Hi everyone,
I'm back again and returned to the land of VW's.
Last time I was here I had a Mk1 Cab that I ended up selling against my best wishes and had to deliver the thing as well.
Wasn't really happy about doing it, but needs of the family must come first.
Well, the story goes like this:
Myself and my wife have been making do with one car for quite some time, a 52 plate Mazda 6 Sport, which to be honest has been a great car to drive, seriously reliable and pretty damn fast.
Having only one car was getting to be a bit of a hassle and the Mazda drinks fuel like mad. I average around 26mpg. £60 to fill the tank and it last nearly 2 weeks for commuting and I only live 6 miles from work, so we started looking around.
After lots of looking at different things, we somehow decided to buy a brand new Kia Rio 3, top of the range with everything on it. At £12,000 it seemed like a good deal until we saw the finance package. Total payable after everything would come out at around £16,000. £4000 just for the pleasure of having a new car? We decided against it and disappointed the Kia salesperson. £4000 can buy you a lot of car.
After we decided that it was a bad idea, we both felt much better and started looking over AutoTrader again for some nice second hand cars. My wife wants a SAAB 9-3 Tdi for main replacement, they spec ar 52mpg so seems like a good idea.
As for the smaller second car, I wasn't really sure and was just punching in small car types into the website. I looked at Suzuki Swifts, fiestas, Hondas, toyotas, and then decided to have a look at Polo's. As I went to hit search, my mouse moved to the extra options box and I type three special letters: 'gti'
Sorted by mileage, top of the list, there it was. A 2001, silver Polo Gti with only 63k on the clock at £1695. After a quick conversation with my wife I couldn't grab the phone fast enough. One fairly quick conversation later, in which I'd told him I'd come and look on Saturday (25th Feb) I looked up where it actually was from the address he'd given me. Littlehampton on the south coast and I live in Bedford some 130 miles away. Ooops. "Hey sweetie, how do you fancy a trip to the south coast this weekend?"
So we decided to make a weekend of it. Take the little one to Brighton, let him have a run on the beach, do a bit of shopping and maybe buy a car. I wasn't getting my hopes up too much as the pics did make it look like the wheels were shot and the ABS light was on. We managed to set off at just before 8am and got to the car at about 11. Not bad considering average 50mpg speed checks for miles on the M1.
As we pulled into the road, my wife spots the car sat on the drive way. "I like that. Be good if it was that car." she says not realising. "It is that car." I say. She just looks at me and smiles.
In a few ways, it was a little too good to be true. The brakes felt awful and the clutch felt terrible too, but he assured me that it was simply that it had been sat for a while. I wasn't convinced. Driving it was great and the engine was right on the money. Tight and seriously quick. I'd even go so far as to say quicker than my Mazda.
Apparently the 63k is not all driven either because it was towed behind a mobile home quite a bit. The interior certainly looked right, and the seats have no wear on them and everything inside is really really clean. The coilovers on it were set a bit low for my liking, so I wasn't to impressed with the ride but everything else just said 'Have Me'.
One quick haggle later and £1450 change hands.
Then I had to load up the spare set of wheels, some fairly nice BBS's, the sub and the original suspension. Bonus!!!
By this time it was about 12:30, the little one was hungry and grumpy we decided to get to our hotel in Brighton. I stuck my iPod on the stereo (double bonus) put it on random and headed off down the coast road.
I couldn't have asked for a better first drive in a new motor. The sun started to break through the clouds just as the sea opened up on my right. When I got the opportunity I stuck my foot down a bit and thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. The brakes got better and better along the way and the clutch eased up nicely. I was grinning like an idiot by the time we got to the hotel and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.
Got home yesterday after another 130 mile drive home in which the car was perfect all the way home. I didn't really enjoy that south-west section of the M25 though with the hard suspension. and those darn average speed check again. Grrrrr!!!!
None of it dampened my mood though. The car is awesome and to add to the bonus, my wife likes it. She hated the cab as the lack of power steering was a bit of a killer for her.
I've ordered my VAG-COM cable to diagnose the problem so it;s off to look at the list of stuff to be done. Number one, put the suspension up a bit. It's just too low, and it don't like speed bumps.
Anyway, I'm off to find a Polo forum and hang around here too.
!m!
