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Worked on a VW today, sadly not mine

Craig S - July 2nd, 2011 at 06:35 PM

For reasons too boring to go into, I needed to borrow a car for a few weeks, and fortunately my boss had a spare one, which he has kindly let me borrow.

Even better is the fact that it is a 2002 Bora, the V6 variety with AWD

I also know that it will shortly be for sale, and I have seriously considered buying it.

Problem is that it:
* Is older than either my wife’s or my daily driver by two years
* Has done more kilometres than my wife’s or my daily driver (slightly more than mine, more than double my wife’s car)
* The last four years it was used by another employee, who is a smoker :grind:
* There are a number of dings and chips on the outside and things that need replacing
* It’s quite tatty and worn on the inside
* There’s a belt making a ticking noise
* The exhaust seems to have a rattle, which I haven’t tracked down yet

Given that it has been leant to me FOC and that I can’t stand the stench of stale smoke, I spent today working on the inside of the car. Every hard surface had a thick gum of tar on it and at the end of the day I think I’ve got about 90% of it off. I also soaked the headlining with soap and warm water and seem to have the worst of the stains out of that. Also put dubbin (no pun intended) on all the leather, and sprayed everything with Febreeze. At the end of the day it looks and smells a lot better, but there is a lot more still to do.

The good things are that:
* It goes like a stabbed rat
* It corners like a cat on carpet
* It's comfortable
* It makes me smile

Tell me I shouldn’t try and buy it and that I’d be burning money (that I could spend on the Beetle instead) in trying to get everything fixed. :dork:

beetleboyjeff - July 2nd, 2011 at 11:00 PM

All I can say is my wife has a 2005 V5 Bora, and it is such a lovely car. I reckon you have a hard decision.

amazeer - July 2nd, 2011 at 11:12 PM

It has leather seats. They smell and feel lovely when new. They dont age well with the creases and the stretching. Apart from the dash, they are the most visible part of the inside of a car. When they look bad, the whole car looks bad.

PLUS

* Its older than either your wife’s or your daily driver by two years
* Has done more kilometres than your current cars (slightly more than yours, more than double hers)
* The last four years it was used by another employee, who is a smoker :grind:
* There are a number of dings and chips on the outside and things that need replacing
* It’s quite tatty and worn on the inside
* There’s a belt making a ticking noise
* The exhaust has a rattle, that you wont be able to find and it will drive you nuts once the smile from the comfortable stabbed cat on carpet wears off.

Hope that helps save you some beer/beetle money

helbus - July 2nd, 2011 at 11:25 PM

Do your research. They are selling for about $12,000

Is this one going to be a super duper deal?

seagull - July 3rd, 2011 at 01:16 AM

I drove the other day.... well I went about 15 meters then crunch bang click click

The gear box exploded

The dealer called me and said the cost of repair for the gear box was 16K & when was I coming back to buy it

Pifft

rose - July 3rd, 2011 at 04:42 PM

If you treat the leather with leather treatment and cleaner every 6 months they stay smelling like lovely new leather seats but no one ever does.

Smoke in leather not good

and what's the go with the wear marks on the steering wheel?

Quote:

Originally posted by amazeer
It has leather seats. They smell and feel lovely when new. They dont age well with the creases and the stretching. Apart from the dash, they are the most visible part of the inside of a car. When they look bad, the whole car looks bad.

Craig S - July 3rd, 2011 at 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by helbus
Do your research. They are selling for about $12,000

Is this one going to be a super duper deal?

Yep, I've looked at red book a number of times. I think they'll ask about $10,000 for it, but I suspect it needs at least another $10,000 to get it up to scratch.

Quote:

Originally posted by seagull
well I went about 15 meters then crunch bang click click. The gear box exploded?

That's my fear, at least if it happens in my current car, it's my own fault because I've had it since new, but a six speed in a 9 year old import could be very, very expensive.

Quote:

Originally posted by rose
Smoke in leather not good and what's the go with the wear marks on the steering wheel?

Yep, today when I drove it again you could smell the smoke again. The wear marks on the steering wheel are interesting, I think perhaps they are nicotine stain. They're certainly the right colour and wouldn't clean off.

As someone said in a different thread a few weeks ago (I think it was helbus), old VWs are simple cars, which in many ways makes them perfect to have as a hobby/spare car. If something breaks you can either buy a repro item, or you can get something fabricated.

With a relatively new car, they are massively complicated, and if some of the plastic dash (or engine cover) breaks, then if you can't find a new one, you're stuffed. Plastic is much harder to work with than metal. Trust me, I have an L Bug and I'd swap the cracked plastic dash for an old metal one any day.

I think I'm suitably convinced to save my cash and spend it all on the Beetle instead.

evsky - July 3rd, 2011 at 09:53 PM

As seagull has said gearboxes in the 4 motions are crazy expensive and they can give trouble especially if its got some km's up. I was working at vw when these were new and had a lot of probes with the quality of them and even some recalls from memory. An apprentice busted a gear box in 1 getting it of the hoist after its first service it didn't go down well. I like the look and they do go hard but if its cheap there may be a reason if some thing goes bad how would that affect your working relationship. Spend it on the bug get some second hand leather seats might give the same feel lol.Get a quote on a clutch kit for it that might be the clincher if its got the stupid twin clutch thing Anyway just my 2 cents

helbus - July 3rd, 2011 at 09:57 PM

Hobby/ spare car? Our 71 Beetle is our daily driver family car first out of the driveway.

Never let us down in 6 years. I have had to push start it a few times when the starter went, the battery died, and the ignition switch contact wore out. It even drove from Balnarring to Altona (100km) on three cylinders when a spark plug lead fell off. The other week when it would not idle, I spent 2 minutes took the idle jet out, blew it clean, replaced and all spot on again.

Craig S - July 3rd, 2011 at 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by helbus
Hobby/ spare car? Our 71 Beetle is our daily driver family car first out of the driveway.

Yeah, I know yours is a daily driver, I was just reflecting on your comment about them being simple cars. ATM mine is a hobby car, but when the kids are old enough to drive it will become my main car, so I can then throw money at either a KG or a 914.

Quote:

Originally posted by evsky
gearboxes in the 4 motions are crazy expensive and they can give trouble especially if its got some km's up

Yep, during all the various (and sometimes very heated) conversations on here about new VWs reliability, I reflect that this Bora had all sorts of trouble with its air con for the first few years, and another director at the company bought an identical Bora, and it ended up having the engine replaced under warranty because of all the problems it had. This particular car seems to have been trouble free for a number of years now, which means that problems can't be far away!!

Quote:

Originally posted by evsky
Spend it on the bug get some second hand leather seats

I've done better than that, brand new Recaro seats have just been installed in the Beetle and with a Momo steering wheel and CSP shifter it should all be very nice. All I'll have to do then is get the go to match the show.

helbus - July 3rd, 2011 at 10:32 PM

If you don't smoke, then you can easily justify spending $4000-5000 a year on your ride. Do it and enjoy it.

I reckon my wife and I have spent about $80,000 on our cars and motorbikes in the last 20 years, and we still have most of our rides, and enjoy them, so that has to be a better investment than $160,000 on smokes over that time.

Our little boys love the cars too!