One thing to bear in mind is if the previous owner only did short journeys, then there would be a fair amount of water mixed in the oil: when the level was checked, it would seem that it was up to the mark, despite the natural consumption of oil over time by the engine.
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However, if you then do a long journey, then all that water
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/ condensation, etc will be burned off: as a result it will look like the engine has suddenly lost a lot of oil.
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All Mk1's, especially ones with aftermarket SS exhausts, suffer from steam coming out of the pipes when the engine is warming up: it looks alarming, but is merely the condensation inside the backbox evaporating.
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Top it up and monitor it for a while: you can usually smell if you're burning oil, and the exhaust emits a bluish smoke rather than white steam.
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Dont worry too much at this stage.
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