Faults:

CV shaft, V belt, and Valve cover Gasket replaced April 23 2005.

Battery replaced in March of 2005.

Interior Speakers are TOAST since I bought it.

General Comments:

The is the most reliable efficient car I have ever owned. I bought this car late last year as a daily drive/runaround car. It serves this purpose perfectly.

The car itself is SLOW and may not be the most comfortable thing on four wheels, but it is cheap, reliable, efficient and heck even kinda fun to drive. I averaging a great 45mpg city driving. The car is bare to the bone with no amenities. It is also on the loud side (more so than my f250 diesel) but not really all that bad. Even with no power-steering the car handles great and is easy to drive not to mention the car is surprisingly good in the snow.

All in all this is a great car for its intended purpose cheap reliable efficient transportation from point A to B.

Faults:

This is my second Golf. It runs good, but there is a slight ticking sound coming from the driveline, which I am checking into now, may be CV joints or the like.

General Comments:

My previous Golf was a '90 1.8 4door with 5 speed. The person before me had blown the head gasket and filled the crankcase with engine coolant. Not ideal conditions to say the least. I pulled the head, had it shaved and reground, and reinstalled it with new gaskets. Only problem was lining up the timing gears, took about 4 tries to get them lined up just right. They tend to run hot. I live in Texas where the temperature gets about 100d F easily and this car had no problems. I ran Castrol 20W-50 which was too thick, except at rpm's over 5k so I switched to 10-40GTX and it did great. I easily got 35 mpg regularly with no maintenance issues.

Faults:

Alternator died at 95000 miles.

Fuel pump went down at 110000 miles (old age).

General Comments:

The car has held up to seventeen years of abuse on NYC streets (potholes) with only regular maintenance such as shocks and bushes.

Has pretty good fuel economy on long journeys.

Headlining came unstuck so is held up with thumb tacks.

Seats very comfy for long journeys.

Although cabin is quite noisy.

Performance is a little slow with auto gearbox. Handling is well balanced and fun, despite painfully slow automatic.

But for a cheap old motor she runs reliably and inexpensively.

Faults:

Bottom edges of doors are rusting.

Tail-gate is rusting around window moldings.

The front passenger and drivers seats are tearing.

Slight leaking of radiator coolant.

General Comments:

This is still a great car after many years on the road.

It is not built for large/tall drivers and passengers.

The car is very quick and easy to park.

In a pinch it provides lots of cargo space.