Swapping into an older car? 62 plate Focus to 57 plate golf GTI

MissChief said:
i currently have a 62 plate Mk.3 Focus Zetec S 182 Ecoboost and while it's perfectly adequate it's just a bit, well, boring. It does nothing badly and everything satisfactorily but I feel I'm just not gelling with it. I've had it since October, bought on 37k miles and have put about 5k miles on it, most of it on A roads or motorways. I own the car outright having used a loan to purchase it originally.

Anyway, at the time I really wanted a Golf GTI and being without a car for nearly four weeks had to buy something quickly and the Focus came up locally so moved quickly to snap it up. There didn't seem to be a good local Golf GTI anywhere within a hundred miles in the colour or spec I wanted. Now one has come up, a 57 plate so five years older, 62k miles, five door in blue. No Satnav (not hugely bothered by this, rarely travel far enough to make use of it and easily retrofitted) and the advert is thin on interior shots.

Anyway, is there a site which tells me what options this car has? I know there's one for Fords. And am I asking for trouble? Obviously there are bits that will be starting to wear out and some history of a slight leak on a shock absorber and two new front tyres needed. Advice and discussion appreciated.

It would also likely free up £1.5-2k depending on my bargaining skills with the dealer.
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Your Zetec S is probably worth 7k ish private. I can see your point about it being boring but they are a nice modern looking car that's still fairly new.
I have bought older cars in the past as I prefer more power to a newer slower car so I get your point of wanting to swap and put some money in the bank.
The Golf GTI of that generation is not very fast 200bhp 0-60 7.2 secs so I doubt your going to get much more fun out of that.
Why are you not considering a 2006/7 Focus ST for 5.5k? A £300 remap with no other mods will take it to 265bhp and a shed load of Torque at low revs now that will be fun!
 
Dav4 said:
Your Zetec S is probably worth 7k ish private. I can see your point about it being boring but they are a nice modern looking car that's still fairly new.
I have bought older cars in the past as I prefer more power to a newer slower car so I get your point of wanting to swap and put some money in the bank.
The Golf GTI of that generation is not very fast 200bhp 0-60 7.2 secs so I doubt your going to get much more fun out of that.
Why are you not considering a 2006/7 Focus ST for 5.5k? A £300 remap with no other mods will take it to 265bhp and a shed load of Torque at low revs now that will be fun!
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Tax and MPG put me off, but I don't do that many miles it's true.
 
Tax and mpg on a Focus ST are nearly the same as the GTI but the ST has better performance.
A 2006 ST can now be had for 5k private or the facelift and much fresher looking mk2.5 ST than ran from 2008-11 can be had from 6.5k. That is the best looking Focus Ford ever made Imo. Seriously go and test drive one with a remap it will be in a different league performance wise to your Zetec S or a standard GTI
 
A step backwards in drivability and reliability tbh.

But yea the mk2 ST is more fun that the GTI. It's also bigger inside and has a much better engine (the 5cyl Volvo unit is one of the all time greats). MPG isn't amazing though, I used to get 28 from mine.

Fast Fords always hold their value well too, it's unlikely to drop any further now and as they get rarer will go up again.
 
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Kenai said:
Not sure if it affects the Golf too but I've found with the 56 plate Octavia vRS I have that to update the stereo and not fall foul of battery drain problems the CANBUS gateway needs to be changed for a more recent model too, which needs coding with VCDS etc. and means a simple update to the Skoda sat nav is actually not so simple. The 2007 facelift cars don't face this issue. Point being, don't assume it would be easy, check first!
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I had to do this with my Golf when I put in the RNS510. £30 for the gateway, 20 mins faffing about trying to find it, 5 mins to swap it over, and 30 mins or so coding it in. Wasn't exactly difficult. Some later 2007 cars are ok, anything post 2008 should be fine.

That said, I do have a genuine VCDS cable, so could do it myself. The cable costs about £260 though, but even second hand ones regularly change hands for £200+, so while its a large initial outlay, it is still worth it due to the total ownership cost being not too bad. Alternatively, I'm sure you would be able to find someone local with VCDS who could code it for a tenner or something. Something else you could do yourself to offset the original cost of the cable too (I did code some guys car for him for the grand total of a few Peroni's, so it has started paying for itself already).
 
What about a BMW 130i? 265bhp, lovely straight 6 N52 engine and none of this front wheel drive nonsense ;)
 
I had a 55 plate Golf GTI and swapped it for a 12 plate Focus 150 Ecoboost Titanium X. The Focus was the much nicer of the two to be in (and the Golf had leather seats, climate control, sat nav) and was the nicer of the two to drive as well.
 
MissChief said:
Not many about and most have close to or over 100k miles. It's still a ten year old car too, like the Golf.
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There is a 58 reg one on ebay with 57k miles. £8k though, they seem to be holding their value well for an oldish car.
 
