Rivage Buying advice 18/01/2011

[gibby]

You mean the two that are the wrong colours and wrong years ! 

What about this one, looks fantastic, low mileage, low price and leather interior ! 

[jonny5]

That's the one I saw yesterday but it had already gone. It's just wahat I'm after, and a low milage well maintained - seems quite cheap to me though, what do you think?

[gibby]

At £2850 or whatever it was is really cheap,  I reckon if you can find any below £3500 then that's cheap in my opinion especially with leather. Is it just a Rivage you are after or have you considered the Sportline ? 

If I find any Rivages for sale around and about the net I'll let you know. 

[jonny5]

The Sportline doesn't really do it for me, I think the Rivage is more refined.

Off on holiday for a week so will have to hold on the search until then, I'd appreciate anything you can find - do you just look on Auto Trader or do you use other sites?

[gibby]

I mainly look on autotrader, but when I can be arsed I look around some of the other forums, if you go to this site's main page at www.golfgti.co.uk and look at the "Enthusiasts Sites" with all the links there some of these are forums and I look in the for sale sections and that's it really. You can also keep an eye out on this site www.thegolf.co.uk and go to the classifieds and search in "The Golf" bit, I've looked in there and there are a couple, but pricey and one doesn't have the le castelletes on it. 

[Phil303]

Another question for owners of older cars - how do you justify replacing a decent, warm, reliable car with an old, leaky, noisy old one to your partners? My girlfriend is none too impressed with my premature mid-life crisis necessity for a MK1 cab.

Well, unless you buy an old Astra or Escort convertible you won't end up with any of the above!

Get a good one and you won't suffer from leaks, excessive noise or drastic draughts. They're certainly not cold, there's layers of decent insulation in the roof for starters - these things were built to a standard, not a price.

Don't be hasty, be thorough when you find one and although she might not acknowledge it, your girlfriend will be impressed by your class and style. 

I can say with absolute honesty that on more than one occassion, female friends have said that a a Mk1 Golf Cab is a definite winner with lay-dees, if that helps fight your cause?

[gibby]

lol - I can vouch for what Phil has said because this year at the GTi festivals I was parked between JV's and topher's Rallyes and we watched people coming to have a nosey at the cars and the pattern whenever there were a couple walking past was for the bloke to look at the G60s and their laydeeeees were looking around mine. 

[superslayer]

Hiya

Just saw your posting with my new rivage on it!  Sorry guys i got in before you, it may be a low price but it does need alot of work on it.  Any advice on fixing things like carpets coming away by the door sills and sorting out the computer, not to mention the rust on the wheel arches and the ruined alloys!!!!  Also the bolster on the drivers side is worn through so advice on sorting out the leather would be good - mechanically though she is great, took her into my local VW specialists and she was given a big thumbs up!

[gibby]

Carpet - My carpet has come away slightly ob the drivers side, if you can then try to clip it back into the black trim that keeps the carpet in place, have a look at the other side if you're not sure what I mean. If this fails just do what I've done and super glue the bugger down. 

Computer/MFA - Sometimes they just play silly buggers, so try taking the fuse out for a minute and placing back in, if this fails just disconnect the battery terminal for a minute or so and see if it works. If it doesn't then there's a different problem.

Rust - Goes without saying, get it done and sorted asap either by yourself or a good bodywork specialist.

Ruined alloys - Easy peasy, send them to a good refurb place who will have them looking like new, I can recommend these guys --> http://www.gstar-dubworld.co.uk/ as the owner Tesh posts on here and is known personally by a lot of us. jv had his refurbed by gstar and they came back looking mint and compared to what they were like before the refurb it was as if they were another set of wheels.

Seat bolster - Not sure, probably best to see a good coach trimmer to see what they can do and depends how bad it is. I've not used this but a few forum users have and said that liquid leather is really good, website here --> http://www.liquidleather.com/

Hope this helps. 

[superslayer]

Gibby

Just wanted to say thanks so much for the advice on the MFA i had no idea something as taking the fuse out and putting it back in would solve the problem - great news many thanks!!!