Golf Estate Sportwagen 140

[Wozski]

Looking at buyng one of these 2nd hand on an 08 plate.
I currenty have a 2.0 tdi sport a3.
Are these nice to drive, a good investment etc
Im looking for faults guys/gals, so comments will be welcome!
cheers

[ChicksFan]

A facelifted variant Mk5 Golf Variant model was introduced in 2010 as the Mk6, despite carrying the front fascia and interior styling from the new Golf, the underpinnings are based on its fifth generation predecessor. The identical wagon is sold in the USA as the Jetta SportWagen, in Mexico as the Golf SportWagen and in South America as the Jetta Variant or Vento Variant.

I have an 08 Golf Estate SE with manual gearbox. A few teething troubles all dealt with under warranty (air bag light, a crash sensor in left hand front door, and a rear o/s door lock where the central locking stopped working) but other than that the car has been trouble free. Regularly returns 55mpg and has no problem keeping up with the traffic. Good sized estate makes it very useful for load lugging and the built-in roof rails and optional VW original roof-bars expand the load capacity further. We find it comfortable too, even with 4 full sized adults on board. Servicing it is easy, and unlike some cars such as my friend's earlier Passat, you can actually change the headlamp bulbs with no dismantling of other components. Mine has now done 65,000 miles and the cambelt will be due for renewal in another 10,000 miles. When that has been done, if it continues to be reliable, I intend to keep it for another 75,000 miles until it is 10 years old. If it goes wrong before that, or if I fancy a change, then I may try a Hyundai i30 Estate which is a similar size and seems to be building up a good reputation for value for money.
Incidentally, I paid £12,800 for the car at 6 months old with 22k on the clock (owned by the VW dealership in Durham and used by them for transporting their drivers to ferry customers cars in and out for servicing). More than 3 years on I'd struggle to replace it for less than £9,000 so the £1,200 p.a. depreciation seems very reasonable after the dealer took the initial hit at 6 months old. I'd recommend one like mine, which does not have a DPF thank goodness! Mine has full climate control too. It is on its 3rd set of front tyres and 2nd set of rears. They have plenty of miles left in them too as I only put the latest set on earlier this year.