I have a 08 Golf GTI Mk5. I'm pretty much bored of it and do ponder in changing it for a more exciting car. I just can't justify paying £300+ for a Golf R that I would generally like.

The GTI is paid for so I'll jsut keep it running to the ground or until I can afford/save for a new one.

Mine is 3 door, with full leather interior, heated seats etc..
 
I have an 07 Golf GTI Edition 30, and I love it, but I would never recommend it.

It's a 10 year old car, designed 13 years ago. It has none of the nice things you get in a modern car, no cruise, no sat nav, no bluetooth, or even an aux port in mine, without a nasty Chinese stereo (or £700 on an official VW upgrade).
Tyres are expensive, tax is expensive and it uses a silly amount of petrol.
It cost me £600 a couple of weeks ago to get through the MOT, not because it is not looked after or abused, but things just start wearing out.

You need to budget at least a £1k a year, ideally 2, for 'just in case' stuff on an older car like this.

And on top of all that, they hold their value as certain people are willing to put up with the niggles and still love them, so they are not even cheap to buy.
 
I don't think it's the same for all old cars. VAG cars are not as robust as they like people to believe. You can buy a Focus ST which is just as old and you'll be very unlucky to have issues. Or pretty much anything Japanese.
 
Southy_ said:
I have an 07 Golf GTI Edition 30, and I love it, but I would never recommend it.

It's a 10 year old car, designed 13 years ago. It has none of the nice things you get in a modern car, no cruise, no sat nav, no bluetooth, or even an aux port in mine, without a nasty Chinese stereo (or £700 on an official VW upgrade).
Tyres are expensive, tax is expensive and it uses a silly amount of petrol.
It cost me £600 a couple of weeks ago to get through the MOT, not because it is not looked after or abused, but things just start wearing out.

You need to budget at least a £1k a year, ideally 2, for 'just in case' stuff on an older car like this.

And on top of all that, they hold their value as certain people are willing to put up with the niggles and still love them, so they are not even cheap to buy.
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Your's must be a relatively poor spec then. Mine has Nav (RNS510), I retrofitted it for £300 or so, so not the £700 you are suggesting, but it did have the older MFD2 satnav in it before. Mine did have parrot bluetooth, so gave me aux, usb, ipod and SD card too, but I did take it out when fitting the RNS and put in the Fiscon BT unit instead. But it does have the MDI so still has ipod connection under the arm rest. Mine does have cruise and xenons too. So pretty much all of the "nice" things you say the car doesn't have.

The holding their values is a good thing in reality though. It means they stand a better chance of holding onto more of their value during your ownership. It was exactly the same with the 25th anniversary mk4 Golfs.
 
xs2man said:
Your's must be a relatively poor spec then. Mine has Nav (RNS510), I retrofitted it for £300 or so, so not the £700 you are suggesting, but it did have the older MFD2 satnav in it before. Mine did have parrot bluetooth, so gave me aux, usb, ipod and SD card too
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So basically you agree with him, yours didn't have it either until you had to faff about retrofitting stuff and fitting aftermarket things.
 
Southy_ said:
I have an 07 Golf GTI Edition 30, and I love it, but I would never recommend it.

It's a 10 year old car, designed 13 years ago. It has none of the nice things you get in a modern car, no cruise, no sat nav, no bluetooth, or even an aux port in mine, without a nasty Chinese stereo (or £700 on an official VW upgrade).
Tyres are expensive, tax is expensive and it uses a silly amount of petrol.
It cost me £600 a couple of weeks ago to get through the MOT, not because it is not looked after or abused, but things just start wearing out.

You need to budget at least a £1k a year, ideally 2, for 'just in case' stuff on an older car like this.

And on top of all that, they hold their value as certain people are willing to put up with the niggles and still love them, so they are not even cheap to buy.
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Yes but that's the whole point of owning something interesting that's got reasonable power it's going to require more maintenance than your average run of the mill boring hatchback. Most hot hatch owners know and accept that but it's worth it to most people because they get more enjoyment from driving a quick fun car.
By the way your Golf is and awful spec my 2003 Mondeo ST220 has cruise control, Aux, heated leather. Auto lights and wipers etc.
 
[TW]Fox said:
So basically you agree with him, yours didn't have it either until you had to faff about retrofitting stuff and fitting aftermarket things.
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Well no, xs2man has upgraded to some newer items but his had nav, cruise, Bluetooth, aux etc. that Southy said it doesn't have.
 
Kenai said:
Well no, xs2man has upgraded to some newer items but his had nav, cruise, Bluetooth, aux etc. that Southy said it doesn't have.
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And a 1998 5 series could have ancient nav too but it wouldn't make a general statement that most of them are missing it inaccurate.

His point is that these are generally old cars - the Mk5 dates from 13 years ago - and spec usually reflects that.
 
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