VW Golf - lower year, lower milage OR higher year, higher milage?

iPLOD

I'm looking at buying a Golf but am trying to decide between an '04 with 28K or '05 with 58K on the clock?

What do people reckon about the trade off between milage vs year?

Cheers

Type 17

Mileage isn't an issue, once (a) there is a proven service history, and (b) the price reflects the mileage covered.

So, the car to pick is the one with the best service history, and if they are both good in that regard, then ensure that the price for the lower mileage one is worth paying, and that it wouldn't be better value to get the higher mileage one - this last bit is totally down to what prices the sellers are asking and what price they'll accept.

Although there is a difference in years on the reg, it is only one year, and the snob value of a newer plate is already gone for both these cars - this factor can be discounted, unless you were comparing an '08 with an '09

8vjohn

Are they both mk5's? The mk5 came in 04

iPLOD

Yeah, they're both Mk5's

EPM

If the reg is not a problem for you I'd go with the lower mileage car, especially if both were 1.4's. Can you give more details on the cars like model,engine and price. You'll get better advice that way

8vjohn

Well personnaly i'd go for the 04 as the mileage is very low. Have they both got identical specs?

Delta Kilo

iPLOD wrote: »

I'm looking at buying a Golf but am trying to decide between an '04 with 28K or '05 with 58K on the clock?

What do people reckon about the trade off between milage vs year?

Cheers

Is the 05 in km or miles? I think it was 2005 that cars switched to km, so it has 36,000 miles. The 04 is definitely miles anyway. 36,000 miles isn't really that high for an 05. Personally, I would go for the one that has the best service history.

L-M

Brother has a september build mk5 and it's in KM's, so you never know. And what's stopping the 05 being imported lol?

If it is 28k miles against 58kms, I'd be looking at colour, spec, condition and service history first. Worry about the number on the plate after that.

Type 17

Example to give you idea of choices I made:

I drive a UK-import '04 Golf Mk5 (2.0 TDI) which had 45k miles on it when I bought it in late '06 (2.5 years old at the time) - the mileage was fairly high for the year, but it was fully loaded and came with a full VW service history (was a sales manager's car in the VW dealer).

Basically, the price was lowered by the high mileage, but the FVWSH and full set of extras* brought it back up again, so I was happy to buy it for the price of a more basic version with 10k less miles. The extra miles mean nothing (now it has 57k miles on it), but I'm still using the extras every day, and it hasn't used a drop of oil and nothing has failed (yet )

As mentioned above, I'd look at other factors like spec, colour to decide, once you're happy that the respective prices reflect the mileage.

PS: In case the OP is looking at 1.4 cars, it's been mentioned in other threads on here, that the Golf 1.4 engine in the Mk4 isn't great (wears out, smokes, uses oil) - anyone know if the Mk5 one is different/better, or should also be avoided?

PPS: Last service, I got the dealer to flip the odometer to metric, so now it reads kms and the trip computer and satnav are all metric. Speedo dial is still in MPH of course, but I just read the inner km scale.

*DSG gearbox, satnav, cruise control, climate control, auto lights, auto wipers, heated seats, headlight washers, comfort pack, better alloys

johndaman66

I remember seing an article on the interweb once where two modern engines, both the exact same were dismantled. One engine had 168,000 miles on it and was always very well maintained. The other engine had 68,000 miles on it and was poorly serviced. It was amazing how much cleaner the engine with the higher mileage was...no comparison. I guess the moral of the story is that mileage on an engine is not so relevant if it is properly serviced and not abused.

In your case all other things being equal I would look at things such as asking price, when the next timing belt is due, how many months both cars are taxed for, tyres and the like. The year wouldn't bother me too much but I can only speak for myself.

bazz26

johndaman66 wrote: »

I remember seing an article on the interweb once where two modern engines, both the exact same were dismantled. One engine had 168,000 miles on it and was always very well maintained. The other engine had 68,000 miles on it and was poorly serviced. It was amazing how much cleaner the engine with the higher mileage was...no comparison. I guess the moral of the story is that mileage on an engine is not so relevant if it is properly serviced and not abused.

In your case all other things being equal I would look at things such as asking price, when the next timing belt is due, how many months both cars are taxed for, tyres and the like. The year wouldn't bother me too much but I can only speak for myself.

+ 1

Irish people are too concerned about what the odometer reads. Mileage is not an accurate measurement of wear on a car. For all we know that low mileage 04 Golf could have been driven to the shops by a little old lady who tore the crap out of the clutch or gearbox and had it half serviced once over 5 years.

iPLOD

Yes I guess thats true. So from this and what people have said above I think I'll be keeping an open mind towards the '04 while being sure that I get it properly checked out before making any decisions.

Thanks all