1991 Volkswagen Golf review from North America

Replaced head gasket and rear struts at 265000 km.

Replaced glow plugs and battery at 272,000 km for winter.

Replaced starter at 275,000 km (old one had started grinding).

Went through several alternator V-belts over the life of the car, until eventually replacing pulley at 280,000 km.

Both outside rear door handles were useless when I got the car. One repeatedly required greasing to fix, the other was broken inside. Apparently very common.

One tire constantly lost air, even after getting a new tire on it.

Multiple electrical problems, often presented as a car that won't start.

Absolutely wouldn't start under about -10 degrees C without the block heater.

There weren't too many things under the hood. I'm almost surprised that so many things went wrong for how simply the car was built.

The car has pretty slow acceleration, with a fairly weak engine. However it is easily sufficient, and the car was pretty fun to drive while I had it.

The body was in better shape than all other VWs in my area of the same era. It's even better than many mk3 VWs. Most rust was cosmetic and not plentiful.

Previous owner mainly used it for highway driving, and had appeared to be driving it with all original parts (so I guess that's why I had to replace so many).

Shifting to first was tough; shifting to reverse while not stopped would result in a crunch sound; shifting to second too quickly would also result in a crunch sound. Apparently these are all common issues, and are all easy to work around.

The reliability was disappointing. There were too many occasions where I tried to start the car and got no response at all from the starter, though the starter itself was never at fault (replaced because it was grinding, but still working). I suspect these problems were all related to old/loose wires, but eventually I got sick of them and dumped the car.

Everything inside was within reach and easily visible, except fifth gear was a somewhat far reach. All windows worked, all functions inside worked, everything held up quite well inside.

I miss the fuel consumption, even if by this point it was worse or comparable to new gasoline engines, the fuel is cheaper.

I would still be driving the car if I had guarantee that it would start the next day, and if I knew that nothing else would go wrong. Running for 15 years with original parts is impressive, but I should have known it wouldn't last.