I've been looking at these myself over the last few days as I got a pretty good insurance quote for them. Always liked Golfs and I like the interior of the MK4 even though it's pretty boring, but that's just me me. MK3s seem to be suffering with rust now and are getting on quite a bit, otherwise I may have gone for a 16v one of those.
A lot of messed with examples for sale, there's even one on the 'Bay with eye-lashes for some reason. I have my eye on a couple of clean examples, but I don't think anything will come of it in the end. I don't think I could justify the increased fuel consumption and Tax over my current car. That and the comments in this thread which came about at a rather well timed point have put me off them a bit more.
I'll probably give it a miss unless one of the ones I have my eye on doesn't sell in which case I might offer them a cheaky bit less than they're asking even though they've already knocked £250 off the original price this morning.