1985 Volkswagen Golf Reviews - Page 2 of 3

Seats started to crumble soon after I bought the car.

Power steering failed after 91,000 miles.

The power steering stopped working and had to be replaced. The seats started to fall apart. But I had both faults repaired and apart from that nothing ever went wrong with the car.

I bought it for £2,300 and sold it for £1,000.

The passenger's door failed to open due to a faulty opening mechanism.

The auto failed to start thanks to a fouled fuel injector.

The car was sprightly in lieu of the three speed automatic transmission.

It handled tremendously well, as is expected from a German car.

The paint was mediocre, at best, and a degree of seam rust was appearent.

Alternator needed to be replaced.

Slight oil leak.

This car still has great amount of torque making it very quick out of traffic lights.

Great around corners - just seems to stick.

Lack of power steering combined with fat tyres makes it tiring during long commutes, especially rush hour.

Air conditioning bogs down the engine if idling.

Surprisingly good mileage - averaged 32 mpg without driving especially hard.

Other than the standard car maintenance of brakes bearings etc. I have found no real faults.

The driver's seat is now quite worn, and has deterioration of the foam cushioning, however, I think that this is to be expected of any car this age with original seats.

Spare parts for Volkswagens tend to be cheaper than many other vehicles.

This car has stiffened suspension, lowered by 40mm and has alloy wheels, but is otherwise original.

The car is wonderfully fun to drive.

The 1.3 engine gives very good acceleration although it does need to be revved in order to get it.

The Mach II Golf has the best styling of all the Golf models.

My top speed is 115 miles per hour, on the flat, and the engine sounded fine with it.

Mars Red (the listed color) to any normal person would be called orange.

Battery replaced at 240,000 KM.

Rear hatch lock broken at 245,000 KM.

Fuel Pump went at 290,000 KM.

Alternator went at 330,000 KM.

Struts replaced at 240,000 KM.

Struts replaced at 310,000 KM.

Heat Core replaced at 340,000 KM.

My Golf Diesel was a nice cheap car to operate.

Performance was very good and I don't baby a car.

Full synthetic oils were used and made a big difference.

Interior held up beautifully (my BMW 528e interior is just pathetic compared to the Golf at 230,000 KM)

One weakness is the suspension. Always needs attention every few years.

Second weakness is body hardware - latches, locks and door hinges.

Third weakness was rust. Rear hatch fell apart.

Fan stopped working.

Battery kept running flat.

Water leaked inside when it rained.

Lights stopped working due to a faulty switch.

Very expensive to fix.

This car has a great feel when you are up and running on the road.

Its quick to 100 km/h, around 8.3 seconds.

It's extremely unreliable.

I wouldn't suggest buying one if you are young or have a tight budget.

Intermittent tappet noise.

Fuel pump fast idle stopped working.

Glowplugs failed.

Seat belt stopped retracting.

Heated rear window stopped working.

Rear wash wipe stopped working.

Gear linkage broke.

This car was family owned from new and had been impeccably serviced every 5,000 miles regardless of cost. Despite this, it was actually less reliable than the similar age and mileage Astra (petrol) that I had before. I'm not sure where VW get their reliability and build quality reputation from, but it's no better than you'd get with a Vauxhall in my experience.

This isn't a performance car, so I'm not going to criticise its painful lack of grunt. To be fair, the engine was very torquey and responsive so it wasn't actually too bad to drive. The 60 mpg it returned was very nice too, especially during the fuel crisis. 500 miles out of a £30 tankful was known regularly.

The rest of it was standard 80's small hatchback stuff. Cheap, creaky, angular interior, tidy front drive handling, so-so cloth seats and unbelievably heavy steering.

Although this was definitely a good economical banger, I felt a bit disappointed that having heard all the stories praising VW's bombproof build and engineering, and with the car having been so well looked after, it was all very creaky and tired inside, and there were quite a lot of problems. Parts from independents tended to be poor quality too, and those from dealers were extortionate.

As I say, this was a decent old runabout, but if I'm in the market for a similar car again, I'll save a few hundred quid and buy an old Astra or Escort, which are just as well made and reliable, as well as being more plentiful and cheaper to fix when they do go wrong.