2005 VOLKSWAGON GOLF

looking at a 2005 golf 152000km any known faults that should steer me away from one. for the wife as a town car

Do a search in the box thing to the left, hours of reading for you (o:

As jmma says search back few months, esp for jazz piano man stuff, he's an expert but may not be around here right now.

There are 3 main versions of these: base one is a 1.6 FSI (Timing Chain model)
2.0 FSI which is a 2.0 with Cambelt (Both are 6 speed automatics in most cases, unless you manage to find a manual one) then there's the 2.0 TFSI which is the turbo one that comes with the 6 speed DSG gearbox (In GTI and GTX Form and also have a cambelt)
In later years there were other models, such as a 1400cc TSI.

Service History is important, if its been owned by someone that can't afford the proper servicing you could end up needing to spend $2000 or so on it straight away.

But they are good cars (have owned many of them), most have 8-10 Airbags, 5 Star Ancap/Euroncap crash rating etc.

Drive and handle well compared to previous models, much safer than most cars this size in the same price bracket.

I only mention the timing belt, as many of these for sale as fresh imports have never had the timing belt changed, the dealers will argue that its ok because of the km's, however VW will tell you that its meant to be done every 4-5 years regardless of km's, so its best to avoid this situation.

How much money is being asked for this thing? Whatever it is you need to be getting an expert assessment of it, especially if its a used import, that is getting into high kms for one of those from a likely repair perspective. Really if you are after just an urban runabout I'd avoid, its not going to be worth the trouble when there are Jap alternatives that will cost less to keep on the road in an overall sense, are less fussy to maintain and will be easier to sell again, look at the likes of Demio, Vitz etc.

Unless the previous owner(s) has used VW certified oils - particularly in the transmission - then you will have major mechanical issues in the near future.