mk 4 golf tdi 150ps or 130ps

[ugene425]

Advice sought please.

I have found a one owner from new with full VW history, 2003 silver golf TDI 150ps. It has done 120,000 miles on the clock. Service is due in Oct 21 with a new cambelt and water pump (costing £500 from my local independent). It is for sale at £3,700. Does this seem fair? No extra's in car other than a custom fitted Parrot bluetooth. Yes it has a cassette player!

Other side of the coin:

A black 5 door mk 4 tdi 130ps which has done 59,000 miles. Again one owner from new with full FSH. Good condition throughout. Asking £4,995.

Given the reviews I am leaning towards the 150 for that little extra performance and saving myself a grand or so. Any suggestions on these before I part with my savings?

Thank you for reading.

Edited by ugene425 on Thursday 15th April 16:13

[MC Bodge]

ugene425 said:

Advice sought please.

I have found a one owner from new with full VW history, 2003 silver golf TDI 150ps. Service is due in Oct 21 with a new cambelt and water pump (costing £500 from my local independent). It is for sale at £3,700. Does this seem fair? No extra's in car other than a custom fitted Parrot bluetooth. Yes it has a cassette player!

Other side of the coin:

A black 5 door mk 4 tdi 130ps which has done 59,000 miles. Again one owner from new with full FSH. Good condition throughout. Asking £4,995.

Given the reviews I am leaning towards the 150 for that little extra performance and saving myself a grand or so. Any suggestions on these before I part with my savings?

Thank you for reading.

These cars seem very expensive for the age of them?

[SweptVolume]

I'm surprised either would be up for more than £2k right now. They're at that 15-20 year old low point where non-car people don't want them as too old and unreliable, and car people don't want them as too new and unremarkable. This is the period that often kills off cars.

MKIII now starting to come out the other side and be picked up as a "modern classic", but MKIV? not so sure.

[ugene425]

Yes they seem to have quite a following and hold their price well?

MC Bodge said:

ugene425 said:

Advice sought please.

I have found a one owner from new with full VW history, 2003 silver golf TDI 150ps. Service is due in Oct 21 with a new cambelt and water pump (costing £500 from my local independent). It is for sale at £3,700. Does this seem fair? No extra's in car other than a custom fitted Parrot bluetooth. Yes it has a cassette player!

Other side of the coin:

A black 5 door mk 4 tdi 130ps which has done 59,000 miles. Again one owner from new with full FSH. Good condition throughout. Asking £4,995.

Given the reviews I am leaning towards the 150 for that little extra performance and saving myself a grand or so. Any suggestions on these before I part with my savings?

Thank you for reading.

These cars seem very expensive for the age of them?

[ugene425]

Hmm interesting. I remember years back I went in a mk4 130ps and it felt rather pokey. Mind you I was used to driving a 1.6 petrol at the time! Yes I could finance £8k and put say £5k cash in but that defeats the whole point. I am trying to keep my costs down as much as I can for now. Then in time I might upgrade to a newer car.

SweptVolume said:

I'm surprised either would be up for more than £2k right now. They're at that 15-20 year old low point where non-car people don't want them as too old and unreliable, and car people don't want them as too new and unremarkable. This is the period that often kills off cars.

MKIII now starting to come out the other side and be picked up as a "modern classic", but MKIV? not so sure.

[MC Bodge]

ugene425 said:

Yes they seem to have quite a following and hold their price well?

MC Bodge said:

ugene425 said:

Advice sought please.

I have found a one owner from new with full VW history, 2003 silver golf TDI 150ps. Service is due in Oct 21 with a new cambelt and water pump (costing £500 from my local independent). It is for sale at £3,700. Does this seem fair? No extra's in car other than a custom fitted Parrot bluetooth. Yes it has a cassette player!

Other side of the coin:

A black 5 door mk 4 tdi 130ps which has done 59,000 miles. Again one owner from new with full FSH. Good condition throughout. Asking £4,995.

Given the reviews I am leaning towards the 150 for that little extra performance and saving myself a grand or so. Any suggestions on these before I part with my savings?

Thank you for reading.

These cars seem very expensive for the age of them?

I'd buy something else for that money or go cheap shed.

Edited by MC Bodge on Thursday 15th April 16:23

[The spinner of plates]

The 130 tdi is tough as old boots.

Not sure on the 150, sure I read it wasn't as robust, but it's been 10 years since I was driving cars with these engines so not up to speed on how well they are ageing.

[MrBig]

Genuinely had to check that someone hadn't bumped a post from 2010

[Jazoli]

The PD whilst nice and torquey is about as refined as a cement mixer, I would not spend that much money on one (and I own a mk4) considering you can get a decent example of pretty much any 5/6/7 year old family hatchback for the same money which will have much more kit and be a damn sight more refined.

The golf will be a creaky old pudding (they all are despite the price) by now.

I'll sell you a nice mk4 2.0 Gti for a grand, the money you save will buy you a lot of petrol

[ShoooRn]

The PD150 was a bit more sought after IF looked after. The oil requirements were more specific than the 130 and they had a tendency to be badly serviced. That said the price you're asking is somewhat higher than the market average. The PD150 I would expect to be between 1.5k-2k and the PD130 I expect to be about 2k as it has such little miles.

