« Reply #31 on: 22 July 2017, 14:28 »
So basically a mk5 wins on price, because you can buy a 100k mile example for £5k, despite;
"the Mk7 is easily the better car"
There is likely to be more maintenance with a mk5, cambelt, waterpump, cam follower and rust!
I do like the mk5, one real advantage is it lets you play more when things get out of hand compared to the mk7, not something you would ever do on Uk roads anyway!
If you've already got a mk5 GTI and have maintained it well then you're on to a winner
but buying a mk5 now will involve spending quite a substantial sum if you want a really mint car. Buying the car itself isn't a huge problem as there's a good supply of them in decent well looked after condition thankfully as many were bought by enthusiasts who looked after them properly. But these things are getting old now and bits are wearing out.
I've had a fair bit of recent experience of this as a workmate of mine was on the hunt for one for a good while and eventually bought a tidy low mileage and low owner FSH car for around £4k. That was less than 12 months ago and he's already sunk well over £2k into it just doing routine fixes of things that have worn out and there's at least a good £1k still 'could do with doing'.
Then you could turn to the issue of cosmetics as there are bound to be chips, scrapes and wheels that need refurbishing or replacing and many have air-con that no longer functions properly.
I can't remember everything he's had to do to it but on top of general things you'd expect for a car of that age it needed lots of bushes, a new sump as the drain hole gets worn, there was fuel in the oil, various bits to do inside the cylinder head on top of the usual cam belt and water pump change... the list went on and on and for months the car was in having work done once a month when payday came.
It's still cheaper than the depreciation on a newer car I'd guess and it goes really well now with a REVO stage 1 and Goodyears on all four corners. The latter additions are on top of the £2k plus maintenance bill as he wanted the car in good health before the stage 1 was added. The REVO agent said there is always much concern when people come in to ask for remaps and will happily shell out £500 plus on that but won't maintain their cars properly and worse still they won't use decent fuel as it's "too expensive".
Caveat Emptor.
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‘25 8.5R, ‘23 8R, ‘20 8CS, ‘19 135iX, ‘19 TCR, ‘17 Ed40, ‘17 GTD, ‘15 7R, ‘13 GTI PP, ‘11 GTI, ‘09 GTI, ‘98 Ibiza Cupra, ‘05 GTI, ‘06 Polo GTI, ‘04 GT TDI, ‘05 Fabia vRS, ‘02 GTI T, ‘03 Ibiza TDI 130, ‘01 Leon 180, ‘89 mk2 16v, ‘99 Ibiza TDI, ‘96 VR6, ‘98 Ibiza TDI, ‘92 VR6, ‘88 mk2 8v, ‘92 Polo G40, ‘91 mk2 8v, ‘89 mk2 8v, 205 GTI 1.9, ‘83 mk1 GTI, ‘80 Scirocco GTI, plus some others I’ve forgotten
