Buying advice - Golf Cabrio

[gavstar]

Hi. A friend of mine is looking to buy a Mk4 Golf Cabrio, for around 10k. Apart from the usual things, is there anything he ought to look out for when looking at potential purchases? Are there any costly bills he should prepare for?
All tips gratefully received...Cheers

[seamus]

Generally speaking they are good cars with little to worry about. The coil pack might give up and if it does you'll know about it, plumes of smoke from under the bonnet, will set you back £90 from GNS and easy self replacement, the hood may well leak (normally into the rear footwells) and more than likely if it does it will be a clogged channel, again easy to sort with a pipe cleaner and some hood proofing (fabsil). If the hood is slow to function it will likely have a hydraulic leak, easiest way to tell is to take up the rear seat and you'll soon see, this can be costly to fix, from my experience most people just top up the fluid. Headlights are costly and worth buying the protectors for £25, it will save you a lot in the long run. You'll easily get a minter for the money suggested - I suspect this time of year mind you should look at max £7.5K for one of the last low mileage cars and go for an avantgarde with all the toys.