Hi, i'm 16, and looking for a reliable, cheap, fun car that I can go to school every day in.
I've looked around a bit and I like the Golfs alot. I found a '91 Golf
5sp w/about 150k miles for $1,200. She's still driving it and says it runs well and has no rust. It's never been in an accident and she's the second owner.
I'm going to take a look at it tomorrow (Sunday Aug 29).
Me. I've been looking for a car since summer. I test drove a '99 Ford Escort 5sp. (this was my first time with a standard - I did alright = I'll be learning standard with the car I get). The escort is also in the runnings for my car.
Now, time for questions:
-Would I be able to go to school daily (about 10 miles away) daily for two years without it dying?
-What kind of major repairs should I expect?
-What kind of minor repairs should I expect?
-How expensive are most minor repairs/major repairs?
-Are there any common problems with a golf this age and mileage?
I had a 91 Golf from 16-19-20 (I say 19-20 because we still had the 91 from this point, but "my" car was a 99.5 Golf at this point and my dad drove the
91 still, as he only drove 2kms a day to work, while I needed a newer car to do 40K Kms a year with commuting/travelling.) We had this car since 91, so when I was about 8 I guess... sold it with only 65K kms on it - so yes they do run for years as a short hop car ;-)...
With short hop style driving all we mainly put on the car was new mufflers (they rot out due to the inability of the heat to clear the moisture in them) and batteries (they never get good charges)... you also have to watch for the engines to get carboned up injectors.... a good hard run, and some injector cleaner solves this.
Watch for rust around the windsheild.... This caused water to leak into the electrics on our car
Repairs are cheap on this car... and the component quality is good... something that might not be able to be said about that Escort (quality... repairs are probably cheaper on Escorts)... the Golf will have the superior ride and style tho.
Major repairs - Brake slave cylinder leaks occured on our old car (twice, both times the rear drums)... I beat the snot out of the engine in mine, and nothing had a problem, mechanically they're solid... I could see fuel pumps and stuff like that going with higher mileage... nothing big tho, our O2 sensor went once, but it turned out it was just dirty, so they cleaned it and the car was fine!
Minor repairs.... The OEM lightbulbs might finally give up the ghost after all these years... You might want to change the temperature sensors, plugs, wires, distributor, accesory drive belt(s), rotor cap when you get the car...
Common problems... Some start to rust, some have random electrical problems, some automatics start to slip... from what I can tell this is generally it, other then the normal old car stuff... alternator/starters/brakes might need attention.
I have a '91 GTI (same car as the Golf, just sportier) and I'm the original owner and it's been very reliable, but things do fail from time to time simply because it's old.
So for yours, yes I think it'll be reliable, but on a 150K mile car you can expect that over the next two years that something will probably fail. It probably won't be the engine or transmission, but it could be just about anything else. A wheel bearing. An engine mount (esp. if you're learning stick on the car and if it already has worn mounts). A master cylinder. A battery. A starter. You get the idea.
I think the car will be reliable, but it's a decent possibility that any car that age will have a $300 item go on it in the space of the next two years. The car will be far from junk...these things run forever...but just have reasonable expectations of what "reliable" means when we're talking about a
150K mile car that's 13 years old.
The upside is that the car probably has tons of life left in it, parts are less expensive than on newer VWs and can be found easily enough (and cheaply enough if you shop online and do the work yourself), and they aren't too hard to work on.
My quick comment: If you're willing to learn a little about the car and perhaps do some work on it, it's a great car to learn to work on (more-or-less modern EFI system but still mostly a basic system without the number of computer control modules present on newer cars) and it should be pretty damn reliable. It will cost money to maintain, and doing things right will probably hit you harder in the pocket than you'd like, but that's true of any car. If you intend to keep it maintained properly and are willing to commit time and money to doing so, it's probably a great car; if not, I'd suggest looking for a $200-$300 beater of any make, preferably with a recent inspection sticker if needed in your state, and keep gas and oil in it.
Most likely.
I don't know where you live, but if it's somewhere that gets a lot of snow, assume you'll end up off the road at least once over the course of the winter. Also, if you live in snow country, you'll probably need to buy a good set of snow tires, at $300-350.
Other than that, the major systems (engine and transmission) should be just fine with normal maintenance.
