Cheap GTIs

[c-red]

Howdy All,
I've seen the prices of Early Mk4 GTIs plummet of late, cheapest I've seen was 8k for a decent looking one on Ebay and there a ton on the sales sites for 12k-ish with 150-200k on the clock.
Just wondering if I would be opening myself up to a whole world of pain, or if they would be a reliable, quick and practical daily driver?
Jash

[fuzion]

my opinion would be
get something with under 90k on the clock, preferably a 2001 onwards as they cleaned it a bit few minor changes.

the most noticable is the seats are slightly different (recaro's) to generic recaro's 2001 on.. otherwise the later model you can get with any car is always the choice.

reliability comes from who looked after the vehicle, most ppl dont seem to have an issue with them, nor should you providing you take care of it.

you need a chip to get some sort of smiles from the car, over all a top car tho!

[dubbed]

As long as it has service records and the timing belt has been changed on time, then you should be right.

[Fizz]

and if chipped, make sure the clutch was replaced with VR6 clutch and single mass flywheel

[bert]

I recently bought a '99 GTI with ~123K on the clock. Chipped, VR6 clutch, TT front brakes, very good cond black Recaro leather. $11000.

Unfortunately I had to replace the throttle body almost straight away (fairly common failure so I'm told), cost nearly a grand including labour. So look for one that idles rock-solid around 800 RPM when warm, as the first sign the TB is going is a higher idle. Also make sure that it drives smoothly when coasting very slowly (10-30 kph in 2nd or 3rd) as mine would sometimes lurch around like it was stalling, this was happening before the idle started going awry but now is fine after replacing the TB.

Get someone to check for error codes as part of pre-purchase inspection.

But overall happy with the purchase and she now drives beautifully!

[Mr Messy]

I paid a little too much for mine in October ($18k) for a one-owner 2001 model with Recaros... it had <70,000km though!

Little things have started to annoy me about the car. The hazard switch is on the blink (random tick tock sounds) and the window lock switch has stopped working. Only noticed this this morning.

Save up your $$$ for t-belt as well, mine cost $1100 or so with a new water pump and tensioner.

Great car though.