E30 Zone

Pretty soon I will be increasing mileage somewhat doing a 70 mile a day round trip so will be looking for something a bit more economic and reliable.

My main thought at the moment is a Mk4 golf either TDi or a GT TDi 130 if I can find one with lowish (90k miles or less) on a 2000 or later plate.

The Mk4's look like a good option as the engines seem to be able to handle the miles (Seen a few with nearly 300k miles!) and they don't rust too much (front wings excluded, but no big issue)

Happy to spend £1500 - £2000

Thoughts invited

Andy

Golfs are totally overpriced for what they are - if you dont specifically need a hatchback and you must go VAG you'll get a lot more car for the same cash if you go for an Audi A4

Personally "modern" german stuff at the moment bores the crap out of me - if it were my £2k I'd be going for something like this :

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

I had a 7 year old MK4 Golf GTI in 2006 for 2 years. It was pretty ordinary to drive, but the thing that surprised me about it most was that the "quality" feel of the interior was really just perceived quality. The whole car used to rattle and squeak like nothing else I've ever been in. The UK Mk4 forum is full of fixes for various noises but there will be loads you'll never get to the bottom of.

This is a small example of the hundreds of threads on rattles

http://uk-mkivs.net/topic/36857-interior-rattles/

It also suffered with failure of various components - starter motor, window regulator (twice according to the service history), steering rack and air-con compressor. They're also belt-cam engines.

On the plus side, they don't seem to rust and the TDI 130 engines can rack up big mileages if well maintained, but with a 14 year old car you're also going to suffer old-car problems.

If I wanted a £2k car that I was going to trust to get me to work everyday, I'd be looking for a much later Manual, Petrol Toyota (sorry if that sounds boring!)

VAG have ALWAYS had the shite window regs issue from day one. Even the Quattro Turbos used to eat them! As do most modern BMW's from e39's on. Certainly, the interior was no more fragile that the e36's I'm breaking now.

I too had a very early 20v Turbo Golf which we took from 55k to over 100k over 5 years. Bought in 2001, we ragged the arse out of it and never had a days grief out of it. It was a bit soft for an alleged hot hatch but it was a nice drive on a run. It performed really well in the mid range. When the wife wanted a RAV-4, I refused to sell the golf, knowing full well, she'd not get on with the RAV. After 4 months, I pulled the cover off the Golf and pressed her back into service for another year and binned the Toyota off out of it despite it only having 35k on the clock! If you think the interior of the Golf was cheap, the Rav made it look and feel like a Bentley!

We loved that Golf so much, now my company hack is being returned, I'm looking to put a Mk5 on the drive.

Why not a 1 series for similar money? Because every fucker and their dog has a 1 series now. The GTI is a bit different.

B7 wrote: When the wife wanted a RAV-4 I refused to sell the golf knowing full well she'd not get on with the RAV. After 4 months, I pulled the cover off the Golf and pressed her back into service

You might want to rephrase that paragraph!

Bora, most have been owned by old duffers who tickle the throttle and keep them nice

A mate of mine recently bought an 05 plate Mazda 6 for 1700 quid, 1.8 petrol or something. It's a decent car - goes well, rides okay and seems a competent decently built car. A better bet than a VAG or some rusty E46 rubbish.

A Mazda 6 is a Mondeo MK3 right?

Yup. Jap built with their own engine. Not much wrong a Mondeo either. £2000 buys a nice car if you avoid the 'prestige' stuff.

Never said there was anything wrong with a mondeo but they are not for me.

bss325i wrote:A Mazda 6 is a Mondeo MK3 right?

And they rust like a bastard for fun

£2k would bag you a very nice mondeo

I ran a 52 plate as a daily for 2 years - superbly comfortable ( great seats, heater and stereo ), never broke down, well specced in Zetec trim upwards and a decent shove from the 130 Turbo derv donk. averaged about 45mpg and i drove it pretty hard all the time.

Ignoring the standard issue derv risk parts they are pretty easy and cheap to fix too.

DanThe wrote:

bss325i wrote:A Mazda 6 is a Mondeo MK3 right?

And they rust like a bastard for fun

Older ones certainly do. This one is okay and I think 03/04 was when Mazda sorted it out.

If you're looking at Golfs, consider the Seat Leon. It's a Mk4 Golf with a different body and an Audi A3 interior for less money. I do a 70 mile commute and I've got a 2005 TDi FR and it's on 163k now and still drives how it did when I bought it on 70k, and in that time the average consumption is around 50mpg. All I've had to is service it and replace a couple of wear and tear parts and there's not a hint of rust anywhere.