What’s excessive mileage for 1.0 litre car?

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Salvadore

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My son is buying his first car and has his eye on a five year old VW Golf - 1.0 litre 115 bhp.

Looks the biz but the only drawback is the mileage. It has about 130,000km, over 25,000 per year.

I myself bought a high mileage car a few years ago in the knowledge that my annual mileage would bring the average down considerably. It’s worked out pretty well.

However mine is a 2.0 litre diesel. I’m a bit more concerned that 130,000 on a 1.0 litre petrol engine would incur a lot more wear and tear.

Grateful for any views.
 
Depends on how well maintained the car was, has it got a good service history logged showing regular service and oil changes?
Its a high miler so also need to know price and ifs it's being sold by a dealer with 6 months parts and labour warranty?
 
Average annual mileage is 14,00km. So that 5 year old car has over 9 years worth of driving done. But it also has a smaller than average engine so it's more like 12-15 years worth of driving i reckon.

500km a werk is fairly heavy driving no matter how you view it. And a dealer's warranty isn't worth the paper it's printed on in the real world.

I'd give it a miss. He'd be much better off with an older car with a larger engine, same mileage, and a lower price. Toyota corollas are bulletproof, as are most Hondas.
 
ClubMan said:
Insurance will very likely be (possibly significantly higher) with an older car with a larger engine though.
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Insurance is going to cost him a fortune anyway. May as well save on the purchase price and repair costs while he's building up the no claims discount.

It's not based just on engine size anyway. Some cars are loved by young men who like to take too many risks driving and those cars get loaded accordingly in the quotes.
 
Some 1.6 diesels in the VAG range are only capable of developing circa 90 to 95 bhp.

My son (at 19 yrs) opted for one of those as he wanted to commute to college rather than live away. I wouldn't be recommending one to someone who is primarily doing just city driving though.

His insurance (2 yrs ago) was under 1,700e. It's down to just over 1,000e this year (last week was renewal time).

I know this doesn't deal with the original question. Just throwing it out in case it helps .
 
Look at the car sites and filter search on cars mileage and engine size. If you see a car that comes up often with high mileage. Then that's a car to shortlist as you know it can do it.

I don't love a high mileage car but then I've also had a low mileage car that was troublesome.

I've not heard and bad things about those golfs.
 
Salvadore said:
The insurance on a 1.0 is about 1300, for a 1.6 it would be about 2100
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I'd probably increase my budget for a lower milage golf (80,000km) if I knew I'd be doing circa 16,000km pa than paying the extra in insurance. But, I like the Golf.
 
I bought a relatively high mileage secondhand petrol car a few years ago from a reputable dealer.

I didn’t haggle on price, but instead got them to push the warranty period out to nine months.

There were subsequent problems with water leaking into the interior as well as the electronics. Both were fixed without quibble I would say at a cost of around €1000. I was glad of the warranty.
 
Lot of Japanese import VW coming in, many golfs usually autos 1.2. nice condition, should be the same as European ones. But obviously a Irish VW dealer won't touch them I expect.

I see lots of high mileage VW Ups. 1.0 might be a variation of that engine. Not certain though.
 
AlbacoreA said:
Lot of Japanese import VW coming in, many golfs usually autos 1.2. nice condition, should be the same as European ones.
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Yes, some beautiful cars and very well kept. Looking for a manual however and they don’t stock many of those unfortunately.
 
GSheehy said:
I'd probably increase my budget for a lower milage golf (80,000km) if I knew I'd be doing circa 16,000km pa than paying the extra in insurance.
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Realistically, I’d say he’ll do no more than 5,000km annually.
 
He's definitely in petrol engine territory so, no question. And if he's willing to cap his mileage at the above level that should be reflected in his insurance quotes.
AIG's black box policies, "Box Clever", can be good value for some - didn't work for my guy as he has to set his mileage at 25,000 km pa.
 
Another cheap option with such low mileage is a eGolf. Auto and short range. Though I did long trips in ours. Not everyone's cup of teas.

I found getting good petrol 1.0 manual with low mileage almost impossible these days. People are doing big commutes and want autos and diesel. Used 1.0 can be tatty..

No idea of insurance though. A couple of years back I got a quote of 2k on our old 1.6 golf for a young learner. Haven't tried recently. I'm not sure engine size will make that much of difference.
 
@Salvadore - having re-read your op I'm wondering is your chap set on a VW Golf, or are ye open to other marques?

If yes I'd encourage him to look at some of the comparison reviews between the Golf and the Skoda Scala in particular but to not limit his search to just those. The Golf is priced as it is due to its popularity, but the Scala and the Golf share an awful lot once you go beyond the badge and the overall look. The potential savings could very well cover the cost of the first year of insurance, or get close anyway.
 
I could be wrong but the scala is based on the polo.

That said had hire one on holiday with 5 of us in it, no idea if it was a 1.0 I think it was.
 
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