Wanting a new car, talk to me. (noob questions)

Clown said:
Mine works, but it just spits out a jet of water rather than a wide spray - does that mean it's dirty or is it broken?
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Do you mean it spits a jet of water towards something behind you? If so then the washer Jet insert is missing.
But if you mean that when it sprays on your rear windscreen then i would expect that to be normal. The rear washer jet is just a pin hole, unlike the fronts, where they are a mist / fan spray.
 
Sp00n said:
The Cupra is looking like a good option actually but its gonna cost me another £500 a year to insure (I'm 25 but no NCB) due to it being 180bhp I guess, they are coming in cheaper but I'm gonna have to travel a fair distance to find one with the nicer wheels (there are "cupras" with the horrible multispokes) and a decent colour.
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Forgive my pedantry, but while it's likely that it'll cost you £500 extra to insure this year, once you get the 1st years NCB, that difference is likely to fall, and that might be worth considering if you're going to be keeping the car longer than 12 months... :)

I might be wrong, but I thought the 180bhp Leon only became the Cupra when the body kit/non-****e wheels came in in 2003? I thought that pre 03 it was just the 20VT, but owners called them Cupra anyway?

Agree with fox re the private sale bit, I generally can't stand used car dealers, but you do occaisonally find a diamond in the rough with the sort that used to work for a big chain, but set up on his own out of an industrial unit...

The 1.8T GTI isn't a bad car, far from it, but in 150bhp/8yo/£4k guise, it offers poor value imo.

The one you linked to looks better, as far as you can tell from an ad...

Is the Golf GTI 180 much more to insure?
 
classicVin said:
Do you mean it spits a jet of water towards something behind you? If so then the washer Jet insert is missing.
But if you mean that when it sprays on your rear windscreen then i would expect that to be normal. The rear washer jet is just a pin hole, unlike the fronts, where they are a mist / fan spray.
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Ah, thanks for the confirmation :) The rear one is a bit useless isn't it?
 
Sp00n said:
Well its still a few grand and I don't fancy get done over, it's going to be 7 years but I guess its still a fair point, I'm just worried I will get mugged off!



I've sat down and looked at the common faults and joined up to some forums, trouble is I don't have any mates with mechanic knowledge, this is my problem.
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Dunno if this is of any help... but they are niggly cars to own and always need money spending. The newer you go, the more sensors you'll have to go wrong too. If you're not remapping it they aren't quick cars by any means and feel pretty boring... but then again if you don't mess you'll have less problems.

I collated a list when I bought my 1.8t of things to check, which may be of use to print out and jog your memory when viewing cars.

Click here for word doc

As mentioned, knackered door modules are common so no interior lights, car doesn't know the doors been opened etc... and can play havoc with your locks working properly. 80 quid part but a ballache to fit. classicVin has a lot of common issues covered.

If you check for buying guides on uk-mkivs.net and golfgtiforum.co.uk they may be of help too if you want to find out more specifics about some things listed in my checklist above.
 
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Relentless81 said:
Whats wrong with and how old is your Polo? I'm just curios as i'll be looking at cheap cars in the summer and old polo's are on the list
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The things that I know of are the front right caliper needs some attention, it needs re-fitting with the proper spacers as there is movement in the caliper, I bought the parts but haven't got the space to do it myself and don't want to pay a garage to sort it. Oil pressure light has been on for a month or so now, oil smell if accelerating hard, oil leak (few ml over the course of a day). It sounds bad but I just don't want to spend any money on it and I was planning on driving it till it died but I'm fed up with having such an old car and I want some I can poor my attention in to again.

Its a 93 M 1.6L with 117k miles, engine still runs alright, no nasty noises.

Stormster said:
Dunno if this is of any help... but they are niggly cars to own and always need money spending. The newer you go, the more sensors you'll have to go wrong too. If you're not remapping it they aren't quick cars by any means and feel pretty boring... but then again if you don't mess you'll have less problems.

I collated a list when I bought my 1.8t of things to check, which may be of use to print out and jog your memory when viewing cars.

Click here for word doc

As mentioned, knackered door modules are common so no interior lights, car doesn't know the doors been opened etc... and can play havoc with your locks working properly. 80 quid part but a ballache to fit.
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Very handy, thanks!
 
FAO: Gaijin

Been trying to find you all weekend, added you on msn, sent you an email and been sat on your profile waiting for you to post lol but nothing!

I need a phone number or something to get in touch as I would like to go look at this golf.

Can you hit me back if you see this?
 
Thats a bit weird, just to confirm its simon @ iamsimon.co.uk

I did add you on msn, mr_chafe, right?

I don't think I've got an email issue, was talking to my dad earlier on this evening.
 
For what its worth I had an RAC check done on a mk4 R32 and the cost was close to what the OP stated IIRC. In hindsight I dont think it was worth the money, but I wanted peace of mind at the time. The check did pick up one or two minor items.

My experience of official dealers is mixed and in my experience you need to be careful (had a Honda dealer in Southampton make a real mess of my S2000 which took a long time to resolve). Give the Golf was 7 years old I laid to waste the full VW service history and took it to AMD in Woking for a service and MOT. Again, no major issues, but they highlighted far more items and attention points than the RAC check done. They recommended getting a garage to look over the MOT items (essentially assessing it as if it were an MOT) would give you a good idea of the basics. This would have raised more points for me than the RAC check, and would have cost significantly less.

The one benefit of the RAC was that you get discount breakdown cover if you have the check done and can also apply for an RAC warranty if it passes the "test". How comprehensive that is, I dont know.

Another side note regarding full dealer history, the Golf is supposed to have a brake fluid change every couple of years I think, yet in the full VW history it only had evidence of it being done once! AMD said the fluid was significantly dirty enough that it was consistent with the records. Its not that expensive to have done, so have to question how dealers repeatedly missed it, and how the RAC check missed it, and I dont really have an excuse either, I guess not everyone checks each and every last detail of the SH or is familiar enough with the car to know wha is right and wrong.

May have wondered a bit off topic, but hope my experience might benefit another.
 
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