1991 Volkswagen Golf GTI review from UK and Ireland

Throttle body switch.

In all the time I have owned my Golf MK2 GTI 8v, only the throttle switch has given me problems resulting in 'hunting' at idle.

These cars are are great all rounders. I have owned many hot hatches; R5 GT Turbo, Clio 1.8 16v, Pug 205 GTI's, Astra GTE's etc. I have found the Golf to have a classy status to it, and you don't feel the image of a boyracer.

Performance wise it's good, not the best though, but I'm comparing it to my old GTE 16v, 205 1.9 GTI, Clio 16v. My GTE 16v was 156bhp, Clio was 137bhp and Pug was 130bhp, so all of these had a load more horses than my 112bhp Golf.

There is one thing in the Golf, you can drive it like a family car and get a healthy 35mpg around town or even 39 on a run, they are great on petrol, which helps in todays day with fuel rising by the second! If you do put your foot down you will see around 28, still very good, and with a top speed of 118mph showing via GPS (speedo had gone off the clock!!) whilst coming back from Germany on the Autobahn I was impressed.

If you get a tidy one be ready to get a lot of comments. I've been stopped whilst out shopping with people saying, lovely car... petrol stations, even taking my dog to the woods and I still get comments! Saying that, the boot space on these is very good, plenty of room for my 7st German Shepherd.

Get a good one and enjoy it! Remember, don't let the mileage put you off, they just get faster the more miles they seem to have!