1977 Volkswagen Golf N 1.1 from UK and Ireland
Summary:
Surprisingly very poor
Faults:
Petrol gauge and temperature gauge stopped working.
Carburetor kept silting up.
Driver's seat wore out (really cheap and nasty seat material), three-door car - back passenger window seal went and rotted the bodywork away, so there was always a half-bucket of water in the rear foot well if it rained. And finally... head gasket failure on the original AND the second-hand, low mileage replacement!
General Comments:
Where did VW's reputation for build quality and excellence come from? I liked the look of the car, although as the base model it was really poorly equipped (no rear wiper; no passenger door mirror). But cheap and nasty materials (stalks felt like they would snap off at any time), thin seat material, leaks, poor rust proofing, electrical gremlins. I used to go to the local scrap yard for stuff at a time when you could just wander around and pick the parts off yourself. The number of MK1 Golfs with no accident damage, just clapped out, was incredible.
Performance wasn't too bad for a small engine and it handled well for a FWD car. And it was in black. Best I can say about it really.
Had a Golf hire car in 2010. Obviously better than the first generation, but still didn't seem that great.
Made me wary of VW since.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 17th September, 2016
19th Sep 2016, 05:56
I believe VW got their reputation from their 80s and 90s cars. 70s cars I can't comment on as I never owned one, but all Golf and Passat models I owned during the 1980s and 1990s were excellent.
Interesting this is a UK review, but it's also important to note a lot of negative reviews on this site regarding VW come from the USA - quality control suffered a bit on all era of cars there as they built them elsewhere and not in Germany for some USA market cars (but not all).
As for the more modern cars made after the year 2000, again, I had a 2003 Passat and it was fine. Nothing special, but a good car anyway, and definitely felt a more upmarket interior quality wise than say Ford or Vauxhall. And reliability of these cars is only as good as any other - if you look after them, fine, if not, expect breakdowns like any other manufacturer.