2002 Volkswagen Golf GT TDI PD 130 from UK and Ireland - Comments

Both front electric windows stopped working, a common fault with cheap plastic clips breaking. VW will repair free of charge on cars up to 7 years old (not officially). Or D.I.Y., buy new clips and regulator for £40 each side; the new replacement clips are all metal and so will not fail.

The clutch started sticking, resulting in a clutch master and slave cylinder and clutch replacement. This is another pretty common fault on MK4's. This was a more expensive fix.

The brake pedal switch failed (an £11 part, the replacement part has improvements) which gives 'Check Engine' message on MFD, which first time round is concerning, but a very cheap fix if it goes wrong. This is another common fault.

The engine coolant temperature sensor stopped working, causing the gauge on the dash to start moving up and down all the time. It is also detrimental to mpg, which dropped by up to 10mpg. The replacement is £70 fitted at the dealer and is an improved part.

An excellent car as a compromise, this car is pretty rapid and offers excellent fuel economy (47-52 mpg with Shell V Power Diesel, slightly less on others). The Shell V Power is recommended if you like the car to be virtually smoke free even under hard acceleration, and gives better combustion efficiency and continuous engine cleaning (so say Shell, but after £500 worth of the stuff used I would agree), which is good for the PD injectors, which run very high pressure.

The handling is another compromise; the car is very good on the motorway and dual carriageways, but can feel very soft and reliant on ASR when pressing on down B roads. So if you only drive down B roads and want one, then get a quote for Eibach/KW or other high quality German suspension for more sport orientated driving.

The paintwork and interior are both in excellent condition for a 6 year old car, and will probably continue to be for a long time. The seats are very good if you compare to a Focus or Astra of a similar age and mileage. Especially if you value being ache free after any journey (I am 6ft7", so very accommodating).

This is overall a very high quality car, with some very minor faults, and is very cheap to run considering depreciation, as the car holds its value better than any of its competitors. I expect it to run to a fairly high mileage, as I have a long daily commute.

The dealer I use has been excellent, and I guess some negative reviews may have been due to a poor dealer experience (another VW main dealer I used locally was 1/10).

When buying a used one, make sure it has full VW service history and you should have a good problem free car. It also makes the dealer more willing to help you out if anything does go wrong.

Parts cost alone was £28 ex VAT at dealer. Plus VAT and Labour. Non genuine ones are cheaper I am sure. I like the reliability and warranty of genuine parts. 3+ program gave 25% off that price so £52 total. If you can get the part cheaper and if you are happy to do the work yourself then good luck.

VW do not make these sensors. They will be made by a third party supplier such as Bosch or Delphi and put into a "VW Genuine Parts" box on the production line. VW add a margin, and then the dealer adds a margin. The point is, there's every chance the sensor bought by the commenter is identical to the one you bought from the VW dealer.

One absolutely classic example of this was when I needed a new headlight for my old Series 1 Lotus Elise:

My Lotus dealer quoted £165 for a "Genuine item". When I looked at the old unit, I discovered a Valeo logo stencilled in the back, and a Valeo part number. I called an online Valeo distributor and was quoted £54.00 including delivery to my house. Same unit off the same production line, but in a different box and not a "genuine part" in the manufacturer's accepted sense. Even though once out of the box and mixed up with a "Lotus" unit, no person on earth would be able to identify which was which.

Apart from body panels which are usually pressed in-house by the manufacturer, there really is no such thing as a "genuine part". Car manufacturers assemble cars from parts largely bought from third parties (and usually the lowest bidders, hence sensor failures like this). The notion of a genuine part is simply marketing and branding at work.

Of course there are shoddy and counterfeit aftermarket parts available, but the vast majority are the same as those fitted at the factory, or in some cases with design improvements to make them better. It was a third party supplier who modified the crappy plastic clip in the mk4 Golf's electric window mechanism before VW would even admit there was a problem with them.

The original window clips are of very poor quality, as I guess were the other parts that have failed. If VW continue using poor quality parts they are sure to lose customers. I have seen too many faults on the MK5 that I m not sure I would buy one, look on here or other sites. If you have a MK4 and are not 100% happy with your dealer then a VAG-COM is worth it to check the faults. I am happy with my dealer which is why I bear the cost of their parts and servicing.

Why can't manufacturers at least get consistency. The MK3 if built at Wolfsburg was generally good, but Uitenhage (South African) built ones were generally rubbish. Then again my MK2 GTI used for trackdays only is still going strong on many original parts at 19 years old.

Are any manufacturers still engineering led or are most going down the accountancy path? Honda and Subaru? I wish VW would get there act together with the next line up.

I have a VW golf Gt TDI 130 which I bought on the 31st Jan 2008. It is a great car... very comfortably and quick through the gears. I have had two issues with the car, one with a dodgy coolant temp sensor and the other a faulty brake pedal sensor. I also had a loose ball joint which needed seeing to. Nothing major and all three costing under £60 to fix. The one thing I would say about VW, is there appalling dealer network, including the Inchcape group. Heavily over priced and focused on nothing else but profiteering. They are never helpful, and sometimes you have to wait three days for them to ring you back, if they do. This may be an isolated dealership, but it has shocked me. I would also state that the work that I had done was quoted by inchcape at over £140 each, and there are never any courtesy cars as the employees use them.