VW Golf - recommended models

[bizzylizzy]

Hi answerbank motoring people ... I have a five year old Golf 1.9 TD GT TDi (130bhp) 5-door car. It's been a brilliant car and still has less than 40,000 miles on the clock. It flew through its MOT yesterday, so I've decided now would be a good time to sell it and buy .. yes you've guessed it .. another golf. Although I've had this golf from new, I can only really afford a top limit of �16k, so I doubt whether I'll be able to afford a brand new one this time (unless we get an import) hate paying that VAT anyway. This means I'll probably go for a demonstrator or pre-registered car I suspect. But my question is .. which one to buy. There are so many to choose from now and trying to find good up to date reviews on the web is not easy. There's a new engine as well, just to complicate matters. Given the choice and the budget, can anyone suggest the model to go for. Also, the best time to buy. Thank you all very much in advance.

[homer75]

New engine is bit too new at the moment - better to wait a year or so until all the gremlins ( if any ) show up and get sorted. From what I have been reading the build quality of the older golfs was better then whats coming off the line now. The car you have has taken its biggest dent in value now so another year wouldn't matter too much. I've had a two golf diesels and they were excellent machines. I am considering another one but am a bit wary at the moment. Why not sell privately and buy same nearly new ? That way the dealers don't get you both ways i.e. steal your car by finding all sort of 'faults' with it and charge top dollar for theirs. Invariably they are 'doing you a favour' by taking your old car off your hands.

[bizzylizzy]

Yes, I think you're right. Mind you, looking at the brochure from VW I see that our 1.9 is no longer made. It would need to be a 2 litre GT TDI. They seem to come in 140 and 170 bhp, as for GT TDI DPF .. I have no idea what that is. Do you think I should buy from the car ads in a mazine or try one of these dealers offering pre-reg cars. There are so many places to buy cars from nowadays. My current car came from one swoop. It was an import with standard UK spec. We didn't save that much on the price, but we did beat the 26 week waiting list of the UK dealers. Thanks very much for your reply. Does anyone else have an recommendations?

[teash]

Are you crazy bizzy your golfs only just about run in, keep it,keep it keep it. Even though the mk5 have a 2.0 ltre engine you`ll be disapointed with the overall performance compared to your mk4. Plus the fact at a guess (thats if you`ve looked on average you`ll expect to get for it) bet you`d want 8-9.5k for it unfortunately they`re fetching nowhere near that, only because of these car supermarkets that bring them in from europe. If its not essential that you`ve got to sell it, my personal opinon would be to keep ot because they`re an absolutely fantastic car

[bizzylizzy]

I know what you mean. We've had no probs with it (I'm touching wood here) so far. To tell you the truth, when I was getting prices in for the service and MOT, one chap put the wind up me by saying that the cam belt would soon need replacing and that this would cost oodles of money. There's also a standard note on the invoice from the main dealer yesterday that mentions the cam belt. That's why I wondered about getting a new(er) car. It would be v annoying if we kept it and then had to fork out a fortune replacing the cam belt. Oooer, decisions, decisions!!

[teash]

Cam belt and water pump are changed anywhere between 60-65k which if you`ve only done 40k in the first 3 years it`ll be a while before it need doing. Got mine done at a VW specialist in Manchester and cost me �330 and that was for everything. So not really that expensive

[bizzylizzy]

Ooh that's not bad. Our cars five years old by the way ... we don't get out much :-)

[teash]

Ooops that`ll teach me to read all the question first, thought it was only 3 and had its first mot. Even moreso keep hold of it