16v and sell my 1.0L. That's a big step for me! I've bought enough cars to know to try not to let the excitement get in the way :wink: it's difficult though!

cheers

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2004 7:49 pm
by chubbster
try buying private. i got mine for £4000 with 27,000 on it. it had one minor dint u could only see wen the car was clean and freshly waxed and that was it. i did hassle the lad a lot tho he wanted £4500 for it. i think if u go private and look around for abit u'll find a bargain. just do the usually HPI check and inspection from someone like the RAC or AA

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2004 8:21 pm
by david burton
I have just found a dealer car - 1999 V plate with 26k on the clock. He wanted 5k for it, but I haggled down to £4,500 which seems pretty good from a dealer? It's HPI-ed and has a 2 month warranty on it, it's been serviced and fully RAC checked. plus the peace of mind that it's from a dealer. I have put a deposit on it and go for a test drive on saturday.

Yes, I haven't tested it - but it's a refundable deposit.

The going rate seems to be 4500 for a very low mileage T plate - seems like you got a bargain!