When to sell? Is the Mk2 Gti be a sensible choice for a daily driver?

Most I've ever managed was 478 on a full tank and that wasn't driving carefully, you might manage 520 if you're very, very lucky.

 

Consider if you get 1500 for that mk2, what kind of absolute crap could you really buy from the modern market? Factor out tax costs for a minute, parts costs are higher, the servicing more complex so higher labour costs and the parts don't last as long. You've got 10 years before you need to worry about doing suspension again, if you keep on top of body work maintenance it'll last forever and servicing costs pennies because you can do it on your drive (if you're stuck I'm sure a local will help you out, everyone here seems nice.)

Forget this new car rubbish, you won't save money unless you buy a diesel from the mid-90s that's in half decent condition, say, a Mk3 1.9TDi.

The depressing little SEAT and VW dervs command a premium, if you can't really afford to change the car don't think that selling the MK2 and ending up spending more money is the solution. If it's not amazing on fuel ask someone on here that's local to come help you out or read some guides, the cars are so easy to work on.

How depressed would she be if she had to drive a modern car every day? I know I'd actually cry if I had to use one instead of a MK2 GTi.

 

Another fantastic post there Shaz...very passionate and talking a lot of sense!! If we can figure out ways to improve fuel economy up to around 45 MPG on long runs, then I am sure we will keep the car!!

She SO doesn't want to sell it...her previous car was a 1 litre Nissan Micra..so you can understand why she so loves driving it! An all time design classic against some reliable but soulless Japanese rubbish! We have looked into the possibility of a Mk4 Golf SDI..then we saw the performance figures...0 to 60 in 17.6 seconds..those things must be a liability on the road!!

Alpenweiss2

 

I have the same dialemma!!!

My MK 2 8v is coming up to 200,000 mile on the original engine and box. I used to do 10 to 15 miles a day in it and washed and luved every week. It has now been pressed into doing about 50 - 60 miles a day and I do not have the time to look after it like I used to.

My wife has a MK4 GTI (150) which she wants me to take over when she gets a new car in January.

To be honest - I like the MK4 but I prefer to drive my MK2 and deep down I don't want the MK4 but I feel I might need a modern car as a daily as the MK2 is getting a bit of a battering!

I can't have both .................................what to do!!!??

 

I was in a similar situation not long ago, you may have seen my thread asking what mk3 TDIs were like. Was considering a diesel because of the supposedly good fuel economy and therefore lower running costs.

Funny when I rang my insurance company and they said it'd cost a tenner or so more to ensure a diesel mk3 Golf over my mk2 GTI. Then I'm not sure the tax cost is even any different.

I've now decided after a lot of thought that I'm not gonna buy a boring diesel and I'm not gonna have some boring newer car with no feel and no driving thrills. I love my mk2 too much, and it's actually very economical anyway, I get 50mpg driving carefully. Then I've got my 2litre project in the making for when I can afford to have some fun burning fuel :-).

As said above, you won't really save a lot from buying a newer car, the repair costs are higher for a start. Plus if your girlfriend knows and loves her mk2, she no doubt knows it'll be reliable and knows what kind of attention it may need in the future, and which components it gets through regularly etc. Buying another car which you don't know about mechanically and is a complete mystery will likely cost more when things fail, because you wouldn't have known those parts needed replacing, because you don't know how the car behaves, if that makes sense.

 

Not sure what's causing the fuel economy if it's well serviced, I see very good economy from my 2.0 8v and I drive mine like I've just robbed it. I'm sure keeping it at a constant speed it should return happy fuel economy.

Let's face it, how miserable would driving a MK4 Golf SDI be? If you have to have a more modern daily I'd probably go Jap in all honesty, much less problematic than newer European stuff from what I've seen. Suppose OEMs have to make money somewhere though.

 

Brilliant thread! Alpenweiss I'm in the same position as you so it's been really useful to get everyone's opinion esp those who have stopped driving a mk2 gti and gone to something more moden and diesel. My wife doesn't really understand using such an old car and wants me to get some kind of VAG diesel car.

I do about 50 miles a day in my mk2 golf. Used to be Oxford to Newbury, but now it's Oxford to Brackley/Banbury area. The car has never missed a beat and never cut out on me. I had some scares with spluttering (turned out to be water in the dizzy cap) and also the oil pressure light/buzzer coming on on the A34 (turned out to be bad wiring!).

I can 100% agree that it's good to keep the Golf running. Even with below zero temperatures recently, the car has never failed to start and by the time I've de-iced the windows the engine is getting a bit of heat into it which is always good.

Definitely cheaper to maintain than newer cars, although they might need more work doing from time to time. I just know if I sell my Golf I'll be back in one later so by keeping it I avoid that heartache

I bought mine for 400, put a Gates cambelt kit on, new thermostat, few new coolant pipes, Uniroyal RainExperts all round and it's ready for the winter

 

sell or not to sell that is the question !!

I have the same problem, Over the summer I spent time working on mk2 gti, it was a weekend fun car, Started off an 8v with avrage MPG, but as it was for fun i wanted more power so I fitted a 2.0 16V ABF, Must admit i did tell the wife because it was a bigger more mordern engine in a lighter car MPG would improve !!! i was wrong.

