Opinions on buying this model please.

bodgerx

oliverr wrote: »

Fair enough, just from personal experience and anyone who I know who has owned a Golf has never had any serious problems with them, the Golf also shares a lot of parts with the Leon / A3 / Octavia.

That might sound like a good thing, until you also look into the reliability record of those cars as well.

See the the warranty direct site.

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/reliability/search/281

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/reliability/search/7

GolfBravo

Ultrasonic wrote: »

Where do you get 30 mpg from? Looks more like 43 mpg going by Honest John Real MPG:

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/volkswagen/golf-v-2004

Personal experience - rented one 5 or 6 years ago. Gutless. Two adults, one child, one suitcase - the car struggled in city traffic and on motorway, noisy, high revs required to keep up with traffic. Had to struggle with it for almost 2 weeks.

Strider590

oliverr wrote: »

The Golf is a solid little car, the only thing I would say is the S trim level is a little sparse. Have a look and see if there are any SE models available round your budget.

bodgerx wrote: »

The interior is solid.

Reliability surveys say VAG reliability on the rest of the car is below average.

TBH, i've never met anyone who banged on about Golf reliability from first hand experience, when questioned it's always "everyone knows they're the most reliable".

Cornucopia

swingaloo wrote: »

Also does anyone know which cars have the really cheap road tax?

Cheap/zero road tax = low emissions = high MPG

However, also equals small diesel engines (mostly) which tend to have slightly higher purchase and servicing costs.

So.... unless you are doing high mileage (15k+), it may be a false economy, and an economical small petrol might be better.

If you are looking for Supermini Hatch with low road tax, I would highly recommend the Citroen DS3 (and the C4) - if you can find one with reasonable low mileage in your price range.

e.g. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201307308070520/sort/default/usedcars/price-from/500/price-to/8000/model/ds3/make/citroen/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/radius/1500/postcode/da99tu/page/1?logcode=p

edit: You can find the road tax rate for any vehicle here: https://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/EvlPortalApp/app/home/intro

Click on Vehicle Enquiry - You just need the registration number and the manufacturer.

anotherbaldrick

Strider590 wrote: »

TBH, i've never met anyone who banged on about Golf reliability from first hand experience, when questioned it's always "everyone knows they're the most reliable".

Well I have owned three and they all performed without fault even the one with DSG

Ultrasonic

Cornucopia wrote: »

Cheap/zero road tax = low emissions = low MPG

HIGH mpg surely .

Don't just focus on road tax. You need to look at the whole picture. So, purchase price, depreciation, and then typical annual costs for fuel, insurance, tax and servicing/repairs. Tax may well be the smallest of all of these costs.

Cornucopia

Ultrasonic wrote: »

HIGH mpg surely .

Yes - slip of the keyboard.

It's worth noting that depreciation can be slower with some diesels compared to their petrol equivalents. (Took a couple of goes to find a cheap DS3 diesel with less than 75k miles).

michaelvintner

I had the 1.4 engine in a Skoda Octavia. Overtaking anything was a painful experience. I once went to overtake another car, a Volvo (Who was driving perfectly fine) flashed me out (I actually wished he hadn't as my speed had dropped to about 50). The poor Volvo driver then had to sit behind me patiently as I struggled to get the revs back up and get some speed out of the thing. Those seconds felt like days as I could see the Volvo driver behind me having to pull back to a safe distance while my car literally just stayed still even with my foot welded to the accelerator.

OddballJamie

Cornucopia wrote: »

Yes - slip of the keyboard.

It's worth noting that depreciation can be slower with some diesels compared to their petrol equivalents. (Took a couple of goes to find a cheap DS3 diesel with less than 75k miles).

I really hope yours has at least average miles, any low annual mileage PSA diesel for sale is a warning sign to me.

Cornucopia

OddballJamie wrote: »

I really hope yours has at least average miles, any low annual mileage PSA diesel for sale is a warning sign to me.

My DS3 went back when the lease finished. I have a Megane Convertible of mature years at the moment.