Rear brake cylinders have been an issue on both A2's I've owned (a 91 Jetta and my 91 Golf GTI), both times as a result of e-brake cables getting bound up and holding the rear brakes in a partially-on condition, producing copious amounts of heat and leading to cylinder failure. If you can rebuild the rear brakes yourself, it's a $150 repair (including drums, cylinders, shoes, and e-brake cables); if you have to bring it to a shop, figure on $200 in parts and three hours of labor (around here, that would be about $350 total).
Shift bushings are relatively cheap in parts cost and often have worn on A2s; if you know where each gear is, you might not mind worn bushings, but they can be rather helpful if you're still learning.
Headlight wiring on A2s was crummy to begin with and tends to do poorly over time, so installing relays (at a cost of less than $30 if you do it yourself) is usually an excellent first step in being able to see at night.
Plan on doing a tune-up if one hasn't been done recently; I'd include plugs, cap, rotor, and belts in this (about $12, $15-20, $15-20, and $15-20, respectively) if the previous owner hasn't done one recently. Bosch parts for the ignition only; anything else is a gamble at best.
I've gone through at least two alternators on both of my A2s; alternators are easy to install on these vehicles and a good reman runs between $80 and $110.
Any vehicle this age is likely to have need of some steering and suspension components (e.g. tie rod ends, ball joints, wheel bearings); all of those should be checked during a state inspection, so if they do those in your state, they *should* be servicable. One component to watch our for is the rear axle bushings; the rear axle is a "trailing arm" type and the bushings where it meets the body can wear out on high-mileage vehicles, resulting in a lack of stability and poor tracking on the highway. The best test for this (at least that I'm aware of) is to push the body laterally above the rear wheels, while the car is at rest; if the bushings are shot, you'll have a lot of movement in the body with the axle remaining stationary.
If you put stuff off for too long, expect to spend large chunks of cast when you do get around to it (e.g. I spent $400 to get an inspection sticker last April because I had been putting off several smaller things that added up when I had to get them done after getting busted for driving without a sticker). If you keep on top of things ,you should generally be able to spend less than $300 at a shot.
It's 14 years old and has 150k on it; given the number of moving parts, some of them will be close to wearing out. If the previous owner was less-than-focused in terms of regular maintenance, you might find yourself playing catchup as I did on my Jetta ($650 for the car and more than that in the next two months to fix stuff that *needed* for be fixed for safety reasons); in the case of my GTI, which I bought with around 175k and which now has 205k or so on it, I think there was less than $200 in deferred maintenance that I did shortly after buying it. The previous owner in the case of the GTI was more of a car guy and had generally been better about upkeep, but there were a few things that he had just been ignoring that I didn't want to (or couldn't) ignore.
Buy a Bentley manual
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for the official site,pick one up a lot cheaper from a used book site) if you get the car. If youdecide to work on it yourself, you'll need the Bentley; if you don't want to work on it yourself, the Bentley will help you understand what needs to be done when it does need work. If your mechanic is not a VW specialist, you might also want to not-so-discreetly leave the Bentley in the car when you drop it off; VWs are quirky, and sometimes having the Bentley is a big help. Just brining the car to someone who knows VWs of this generation will be a better idea, though.
Whichever way you go, good luck and remember that cars are generally liabilities in that they will cost you money, not assets that will appreciate.
and not only that, but we found some repair receipts from '01 and the
- windshield was replaced
- new clutch cable and kit installed
- new transmission and operating shaft seals
- new spark wires
- resurfaced flywheel
- new PS resovior
- changed trans. grease
- other minor replacements
Total: > $1,200
This makes me very happy. :)
oh, and by the way, is there a way to change the timing? because when shifting in the low gears and slowing down it tends to backfire. I don't know if this is just how things are (because of computers) or if this can be adjusted?
mine was recently adjusted and it does the same thing, although only when the engine is cold. Doesn't do it when it's warming up (not quite cold) or fully warm.
The timing is set a little different from most cars. If it's currently idling correctly, you then raise the RPM to something like 2500 and check the timing using a timing light pointed at the hole (plugged with a little cap) on the transmission bellhousing while you have it at 2500rpm (you don't set it at idle like most cars). I forget all the details but it's in the Bentley manual. Seriously get yourself a Bentley manual...they're worth their weight in gold. Should be no more than $50 brand new. Follow the procedures for Digifant injection timing setting (a '91 1.8 8V Golf in the US and Canada will be Digifant).
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