2001 Volkswagen Golf 1.6S from UK and Ireland - Comments

Had a few minor niggles when brand new, stick indicator switch and alarm work when it felt like. These were fixed OK.

Coil failed at 9000 miles and left me stranded in the middle of Birmingham on night. The car was towed in and sat in the dealers for 4 weeks awaiting parts - along with 3 other Golfs and 5 Passats all at the same dealer. This is a design fault that VW know about and won't recall the car. The dealer has shown me memos from VW on this subject.

Rang VW, but they were not interested and said it would be dealt with under warranty so what was the problem?

Meanwhile I spent a month in a Polo 1.2 courtesy car.

When I got it back the brakes were rusted because it had spent over a month out in the open in winter. The dealer then had to fix the brakes under warranty too.

Nice one!

The car is rubbish.

The service is rubbish.

The dealers are hopeless.

Volkswagen the company don't care once the car is sold.

I thought my Alfa was bad for reliability, but at least it got fixed quickly.

My unpleasant experience with a 2000 Passat led me to believe that although VW's APPEAR to look well made the reality is sadly different:constant faults not just electrical either. For some incredible reason the re-sale value is thankfully high and I sold the car after 18months. Forget the motoring press, they don't have to foot any bills and forget their carpings and image driven nonsense-get a Nissan you just will not have problems or worry, and since you are British you'll be buying a British made car to boot!

Totally agree with the above comments. Our Golf had many similar faults and dealers were not helpful. Finally took it to a specialist who finally fixed the engine management system that the dealer couldn't - although it cost me £200 that should have been covered under warranty. I have forwarded the bill to the dealer, but their reaction was predictable and they said the warranty was now invalid! But then they had only tried to fix the fault 4 times in 3 months.

VW - nice image, but badly made and not reliable in my experience. Got a Toyota Corolla with the money from selling the Golf and what a difference. It's a 4 year old car that has had no faults at all in 12 months now unlike my 1 year old Golf.

I'm a Golf Owner, on my second one (since 2001). My first Golf experience was excellent, however second time around I'm not so sure. I've had this 1.6 Comfort for 2 years, clocked 30K miles from new and I've had numerous problems. Per other owners - electrics, ABS, locks, door mirrors & the latest just recently when the coughing & spluttering just started out of nowhere...3 weeks after a full Dealer Service!!! And speaking of service... if I treated my customers like VW Dealer/Service treat theirs I'd be out of business. Mention a specific problem and its guaranteed to be ignored.

My Mothers golf 1.6 SE felt like a dream for two days until it locked her in, the back wiper motor stuck on and the sidelights wouldn't go off, all these problems were fixed under warranty and the car now has run for seven months trouble free.

So I do not agree with these comments about the golf which I consider a truly amazing car.

I don't consider it an amazing car. Instead a rather dull not always dependable hatchback.

Then your obviously a noob, All you have to do is look at the prices of the car and thousands of great reviews for VW to realise that they are great cars and just because you have had a bad experience it doesn't mean that everyone else has because in reality you are the minority.