Faults:

The car had a few problems when I bought it; water leaking into the trunk through the tail lights, fairly rusty, the pneumatic locks were broke (except when operated thru the passenger door), the drivers side door lock was stuck unlocked and the intake manifold gasket was rotten (apparently common, yet cheap to fix-$80 installed). Since then the rear shocks and springs have broke, the rear lights have died (for obvious reasons), and now the coil has a crack in it and it sputters when it rains.

General Comments:

Despite all these problems, the greatest thing about this car is that my cousin is an enthusiast, and helps me fix it for next to nothing. The acceleration and general power is great considering the 1.8 8-valve has apparently around 95-100 hp! I can do 140kph at around 3500 rpm and still easily accelerate. I drive uphill on the way home from work and it handles with ease. If it weren't for the fact that the interior is bland, its getting rusty and it has no a/c, I'd drive it into the ground. I'm also getting 500+ km/tank.

Faults:

A couple of dash switches and blanking plates, and the passenger door lock unit have had to be replaced, but nothing big.

General Comments:

After owning quite a few cars in a short time (8 years) I can honestly say this is the best built car out of all of them. quality plastics and fabrics in the cabin makes it easy to get comfy in. It starts first time every time, and the engine is powerful and frugal if a bit unrefined. Fuel economy is better than I expected from such a heavy car (just over 300 miles to a full tank). handling is again quite good, I had expected it to wallow around corners, but it has good road manners. Overall I would buy another Golf and recommend them to a friend.

Faults:

Head Gasket just blew at about 145000K, Was caused due to a failure with the cooling system. Frost plug leaking very rapidly. Thermostat also blew because of this.Very expensive to fix.

Trunk Started to leak through the rear right rubber gasket surrounding the tail light enclosure. Burn out the pump for the rear windshield washer. Rusted spare tire. This happened before I purchased the vehicle, repaired for relatively cheap.

Had many oil leaks when purchased, Valve cover gasket, rear main seal (minor).

Timing belt was replaced at 150000K, all seals needed to be replaced as well.

General Comments:

This car is definatly one of the nicest I have ever owned. Costly for repairs, but worth it. The 1.8L Manuel has ample power and is very fuel efficient, over 600 Highway Kilometers to a tank.

Faults:

At the moment not much really.

Tracking needs very minor adjustment (as you would probably expect) but is being rectified tomorrow.

General Comments:

Once my old Nissan Micra finally gave up the ghost it was time to look for a new car. Being quite a young driver I was looking for something that would give me a reasonable amount of poke, while at the same time not being too expensive to insure and maintain.

After looking at the usual overpriced Vtrs and Corsas I decided to give up on dealers and focus on private sales. It wasn't long until I spotted a my car in the local newsaper.

At first I was quite dubious about the mileage, but on a closer inspection, the car had been impeccably maintained and came with a full VW service history, tax and MOT. It drove like it was brand new and aside from the usual little stone chips etc. that you would come to expect from a 1997 car, the condition of the car throughout was outstanding.

One of the best things I have found about the car so far is the superior build quality. Compared to the usual boy racer wagons, its built like a tank.

Performance-wise the car is excellent. Once you get used to the feel of the diesel engine and using the turbo effectively, you can get some serious beef out of the 90bhp engine, which is especially noticable when on the motorway or going up hills.

Economy is superb. 600 miles to a tank of diesel is not hard to achieve and is not easily phased when driving like an idiot.

As standard the car comes with an 8-speaker system, alloys, RCL/alarm, engine immobiliser and electric everything. In all I have been extremely impressed with the car and would recommend it to anybody who is looking to combine power and economy without being slaughtered for insurance.