I've hinted at my situation a few times before, but I'll tell the whole story here and see what you guys think.

I'm currently 21 and work 4 days/week full time in the Melbourne CBD (I'm about 45km S.E.). I drive a 1992 AE92 Toyota Corolla Hatchback (TwinCam). Apparently from some web searching I've done, it had ~60kW when new (although in certain circumstances and with Shell vPower it feels more powerful).

Anyway, I've long wanted a Golf mk6, particularly the 118 TSI or better, with the RNS-510 option (well, I wanted all the options, but that's not going to happen)

A friend of mine buys German cars (mainly VW's and Audi's) from auction, that are generally listed as 'repairable write-offs'. He I think you can see where this is going.

Towards the end of March 2010 he picked up a 2009 MY10 VW Golf 118 TSI DSG with leather seats. It had some damage to the front of the car. Since then he has replaced the damaged panels and plastic engine covers with new parts from VW. The car's dimensions are correct. The engine didn't move in the crash, and the airbags didn't deploy, so the impact was pretty light.

He drives a mk5 Golf with his wife and kids, and is selling an older Bora to another friend, so there are no trust issues, but that's not going to stop me getting a 2nd (and 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc) opinion.

A new car of this spec would cost me $37,990 + on road (which I'm sure I could get the dealer to discount). The repaired Golf, with 5,400kms on the clock, could be all mine for about $24,000. I'm sure he could sell it for more if we weren't friends.

I called the RACV car advice line and asked about repairable write-offs. The guy advised me not to touch them since it stays on the cars record forever and affects the sale price at the other end. I didn't actually get a chance to tell him what the car was or how much I was planning on paying for it, maybe that would've changed his mind.

I plan on keeping the car for as long as it's practical to do so, but I like to think that if I did have to sell it in the next few years, i could recoup most of my money. I can't justify spending ~$40,000 on a new car, and I don't really want to wait 2 years for the current cars to be sold cheaper as 2nd hand. I will be testing out the car soon (it's getting polished atm), and is in the queue (which is backlogged) for VIV to inspect it.

If I get the car, I also plan on getting the RNS-510 and probably will get the APR upgrade (at least by the end of the year). I'd also like an MDI and bluetooth but I'm not the type of person to pull things apart that much. i can worry about those two items much later, though. I've read through the owners manual for the car and have photocopied the details for the engine details and previous owner, who I have yet to contact to get her thoughts.

So, the main questions are:
1) What would you ask the seller for additional peace of mind?
2) What would you look/listen for on a test drive?
3) Would you buy it if you were me?