Faults:

Weatherstripping around windows cracked and separated, very expensive to fix. 60K miles.

Insulation around ignition coils cracked; coil was arcing on engine. 95K miles.

C/V joint went around 100K miles.

General Comments:

Bought this car after giving back a leased Jetta.

Initial quality was very good, really only changed the oil for the first 3 years.

Not even a speck of rust on this car after 6 years.

Rubber-on-plastic interior trim scratched really easily.

I must be aging out of their market segment, because I find VW advertising annoying.

Faults:

I have had no problems at all with my lil' Golf. It has been super reliable and fun! It is a zippy little car and runs great!

General Comments:

My VW Golf has been the best!! I LOVE IT!

Faults:

Oxygen sensor had to be replaced within 5k of my time with it.

Now the EPC light is on.

Drivers door doesn't lock like the others when I push the lock button, but it will if I click unlock and then lock again quickly.

Check engine light clicks on and off consistently.

One tire had a hole in the valve, had to have all new tube put in.

General Comments:

Check engine light enjoys clicking on and off just to irritate me. I find that it mostly goes on after it's rained. When it didn't click off I had it checked, they tinkered on it and claimed that they had fixed the problem. On the drive home it clicked back on again. I called as soon as I got home, had a bit of a raging fit at the poor person who just makes the car appointments. Brought it back in and they changed the oxygen sensor. The light has continued to click on and off since.

The most recent and as I was reading seems to be a consistant problem in all VW cars. Which is the EPC light comes on and then I cannot move my car into any other gear no matter how hard I push my foot down on the brake. Which is just great because I don't want to have to have it towed to the morons that I bought it from. I'm going to try some of the tips on how to get it out of park that I read for the Jetta.

I'm starting to miss my manual Geo.

Why the heck can't they make the Golf like they used to!!!??? My first car was a 84' golf and I ran that thing into it's grave. I don't see wanting to own one of these past 100k I'm just going to keep trading them in for newer models every few years. Which seems extremely unnecessary. If I wasn't such a VW lover...grrrr.

Faults:

This heap of junk broke down on me & left me stranded 3 times in 3 years. In between leaving me stranded it was in and out of the repair shop lots of times.

There was a persistent pull to the left that the dealer could never cure in 5 attempts. First it was tyres, then brakes, then just "road camber" then it was just the way I drove the car!

All of the brake discs were replaced due to brake shudder. All of the pads were replaced as well - down to the way I drive the car said the dealer - most of my driving is on the motorway and almost none in town!

Had to have 3 new window lifters because the plastic clips on the bottom broke.

There were problems all the time with flat spots and stuttering of the engine. Many parts were replaced including (eventually) the air mass meter which finally cured the problem after 2 years of trying.

Clutch cable snapped and left me stranded. Not covered under the warranty!

Engine overheated and left me stranded again because the water pump broke. This caused the head gasket to fail and the car was off the road for almost 3 weeks.

Various other problems with wheel bearings, dampers, suspension and electrical stuff also happened.

I can't recall any time when I had it that the car actually worked 100% properly.

General Comments:

Fuel consumption poor for a 1.6, struggled to get above 35mpg even on a long run.

Not very nice to drive, not helped by suspension problems.

Skidded too easily in the wet, especially the front end. New tyres made no difference.

Seats too hard & gave me cramp on long runs.

Dealers were hopeless. I tried 3 but they were all the same and very expensive.

Would never buy another VW after this experience.