my friend here at school's been living w/o a car for over 2 yrs now. she's finally in a position where she can afford buying a decent used car to get around and came across the car mentioned in the thread title.

i know next to nothing about VWs and was wondering if the car is worth looking at. she's been told that the AC system, water pump, and timing belt were all redone recently and has a clean title w/ no logged accidents. the current owners are asking for $4k. it's got 97k miles and is an Auto

would it be a solid buy? are there scary issues that might pop up? or should she just walk away?

it's not an urgent thing but i would really like to see her have a car sooner than later and not sure if there would be good deals popping up as often as she'd like. thanks guys

 

don't do it. get a civic for reliability.

 

Nope get something reliable, this would be a terrible choice for her.

 

hahaha. hmm, these are the types of responses i figured i'd get


can you guys give me specifics? i'm positive you guys know what you're talking about and so i just need to be able to explain to her why this wouldn't be the wisest decision

 

The electrical systems on that era VWs had some serious issues. Lots of electronic gremlins, like power windows stop working, car refuses to start, ECU troubles, etc. I would not get an older VW if I was worried about reliability.

 

i have an 03 1.8t gti - orig owner.
so far the only actual vw troubles i have had are:
1. alternator died 1x,
2. cold start issue (annoying yes, but tolerable).

i guess i have been pretty fortunate with mine.

 

parents have a 99.5 passat 1.8t, orig owners, its been full of fail

timing belt tensioner metal fatigued and broke, threw timing, scored head, blew turbo, bent rods, barely under warranty and VAG was not easy to deal with at all (local dealer sucks balls)
electrical gremlins since day one, locks/windows/stereo all messed up and liable to not be working
damn glovebox locked itself closed had to break into it through the dash, was not easy

yeah its a steaming pile of shit, and dont get me started on how it drives...

i wont touch VAG anymore no matter how much i love looking at them :hs:

 

...i see

ok then, i'll let her know. any suggestions as to what car WOULD be good for her in that $4-5k price range?

 

Civic

Not trying to be a fanboy or anything but they are reliable as fuck as long as you do the footwork when buying it.

 

corollas are the cheaper uglier civic imo
great for beaters since no ricer appeal, can be scored from grandmas all day long