Ok long story short i have my eye on a 2006 Golf R32. But the only thing is the car has 12 owners.

Car has VW full service history and was recently been serviced by them at a cost of £1700. The current owner says it was swapped between the family hence the owners but doesn't really make much of a difference.

It is the only factor putting me off currently - any advice?

Thanks for your help

Ross

 

probably got bored of it quickly and sold on a few times, i had one years ago with 30k on the clock full vag service history and it was very unreliable and a bit bland power wise.

 

screams ****ty car to me .. why would it be swapped so many times?

 

"screams ****ty car to me .. why would it be swapped so many times?"

Yeah I'm thinking that - sod it I'll leave it - was just a good part ex deal with mine - thanks for your help.

 

With a bit of searching, I'm sure you could find an equally as good R32 with less owners

 

if you tend not to keep the same car long, and are not gonna run it in to the ground, walk away

 

I'd defo pick the scoob over the r32

 

Sounds odd...its normally Bentleys and Ferraris etc that see that many owners.

Although my Golf had 4 owners in 3 years. And my Family had a Clio 172 that been passed back and forth round the family five times before eventually being sold on. And my old BMW has doe the same....but nowhere near 12 times LOL.

Being honest I'd just look at the car and what ACTUAL service history its got..invoices etc. As it should by now have had new clutches, dual mass (or fluid+filters if DSG), 6 coil packs (sometimes done free by VW as a service campaign/workshop action ), timing chains, Haldex oil+filter, front lower arms, rear springs etc. As all of these will have need to have been replaced at least once on a 10year old Golf (trust me I own one and have the invoices to prove it).

....Also what state are front arch lips in....full of filler? If the arches have been filled, run away, as its been maintained on the cheap. ALL early MKV golfs rust on the front wings...they should be replaced with new wings, if not its, been owned by cheapskates and it'll bubble through sooner rather than later.

 

Mine had 5 and i thought that was alot.....but the service history is excellent.....12 i would walk away. Will likely blow up as soon as you get it knowing sod's law!

 

Any over 5 is a no for me.

 

Stay clear
Must be massive problems with it and the last few owners have been advised to get shot of ASAP

 

Thanks for all your help. Will stay away as does seems a little excessive.

 

Thanks for your help - i currently have a 2006 MK5 Golf GTI DSG so will just keep this, just like the noise of the R32. Coming from a 470BHP impreza is a bit of a hit to the Golf but i actually find the GTI quite a lot of fun and less worry.

 

Quite a lot of these cars are bought for the thrills, then the owner realises he can't afford to run it, let alone service it.

 

TBH the only thing the R32 has over the GTi is the noise, AWD in the wet/damp and the instant torque and very flat torque curve; If I already had a GTi I'd struggle to justify the swap.

The flat torque curve is probably a bone of contention with alot of people used to Turbos and Diesels as there is no surge/kick/shove of power as the engine is already on song as soon as you mash the throttle, so there is no wait for a turbos or vtec etc. to kick in and many are left waiting for some that doesn't happen and complaining about it being slow (whilst the speedo indicates otherwise). Its always in the right gear, as long as its above 20mph, it'll pull cleanly and smoothly. You don't really get that until you owned it for a while and driven it back to back with cars with less flexible engines, or have come from a big N/A engine back ground so already used to it (my previous car was a Monaro VXR), still its nothing close to the overall power of a well sorted Chevy LS engine, but delivery is similar

It makes for a quick car without needing to wring its neck. Its probably no faster bouncing it off the limiter through every gear than it is just short shifting into 3rd early and stringing it out in 4th up to/past 100mph (manual box). Certainly the twistys I've done in a New-age STi and classic RA required me to constantly stir the 'box to keep it on song and on boost where the Golf can just handle it all in 3rd.

Oh yeah and alcazar says...Daily 21mpg average. Same as my old Scoob and Monaro...it will do 35mpg on a run if kept below 75mph though

 

WALK AWAY


d

 

I say buy it

Be the lucky 13th owner

What could possibly go wrong

 

Very good!

 

Get it AA'd
Including test driven ..,!

Offer a grand

 

The R32 has the same engine as my 2007 TT 3.2 had. I wouldn't buy another one. Before i bought it i had never had a car break down on me, during the course of my ownership i had the RAC out maybe 10 times to drag it back to Audi.

The engine used to eat coil packs like no tomorrow. Poor design from VAG mean't they used to snap in half above the spark plug which was deeply recessed and virtually impossible to remove. In the end i chucked her back at audi since they couldn't ever stop the engine destroying it's coils, even with 'updated' parts. Went through maybe 5 sets of coils in the end.

 

Guess what I have on order today...no.4 broke in half (been playing up for months now, but its finally died and finally logged a DTC), came out with some very long pliers though

Bosch ones this time rather than the OEM Bremi coils, I've only had one set though. Must remember to silicone grease the seals this time so they don't stick in the head.

Like all pencil coil packs though their internals are ceramic; any flexing or twisting f**ks them up as it cracks the ceramic meaning the spark energy starts leaking out. I don't know why, but with ignition systems a spark will rather jump 2 inches from a cracked insulator (or plug lead, if old school) than jump the 1mm across a spark plug - I've seen it with my own eyes .

The problem with the VR6/VR5 (and W8/W12...those are fun ) is they stick in the head and some heavy handed numpty tries pulling them out out straight up when it comes out at an angle (I may have been guilty of that when the odd one won't budge). Scoobs have the same issue with them being damaged on removal, they don't fall apart though thankfully (imagaine the headache of getting half a pencil coil pack out of a EJ20 with the engine still in the car )

 

Exactly! The hot and cold cycles of the engine don't help, but it's an engine....that should be taken in to account when designing coils. In the end i invested in some really long needle nose pliers as you say.