Faults:

Mass airflow sensor dead - very expensive to repair.

Driver's side window fell into the door.

Can ground its sump on low/bad roads.

General Comments:

This car (VW Bora 2.0 GL) has a very attractive interior, especially the interior blue lighting. Mine is the Sport model with the tiny 'Shrek ears' side mirrors.

Fuel consumption is really bad, I do a lot of city driving and have observed about 15mpg. But on long trips it averages about 27mpg. The engine design is a 4-cylinder 1980cc with only 8 valves (why??), and the auto transmission is only a 4-speed.

Space in the back is quite tight, but up front it's very good. A lot of thoughtful touches, like the solid-feeling switchgear, and I especially love the infra-red windscreen sensors. Nice stereo too, with door-mounted tweeters.

Overall reliability is not very good - I wish I had done more thorough research before buying this particular model. But I'd still buy another VW because of the premium feel, just a more reliable model.

Faults:

Window regulator and brake pedal sensor, which were easy to sort out.

Gearbox started playing up when I first got the car. As I had purchased it from the dealership, they promptly replaced the gearbox and has been fine ever since. Great service.

General Comments:

Very economical, and apart from a few niggles it's reliable.

Excellent cruiser. The only downside is there is no A/C. Other than that, it's great.

Faults:

Brake light switch (common) cheap.

Clutch (fixed by dealer, replaced everything as was difficult to diagnose, problem was that clutch would drop half way to the floor after an hours use of car. But you could still change and engage gears. Turned out to be pressure plate)

Expensive 2,500 $ items = clutch, pressure plate, machining DMF (carefully), master cylinder replacement, slave cylinder replacement, multiple flushes.

Window regulators (common) about $100 a door plus lots of pain doing it myself

Rear boot latch - $90 plus fitting myself

Clutch pedal weld (common) welded back up by service centre (Volkspower)

Rear knocking sound (seat strikers maybe?)

Air flap positioning motor is gone (found through vag-com scan (diagnostics tool). Needs to be replaced, haven't looked into as it doesn't bother me too much)

On a sweeping right hand corner, traveling at some amount of speed but not nearly enough to lose grip, the ESP system pulsates as if you are out of control. Does not happen the other way. Turning ESP off solves this. Not sure??

General Comments:

This is a comfortable sports tourer with all the bells and whistles, and none of the wrong kind of attention.

AWD system + ESP + EBD = One very difficult car to lose in the wet or dry, and believe me, I have tried and tested in emergency and fun situations.

This car from factory does understeer. This is easily fixed with the Haldex performance controller and rear swaybar (about $2000). About 60 percent reduction in under-steer, though still very neutral.

Great exhaust note as this is the engine's character.

Gear-shifts are notchy, some MT90 does help. If you learn the gears it does become very smooth and likes to be driven hard or soft, and does not like in-between.

I get about 450 KM's out of a tank of 60 litres with 98 RON. On the open road about 600 KM's.

Brakes are good and will stand-up to a decent mountain session, though ragged at the end blackspur+Reefton = Brake pwnage. I changed my brake fluid to Castrol silver and have not had any problems with fade since.

This car is heavy and can be driven quickly, but will need to be driven hardish to do so. Maximum power comes in at 3500 RPMs, with a second cam engaging at 4500 to take you to 6200. The fun really starts to happen at 5.

So far, I am quite happy with the car for what it is. I drive hard and have done quite a lot including towing boats and trailers without much struggle.

Overall the car is good, and I believe now that I have ironed out most of the common VW bugs, the car should be good for years to come, though I may look at fixing the gearbox somehow!