Faults:

Glove box door has been replaced three times. Every time, it was one of the latches.

Speedo cable and speedometer had to be replaced.

Door handles jam easily. Sometimes WD-40 does the trick. Other times, it has to be replaced.

Interior lights tend to burn out easily, which is a pain to fix.

The car has a substantial amount of torque-steer, which I still have not been able to fix.

General Comments:

Overall, the car is great for someone who is just looking for basic transportation. The car is simple, and repairs are generally easy to do yourself. Mechanically, the car has been very reliable and very strong, and I have never been left stranded anywhere. I imagine that this car will easily continue to run well into the 400,000km (250,000 mile) range.

Faults:

Wheel bearings - front and rear.

Front brakes.

Fuel transfer pump.

Upper strut bushings.

Lower ball joints.

Cosmetic pieces from abuse.

General Comments:

This vehicle was abused by its prior owner.

The mechanical failures are normal maintenance items and the car never left me stranded. I use it as a 170 mile per day commuter car. I would not drive my 2000 F150 that distance.

At 6"2" and 280 lbs, it is somewhat of a tight fit. But once I am in, I am OK.

Fuel mileage is about 32 mpg highway.

All the engine accessories and clutch are original.

Faults:

Well as you can see my odometer reads the same as 2 weeks after I got it, it stopped running, my father is a mechanic so usually the minor problems are taken care of quickly.

I've recently had to replace the radiator cooling fan, other than that I've gone through about six to eight pairs of CV joints and boots for some reason before I had the chance to align it.

I have started hearing clicking and crunching sounds from the front end. I don't know if it's the full acceleration of 81 furious horses or just bad luck?

General Comments:

Back to those furious 81 horses, well I'm sure there are weaker cars out there, but I personally think they should have had a turbo version. I mean hey, I'm sure there some people willing to pay for it, why couldn't they just plop one of those G60s. 150 horses sounds better than 80 to me.

My car is red and I have just installed a Pioneer dead unit, Rockford 4 channel with an MTX blue thunder amp and 2 kicker 12's that sound beautiful.

I have 15's inch rims on at the moment but in a week or two I'm planning to buy 16 inch rims, the 5 spokes are painted red (my car is red) and if everything turns out the way I plan I will possibly add a few performance parts. Not too many though, because no matter what, the horse power makes this car's potential limited. If there is an option of putting another high performance engine in my car I would think about it, at the moment it is running strong and I feel I will have another 5 years before it quits out on me.

I live in Florida, my email address is Mrfixxyou@aol.com you may email me if there are any Volkswagen meetings or clubs in the Miami/Fl Laurdale area.