I am now using the car on a day to day basis (company car has went back) on a daily drive from Woking to Harrow im only getting 27mpg (200 Mile a tank) not the best as my fuel bill are up almost 100 a month,

I have been looking at other cars but all i can think about is how boring thay will be to drive, I have had my car up for sale for 2 weeks now with very little responce, i even made sure i was cheaper that other ABF golfs out there. just the wrong time of year.

Im going to hold off till Feb before i advertise mine again but if i find a good MK3 tdi engine before then i may be doing a engine swap again....

Good luck

 

Intended as an illustration rather than absolute facts... costs of repairs and depreciation are a bit of a guess, and need adjusting at the higher mileage I think...

Running costs of various cars at 10k and 20k miles per annum - for discussion. Assumed the petrol car is a Mk2 Golf or Rocco GTI.



The point is, that when you factor in depreciation and running costs (influenced by mexicorich's experiences) then there's really not much in it - and it really depends on how much you spend in garage bills, and I think a lot of that is down to luck.

The other option that I didn't mention is that you could look at a modern economical petrol car - e.g. like a lupo 1.4 or 1.0. Obviously you're not going to get anything like GTI performance, but should get around 50mpg. On the other hand, I hear bad things about the 1.4 16v engines, and the 1.0 is v e ry s l o w

Having said that, you've obviously spent a lot more on your golf in the last year, with the respray and new panels, but if you're prepared to let an old car be an old car, and do some work on it yourself, then it gets a lot cheaper than paying a garage to fix modern cars.

 

You should be able to get close to 40 mpg out of that on a run... either you're spending a lot of time sat in traffic, or somethings wrong! My old 9A'd Mk2 with ported head, modded WUR, fancy exhaust, would do 35mpg at a steady 80 mph.

 

I have been using mine sicnce june as a daily, 2200 miles or so a month. So far nothings fallen off, although in the first month there were a few issues (battery) it's needed nothing scicne apart from petrol, and oil changes, although the millage is unknown (ODO broken) it's very north of 127K. Aside from the preivious owner haveing the mechanical skills of a chimp who tried to change the handbrake cable and could not get the parts to fit back together so binned the cable guide, the history of the car is totally unknown. When I got it every service part was changed, as were most of the suspension bushes and the front shocks. Only real issues (apart from challenged paintwork) are the ignition switch occaiosanally not wanting to talk to the starter and a stcky handbrake caliper.

 

Cannot comment on older DBW cars but newer vehicles e.g. a 2009 Focus will detect unintended acceleration & de-energise the throttle body. = safe. Vehicles such as this are also robust to disconnected / shorted accel pedal position & tps signals. They remain ~95% useful in single channel faults.

 

So far I have been doing trips to work and back M25 - M40 then stop start town driving, and is I was pointed out I was letting the car idle on the drive for 5-10 min before I set off !!!
Think this week I'm going to drop the speed down to 60 see what impact that has, going to be hard though when traffic is moving just want to hear the engine do it's thing !!!

 

I've just changed from using newer cars for the last few years (polo TDi then S3), to going to a older mk2 ABF.

I was planning on doing a TDI conversion on my mk2 and make a great daily driver.
But after using it for a while I'm really enjoying the ABF and I'm getting 40MPG on the way to work, Although thats on the MFA.

 

Got to love the ABF, by far the best golf I've had (and I've had a few over the years)
You say your getting 40mpg is that motorway, town or mix,
Just I'm doing the morning commute in mine 70mile round trip half motorway half stop start traffic, so far best I've had is 240 miles to 55

Might try find a place I can have the car plugged in to ensure it's running as sweet as can be

 

the 40+ is best long term average is more like 33 mpg. Talking a good run to get 40+ eg a commute on a steady 60-70 mph

 

My Girlfriend was in a similar position. So we converted her car to TDi.
We got a complete crap TDi MK3 from ebay for 320 with tax and test, drove it home, and swapped the lot over. It did'nt cost much all in apart from time.

http://clubgti.com/forum/showthread.php?t=243516

 

Look at it another way. As an example 60 miles a day works out at 300 miles a week. 300 miles at 35mpg at a cost of 1.30 per litre of fuel equates to about 55 odd. A diesel that averages 50mpg at a cost of 1.39 per litre equates 41. The difference is 14 per week which over 50 weeks depending on how much holiday you get is 700. A decent modern Tdi has got to be about 4k. You sell the golf for 1500 leaving you a balance of 2.5k which would be 3.5 years of fuel savings. You are then entering therealms of dual mass flywheels, synthetic oils, cats, more electrics to go wrong etc etc.

To sum up you could have another 3.5 years of mk2 motoring for the same price and by then the MK2 will be worth more than 1500, yet your boring Tdi will be worth nowt.

 

The more I read this the more I like it, I'm 20 extra a week though !!

 

From experience the mk3 golf and the mk4 golf both will acheive similar mpg during normal use. I think the lupo would be more representative of true real world driving with a figure more like 60mpg too.