1999 Volkswagen Golf GLS 99.5 year review from North America

Cruise control kept disengaging. Discovered there was a dealer recall for the brake switch which resolved the problem at no cost to me.

Exhaust gasket between manifold and system had blown when bought the car. $12 for the gasket and $50 for shop to install.

Trunk lock would not open. Was trying to manually unlock it when someone pressed the release button. Had to cut the trunk door interior panel to get to the lock and found a pin on an actuator arm had sheared so neither the key or the electronic unlock would release the catch. Made a replacement pin and still need to get replacement panel.

When parking nose in to the curb front wheel went into a pothole causing crunch noise on bumper and bumper to hang off. Found damage was merely a broken plastic bracket which cost $14 and about 30 minutes to install myself from online directions on how to remove the bumper.

The passenger lock does not always lock when use the remotes. Issue is the solder joint on the control module in the door not detecting the door is unlocked. Going to re-solder the joints.

Central locking on wet days does not always work. Need to investigate..

The headlights were faded and cloudy when I bought the car. Wet sanding them with a headlight refinishing kit really cleaned them up.

The airbag warning light was lit when I bought the car. Checking the codes it was excessive resistance on the driver's side airbag in the steering wheel. VAG con allows me to read the codes myself. Researching on the Internet apparently re-seating the clockspring may resolve the issue, if not it's only $55 to replace the clockspring.

Keys only partially work, buttons are not all working. New keys $50 from ebay and another $10 for locksmith to cut. Keys can be learned to the car without going to the dealership for the 9.5 model year.

I use vwvortex for research and ecstuning for parts.

Fun to drive economical transport.

Would buy another!

I've had some problems, but knew what I was getting into and the price I paid for the car reflected this.