Things to look for when buying a MK 2!

[kmpowell]

thanks everyone any advice is welcome, the red one on pistonheads is mint good buy mate. i've got about £3250 to spend should that get me something decent and low mileage (for the age car). what is the highest mileage i should be looking at buying?

 thanks again

Sounds like a similar budget to what I set myself. I set myself a £4k limit, but then I saw the grey one at Volks cars for £4995, and put a deposit down on it. I then mulled it over for a bit, listened to people on here, and eventually talked myself out of it, saying I shouldn't spend that much on a Mk2!

I carried on going to see cars (i've seen about 10-15), and if you are after a 3dr than apart from the Grey and Red one there are none out there that I am aware of which could be classed as 'mint' (which if you are spending £3k+ they have to be!). I ended up with the red one even though Red wasn't my first choice in colour, the car stacks up in every dept so I wasn't going to miss out.

There are a few Oak Green 3drs circa the £2k mark that are available, but they have patchy history and are 120k+ miles. In my mind anything over £3k must have <100k miles and a documented history. It's easy to get carried away mind! 

There is one on eBay...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=130303704912

... which could be an interesting proposition if the history checks out, however I emailed the seller a few days ago regarding the milage etc and I've still not had a reply.

Good luck

[Hoke]

Basically same as any other car really, I slipped up with mine re an exhaust blow..thought thats now problem, turns out to be rusted manifold and it's a sob to get off, and struggling to find another one, though not a problem if you are going to fit 4 branch.....and you're not a pensioner with a bad back

[kmpowell]

Oh and if you get to the stage of HPi, make sure you pick a company that does a documentation check. Apparantly older VWs cars are prone to fraudulent V5's etc, so make sure that check is included in the cost.

[dubber36]

Sounds like a similar budget to what I set myself. I set myself a £4k limit, but then I saw the grey one at Volks cars for £4995, and put a deposit down on it. I then mulled it over for a bit, listened to people on here, and eventually talked myself out of it, saying I shouldn't spend that much on a Mk2!

I bought mine from Volks cars. I didn't pay that much, but he does have a good choice of original, solid, cars all with history under one roof.

It's worth a look. You may find a cheaper car elsewhere, but how much does it cost to go and view a few cars that turn out to be no good before you find the right one?