Mk5 Golf GTI - Annual cost of ownership
Discussion
Curious as to other owners’ experiences with annual service costs. I’ve had mine for about a decade and every year just seems to bring up some sizeable expense (not just the cambelt…). I love it and I generally think we should try and keep old things going, but the cost is starting to get me down a bit on a car that’s only worth £4-5k.
What are your sizeable expenses?
I have a MK5 GTi Pirelli and mine isn't expensive to run, well no more than the average VW Gti hatch. I had to fork out for a new stainless exhaust last year but all cars need a new exhaust or part of sometime in their lives. My car is coming up for 16 years old, has 70k miles on the clock and I'm hoping to hang on to it for some years to come. I bought a new genuine grill and surround as the old red line had gone pink I bought new genuine wheel centres for it, £128 for 4. I see these parts as an investment as it will help hold the value up a bit, plus it looks extremely good for its age.
I have a MK5 GTi Pirelli and mine isn't expensive to run, well no more than the average VW Gti hatch. I had to fork out for a new stainless exhaust last year but all cars need a new exhaust or part of sometime in their lives. My car is coming up for 16 years old, has 70k miles on the clock and I'm hoping to hang on to it for some years to come. I bought a new genuine grill and surround as the old red line had gone pink I bought new genuine wheel centres for it, £128 for 4. I see these parts as an investment as it will help hold the value up a bit, plus it looks extremely good for its age.
Just seems endless small stuff.
- DSG service: £323
- Drive shafts: £333
- EML needed a new charcoal canister and solenoid: £321
- Major water ingress: £305
- Fuel indicator: £399
- Cambelt: £599 (this one I’m ok with!)
- EML needed some new wiring
- New Battery: £120
- Console bushes replaced: £200
- Headlight polish
- DSG service: £323
- Drive shafts: £333
- EML needed a new charcoal canister and solenoid: £321
- Major water ingress: £305
- Fuel indicator: £399
- Cambelt: £599 (this one I’m ok with!)
- EML needed some new wiring
- New Battery: £120
- Console bushes replaced: £200
- Headlight polish
No you’re right, although when you add in the cost of a minor and major service it feels pretty chunky (call it ~£800-900 a year total). Belle makes the point that it’s cheaper when you do the basic service bits yourself, but I I never had the confidence.
The annual bill in the last four years or so always comes as a little bit of sticker shock but is never quite enough to motivate me to buy a much newer car (which will still have bills, but I’d have thought quite a bit lower than this).
So yeah, wanted to get a sense for what other people are doing. Maybe I’m not treating the car well enough, or maybe this is just life with a near twenty year old car.
The annual bill in the last four years or so always comes as a little bit of sticker shock but is never quite enough to motivate me to buy a much newer car (which will still have bills, but I’d have thought quite a bit lower than this).
So yeah, wanted to get a sense for what other people are doing. Maybe I’m not treating the car well enough, or maybe this is just life with a near twenty year old car.
si_xsi said:
Yep your man maths needs recalibrating Work out total cost over length of ownership, sjould equal less than maintenance and depreciation on a newer car. My R32 has cost £10k in bills over 3 years and I'm still not done with it, but I'm a sucker for the noise 
I sold mine when I moved further away from work (who does that?!)It was a mint low miler too, 3dr blue...
For what I got for it, I could nearly buy a 130k mile one now. Gutted.
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