Volkswagen Golf for business purposes

joeyvicks

My plan is to by a VW Golf 2.0 TDi thats around 3 years old and has around 40k on the clock.
The purpose of the car will be for my communting all over the place (do about 30-35k miles a year)
My concern is whether a car this age is ok for doing these amount of miles in for 2/3 years?

TiTheRev

No problem at all. The VW diesels last 150k plus...we regularly get older Golf's and Passat's (Golf's for rep's and taxi's prefer the Passat!) with 170k + on the clock and still going. They will even retain quite a good resale. We part ex'd a cabbies Passat with over 200k on the clock (4/5yrs old) and still gave him 4k for it.

joeyvicks

thats really good to hear. So if i kept it for 3 years then and stuck another 90k on it (so 130 in total) is it likely that i would have to fork out for something big in that time? Also whats an average service cost for a golf?

TiTheRev

You'll need a cambelt (£300-350ish fitted), but if you put it on the 'Longlife' service regime you'll only need to service it every 2years or 20,000miles, whichever comes 1st, so potentially only a couple of times rather than 8/9

joeyvicks

looking on VW's site i've wittled it down to 2 cars that i like the look of.

1. 2.0TDi, August 2008, 22k miles, 140bhp, Black - £14,850

2. 2.0TDi, July 2007, 17k miles, 140bhp, Black - £12,690

which one would you think would be best suited?

TiTheRev

Much of a muchness engine-wise. Depends if you have the extra 2k now for either? And whether you need a good resale as the newer one will obviously hold it's value better. Are they S, SE, Match...? That will make a fair difference to price and resale.

joeyvicks

1 is GT and 2 is Sport.

joeyvicks

or there's a 2008 Gt Sport 170bhp at £14,650 but its got 42k on the clock. Whats your opinion?

TiTheRev

Both will have a good spec and resale then, but the sport will have stiffer suspension, so depends on which ride you'd prefer?

daveyjp

Some 2.0TDis engines have problems with oil cooler drive failure at about 70,000 miles - you need the engine number to see if it may be affected. It's potentially a new engine and you have no idea it's failing. This was featured in Audi Driver magazine a couple of years ago.

If you do get one go for 10,000 mile oil changes, rather than 20,000. 20,000 is for fleets and owners who buy new and get rid after 3 years.

joeyvicks

once i get the engine number where can i check to see if affected?