i recently purchased a 97 gti. overall, the car as 230k on it but the new engine only has approximately 80k. i took it to a shop to get it checked out and they said everything was in pretty good shape. the clutch was starting to slip slightly but it wasn't an immediate fix. i had a couple questions though. i noticed that when i was driving, the temp was right in the center. is that a good thing? i would think that with the colder weather (it was around 40 degrees fahrenheit) that it would have been lower. also, what's a ball park estimate on a car in this condition?

 

Hello, just looking to see if i got any reply on my shift kit question and noticed your question. I just bought a 96 GTI with 98,000 on it and i payed 2,000 bucks for mine, its an automatic but speedy when you run the gears manualy none the less. People have told me that my car with the milage i have is worth around 4,000 dollars so i guess i got a deal, any V.W. with 200,000 plus miles on it in my experience is worth around 1,500 or so dollars pending on how it runs, the condition of the body, rust , any interior problems and so on. I have owned many Volkswagens and even with a newer engine like yours seems to have, the value of the car is really truly based on how much you love the car and how far you are willing to go to keep it on the road and safe to drive. A clutch job is right around 8 or 9 hundred dollars in most shops, and to be honest a good tec will tell you at what time you are starting to waste your money to repair a car that is not even worth the money you have to spend in parts to fix it. Like i said if the car is worth it in coolness factor, or sentimental value, i use to work i n a shop wher a man spent over 35,000 dollars over the course of 5 years to keep an old pice of **** passat on the road, he loved his car... My temp guage reads right in the middle weather its 15 degrees or 70 degrees, it all depends on how well your thermastat is working, but it sounds like yours is working just fine. Your thermastat idiot light will start blinking if it starts to malfunction. So, have fun with your new toy and dont let it drain your wallet to badly, a new car is sometimes the better money spent! Todd Gerdan