UhOh
Top Post Dawg
Now that my car has pretty much been rejuvenated I figured I'd show it off a bit.
Some background on the car I call "Tanko":
Purchased winter of 2015 to replace an aging 1999 Toyota Corolla. I had never purchased a new vehicle and I didn't want to break that trend, so I got to researching used vehicles, looking for something that got good FE (as my Corolla had). I ultimately fixated on the MKIV TDI with an ALH. Golfs had an appeal due to them being a hatchback: I'd once owned a 1997 Saab 9000 CSE, which was a great car- a four door, 5 spd, four cylinder turbo that had a ton of torque (more torque than hp!). Finding a low mileage, four-door TDI Golf (ALH of course) with a manual transmission was tough; and I felt a sense of urgency in replacing that aging Corolla. I stumbled across this Golf at a dealer in Minnesota Price was just under $5k. CarFAX info showed only two owners, the second owner (the dealer said it was a female, college instructor?) traded it in after owning it for 12 years. Other than the rusted front fenders and front rockers the car looked like it has been pretty well taken care of- more or less a garage queen.
Had the car shipped (tack on another $950!). I'm still way under what similar cars were going for here in the PNW (and today prices are STILL crazy!). Car arrived and I got my chance to drive a diesel car, something that I said that I'd never do! (OK, that was my previous life!) "UhOh!" Yup, I started wondering what the heck I got myself in to. Shifting wasn't very good. Car was a pig: I started looking up performance mods- that got me committed to doing them (though later I found that it was a pig due to the intake being horribly clogged). Front brakes were total crap. And after scrutinizing shop records (garage that the car had been going to was kind enough to send me copies of all the service records) it became apparent that the TB was overdue to be changed: mileage-wise it might have been close; time-wise, I figured, it was over due.
Some background on the car I call "Tanko":
Purchased winter of 2015 to replace an aging 1999 Toyota Corolla. I had never purchased a new vehicle and I didn't want to break that trend, so I got to researching used vehicles, looking for something that got good FE (as my Corolla had). I ultimately fixated on the MKIV TDI with an ALH. Golfs had an appeal due to them being a hatchback: I'd once owned a 1997 Saab 9000 CSE, which was a great car- a four door, 5 spd, four cylinder turbo that had a ton of torque (more torque than hp!). Finding a low mileage, four-door TDI Golf (ALH of course) with a manual transmission was tough; and I felt a sense of urgency in replacing that aging Corolla. I stumbled across this Golf at a dealer in Minnesota Price was just under $5k. CarFAX info showed only two owners, the second owner (the dealer said it was a female, college instructor?) traded it in after owning it for 12 years. Other than the rusted front fenders and front rockers the car looked like it has been pretty well taken care of- more or less a garage queen.
Had the car shipped (tack on another $950!). I'm still way under what similar cars were going for here in the PNW (and today prices are STILL crazy!). Car arrived and I got my chance to drive a diesel car, something that I said that I'd never do! (OK, that was my previous life!) "UhOh!" Yup, I started wondering what the heck I got myself in to. Shifting wasn't very good. Car was a pig: I started looking up performance mods- that got me committed to doing them (though later I found that it was a pig due to the intake being horribly clogged). Front brakes were total crap. And after scrutinizing shop records (garage that the car had been going to was kind enough to send me copies of all the service records) it became apparent that the TB was overdue to be changed: mileage-wise it might have been close; time-wise, I figured, it was over due.
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