New member, 1.6 questions and info?

[Whizzergo]

Hello all, i've just registered on here after spending ages trying to find a decent golf forum, you seem to have an excellent setup here.

So to introduce myself, im 16 and currently living in Preston, Lancs. I've been driving a three wheeled piaggio ape for the last 10 months (http://piaggiodreirad.de/mediac/400_0/media/Bild~960.jpg) so in 2 months time i'll be 17 and will have 1 years no claims because i have been on a very expensive car policy.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, this all means im after a golf 1.6/1.6 16v s/se, im looking for something between 1998 and 2000 really, for cost purposes and I can insure it for less that £900 which is pretty good going. Theres a few questions that maybe some of you fellas can help me out with.

Firstly, does anyone have any specific reccomendations on were to find decent 1.6's apart from the obvious ebay, auto trader etc etc?

Is there anything I need to specifically look out for on a 1.6?

Suspension - Will sports suspension make an awful lot of difference to the ride quality and cornering ability on a standard 1.6 or is it quite sturdy as standard? Is this an difficult job and roughly how much do you think it would cost to get it proffesionally done.

I'd really appreciate any help you lot can give me here.
Cheers
Adam

[gibby]

Welcome to the site Adam, in answer to your questions, I think you already know where to look for the car but you could put a post up in the Cars wanted section of this forum and others like clubgti, no rice etc. Some people have them as second or winter cars and way be ready to get rid of them, if you get them from one of these sites from someone with loads of posts then it's probably safe to assume that it's been reasonably well looked after. If you are after a 1998 - 2000 then you will be after a late mk3 or and early mk4 so have a look through the mk3 and mk4 threads as there is usually some threads in there about buying advice and most of this can be taken against all cars not just the GTIs.

If you want my honest opinion then I wouldn't bother changing suspension as you will not get your money back on it, yes it will handle better but the kits can be costly, anything from £175 upto £700+ with a further £80 - £120 to pay for fitting but it's a 1.6 and you will want to upgrade in a few years anyway so just get your driving experience in a 1.6 and then mod the sh1t out of a GTI when you can afford to buy and run one !

[Whizzergo]

Cheers for that mate, I'm gunna drop a quick message in the golf forum, its definately a mark 4 that im after, so i'll leave something in there.

As for the lowering advice, that seems very reasonable, I think if i was to get it lowered then I'd only end up ragging it silly and putting it in a hedge or something. But I might be able to stumble across something that is alreayd lowered, I've seen something a couple on ebay recently.

Anyway, thanks again.

Adam