Just some for you to consider mate, when i crashed my Punto a while back i got £2000, i done research and found many golf mk4's for around that so became top of my list. I viewed 3 of them in total, all of which were beyond awful, in condition, mechanical and cosmetic. Either the cheap ones had this or ridiculously high mileage, i saw one on ebay going for just over £2000 with 200,000 miles!. A good one would probably set you back at least £3000, so how much money do you have?
I have a limit of around £2000 along with my current adding towards this fund. I'm a sixth form student, soon to be a uni student so my budget is pretty limited. I've seen a few with fairly low mileage for a Golf, for around £1500.
This one too HERE.
Secondly if your looking for a nippy car id say look elsewhere. I have a 1.4 MPI engine in my ibiza i beilive similar if not identical to the polo/golf engines only mines an 8v not a 16v, however ibiza is a lighter car so i assume similar power outputs. I wouldnt necceserily say its 'nippy' compared to my punto what i would say is theres much more tourque, it sits along the motorway much easier and smoothly, pulls at lower revs better and pulling out to overtake is so much easier its really a better drive, but at a lights race, acceloration i really doubt there would be much between a 1.4 golf and a 1.2 punto.
The 1.4 Ibiza only has 60bhp, I'd be going backwards power wise!, I love the interior, everything seems well made and not cheap plastics. C - More importantly, safety - Golfs have 4/5 star NCAP rating. The main reason why my Mum is adding most of the money towards is because of this. Although I must admit, I'm not going for speed, I'm going for A - reliability (like you say, seen Golfs go with 200,000 miles! IMO I have never ever seen any punto do that) B - Comfort
So if your looking into the Vag group specifically id seriously reccomend looking into ibiza mk3, there that much cheaper and mine i belive has as good spec as any low engine size golf if not better. Mine cost £2000, with 68,000 miles, FSH, 1 year MOT, 6 months tax and perefect body work cconsidering its 9 year age on a '51 plate'. If you have that extra money to buy a mk4 golf in decent condition though im sure you could get a decent mk4 Ibiza which IMO are better cars. Just some stuff for you to consider as i was pretty much set on a mk4 golf at the time as well, if you want any details on my car just pm me.
I've just had another look at them on eBay and I honestly can't see anything aesthetically pleasing about them in my eyes. Cheers for the healthy reply though, I appreciate it greatly 
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