VW GTI 2001 questions
Posted by Kelly
I'll start with, I don't know anything 
But given that, I would suggest you go to a mechanic with the car. Baring that, check the oil. If we want to stereotype old men (And a realize we have some lively guys of age here on this forum), I think you should be less concerned with the person having "Driven it hard" and "Racing it around", and more worried about "not taking general care of the care". So check the oil and make sure it's at the proper level. Check all the fluid levels for that matter. Try and get a feel for how much he cared for the car, if at all. If the oil level were real low, I'd say this is a huge warning light. I think it would also be fair to say you can trust him a bit more. In my limited experience older people have a deeper sense of ethics, and feel less of a need to screw someone out of $100 by lying to them. Perhaps I'm misguided here...perhaps Peter will take $100 and laugh his way to the bank. But personally I trust older gentlemen more than young folk, who seem to find any number of reasons to justify "fibbing" to someone to make a buck. And I say this as one of the honest young people. That's about all the general advice I have specific to the information you gave. There is lots of good car buying advice out there, which I'm sure many of us could go into if you'd like. But specific to the GTI and buying from an older gentlemen? That's all I got ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1989 - E30 - M20 - Manual. Approximately 270,000 miles 2000 - E46 - M52TUB28 - Manual. Approximately 110,000 miles 
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Hi Kelly,
I don't really know anything about the Golf, Rabbit, GTI except that used ones nearly always seem to be someone else's problems waiting to be inherited 
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Kelly,
I had a 1997 Jetta with the VR6 engine and a 5-speed. It had a few issues, but they were specific to the engine. I'm not sure if the 2001 GTI was a turbo I4 or the VR6. My issues were with the ignition system, in particular the coilpack had cracks and would arc to ground when the weather was wet and/or humid. I got around it by removing the coilpack and slathering it with non-conductive epoxy. That band-aid worked for a while, eventually I got a new coilpack. The rest of the car was good, mechanically sound (I did brakes, suspension, etc... all the normal stuff), and I had the car until 2004 or so when it was in an accident. IIRC, it had somewhere around 110k at the time. If your friend is also in CA, I would not expect any rust issues to bring down the car before its time, but I would never expect an automatic to last 250k miles. I think you'd be lucky to get 100k. But that's mostly my anti-automatic bias. I don't know specifically how this particular automatic in this car lasts. I think VW Vortex is a decent online community (?). It may be geared more at modding cars, etc. I'm not sure. Overall, I think VWs in general are decent. Historically they tend to have electrical gremlins. If this car has been well looked after (definitely get a pre purchase inspection), then given proper care it should be able to last quite a while. There may be some transmission work (or replacement) in the future if intended to keep this for another 10+ years, but that's cheaper than a new car... Cab 
1990 325i(s) 2004 325XiT |
I agree, one of my dearest friends had a passat for years and for the most part it was a good car but not the VW we both knew; that car was in the shop for all kinds of silly things. Jim and I both walked away from that car thinking VW's stock was not so high. I'm not saying all VW's are bad or have problems but from what we experienced, it was no Bmw 
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Hi All, Thanks as always for the good advice. My friend has narrowed her options to 2. The GTI and a new Honda Fit. She like the GTI's zippy-ness and the Fit's cargo capacity for her mountain bicycle. I'm not really sure which she will chose. I finally washed 5 lbs of dirt off Beemie yesterday. Lately I've had to drive on muddy roads. My black car appeared more brown than black. Thanks, Kelly |
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i feel she made the wiser choice
And I envy your bike ride 
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I agree. It's nice to know somewhere people are riding bikes, it's been so, so cold here it's not funny! |
Hi, Yes, the ride was great! Well, I'm sure that she will be happy to learn that you agree. She was temped by a BMW coupe which was 8yrs old but the asking price was $2500. I steered her away from it. I thought that it might be serious trouble at that price. When I bought my e30, ti was much older but quite a bit more $. However, it did get a big thumbs-up from my car-guy friend; i figured it must be ok. Now I just love it. I found a neat website www.rainymood.com If you use Windows Explorer and ReelPlayer, then you can download a 15 minute MP3 of falling rain sounds. You may be able to use other programs besides Windows Explorer and ReelPlayer, but these worked for me. I then imported the MP# into my iTunes and saved it on an iPod. I also have iPod speakers which someone gave me. Basically I wanted some white noise sounds. My new apt building neighbor has a 3 yr old son who visits every other weekend. Sat morning from 6-7am apparently is Romper Room time. I think the rain sounds will mask the Romper Room sounds. Cheers, Kelly :-) |
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