^^ I'm sure yours must be an exception. Golfs are every day cars (for the most of us) so will be used daily. Daily low milers are generally short trips.
My other half has a 59reg Peugeot 107 which has only done 14000 miles, you can feel the brakes and clutch are worn with the stop start traffic she goes 2 miles to work in. I wouldn't buy her car
My mum has the same car (all be it with a Toyota badge on) which is a 10reg with 22000 miles on. Feels SOOOO much smoother, brakes are better, clutch is smoother. . . This is the car id choose.
Obviously you would be able to tell on a test drive how it's been used so you can tell if its been used for trips to town only,
Re: bodywork or engine, bodywork can be left (stone chips etc), engines are expensive to fault find - some guys on the forum can vouch for that