Cracking engines in a reliable easy to tune/easy to maintain package.

[Brooksay]

Take the 4. They're like roaches. You see them all the time. VW sweet spot was 98-2004.

[ZX10R NIN]

ugene425 said:

Advice sought please.

I have found a one owner from new with full VW history, 2003 silver golf TDI 150ps. It has done 120,000 miles on the clock. Service is due in Oct 21 with a new cambelt and water pump (costing £500 from my local independent). It is for sale at £3,700. Does this seem fair? No extra's in car other than a custom fitted Parrot bluetooth. Yes it has a cassette player!

Other side of the coin:

A black 5 door mk 4 tdi 130ps which has done 59,000 miles. Again one owner from new with full FSH. Good condition throughout. Asking £4,995.

Given the reviews I am leaning towards the 150 for that little extra performance and saving myself a grand or so. Any suggestions on these before I part with my savings?

Thank you for reading.

Edited by ugene425 on Thursday 15th April 16:13

Those prices are way off, for example

£3700 2012 Astra Elite 2.0d 165 Fully loaded spec wise nearly a whole 9 years newer with 40k less on the clock:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202010024...

£3300

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202104010...

2008 MK5 2.0tdi 140 Golf GT 140

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202103200...

GT Sport

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202101208...

Leon FR

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202103220...

5k with haggling will get you a low mileage MK6 Golf GT 140

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202104030...

2012 Focus Titanium X 160

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202103310...

2014 Astra Elite 165

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202102269...

2012 DS5 DSport (this would be my pick at 5k) 160 Auto

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202102289...

[Roboticarm]

I was looking at these a few years back and £1k - £2k got a decent condition 2003 car with around 100k on it

Those prices are crazy, covid seems to have upped the pricing alot

[Joebristolgym]

No way would I pay that money for a mk4 golf - they were quite heavy and not a good handling car particularly. As above there are loads of other alternative cars that are better value for money.

About 6 years back I sold a 56 plate Leon 130tdi which had the sports seats / xenon headlights etc - wasn’t a bad drive (but not brilliant either - might be the same chassis as the mk4 golf perhaps) and had similar miles to the lower mileage golf you mentioned. I’m sure I sold it for £3 ish k or something along those lines from memory.

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

If your planning on paying 5K, id be looking at either a Fabia VRS, Octavia VRS or a seat Leon, both the Octavia and leon will be in the 170bhp variant, and in my opinion, a much nicer place to be, and will more than likely get DSG as well.

[InitialDave]

The Golfs would be a reasonable buy at about £1500.

[Lester H]

SweptVolume said:

I'm surprised either would be up for more than £2k right now. They're at that 15-20 year old low point where non-car people don't want them as too old and unreliable, and car people don't want them as too new and unremarkable. This is the period that often kills off cars.

MKIII now starting to come out the other side and be picked up as a "modern classic", but MKIV? not so sure.

...but wasn’t the Mk.3 a rust bucket and notorious for poor finish? Sorry to say this as a PH but , unless exceptional, these are indeed just old cars now.

[anonymous-user]

InitialDave said:

The Golfs would be a reasonable buy at about £1500.

Agreed, I was looking at a low mileage, immaculate GT 150 about 3 years ago for £2k. In the end I bought a 2008 Toyota Auris SR180 which is faster and being a Toyota, well made. Same money too. Give these a look as they are great little cars.

[Raymond Reddington]

wormus said:

Agreed, I was looking at a low mileage, immaculate GT 150 about 3 years ago for £2k. In the end I bought a 2008 Toyota Auris SR180 which is faster and being a Toyota, well made. Same money too. Give these a look as they are great little cars.

Do you still have the Auris Wormus? Sorry to threadjack... just wondered if you found it a reliable engine. I've been considering one of these to replace my petrol Corolla for extra poke and MPG.

[Lester H]

The spinner of plates said:

The 130 tdi is tough as old boots.

Not sure on the 150, sure I read it wasn't as robust, but it's been 10 years since I was driving cars with these engines so not up to speed on how well they are ageing.

Well, around that time I was in the trade at a small independent. We had a ‘ direct from main dealer’ Peugeot 406 Executive, full history, all the bells and whistles like rich leather ( not pleather, more like saddle hide) memory seats, rear window blind ,blah, blah ! It had the odd minor scrape,I wanted it to go to our tame body shop, then bump up the price, or grab it myself. The main salesman told me that the boss wouldn’t spend on it, as it was just an old car. He was right, of course, and the moral of this applies to old Golfs. I think estate agents use the term ‘price ceiling’.Overpriced VWs the result, now fading, of their durability before other makers caught up.Reverting to the topic, Quentin Wilson (spell check won’t allow me to spell his name correctly) always recommended the 130 and warned against the 150.

Edited by Lester H on Thursday 15th April 20:09

Edited by Lester H on Thursday 15th April 20:18