1998 Volkswagen Golf from North America - Comments

Trunk lock mechanism has never worked.

Cam head (?) replaced at 20,000.

Interior cloth on shifter and emergency break quickly deteriorated.

All side panels have fallen off.

Locks on all doors have broken off.

Back plastic panel holding up license plate has fallen off.

Plastic parts on the radio broke off while trying to fish out a tape that got stuck.

New clutch at 80,000 miles Dealer quoted $1000, fixed at $350 elsewhere.

Transmission cracked about a week after purchase.

Reverse has ALWAYS made a bad noise.

Locking mechanism sometimes locks on its own.

Sometimes locking mechanism fails- won't lock or unlock.

Air conditioning broke (some kind of pump?) at 80,000, dealer quoted me at $1700. Probably not the value of the car.

I always keep my back seats down for large loads, and the black fabric protecting the back of the seats has come off and is now exposing the yellow foam underneath.

The dials on the radio rarely work- if you try to turn the volume down, it goes up, and vice versa.

I am extremely embarrassed to have anyone in my car because of all of the aforementioned problems.

While the golf handles well and gets great mileage, I would absolutely NEVER purchase another VW.

Everything has been glued to the car, and is now falling off.

These cars are not put together well.

I have had problems with this car since the day I bought it, and dealerships have not been helpful.

The dealerships always use scare tactics to try to get me to get things fixed that don't need it, they don't fix the things they say they have (and have charged me an arm and a leg for.

Assuming that by making a noise in reverse, you mean it makes a grinding noise when you are shifting into reverse, you can solve that problem easily. That is occurring because reverse is not synchronized, and the transmission gears are still spinning when you got to shift in too quickly after you press the clutch.

There are two solutions: either wait 5 - 10 seconds after you press the clutch to shift into reverse, or shift into a forward gear (which are synchronized) before shifting into reverse. With the latter solution, it is still even a good idea to at least wait a few seconds before shifting, to save unnecessary wear on the synchronizers.

I do not like nor am I defending Volkswagens, but that reverse thing is probably not due to anything being wrong with the car. I do not know why car manufacturers do not give better guidance to customers on this simple issue.

No, it makes a strange rotating sound while it is reversing, not while putting it in to reverse. Kind of like "chug chug chug..." There is no grinding sound, but it's definitely not a sound that a car should make when backing up. Also, it consistantly makes this sound, even when I initially turn the car on and reverse is the first action I take. But thanks for assuming it's my driving.

It has something to do with the faulty repair of the cracked transmission from a few years ago.

Two more problems I had forgotten about:

All of the AC slats have broken. (not like it really matters since the AC no longer works...)

The lever to turn on the windshield wipers will not stay in the on position, so it must be held in place for the wipers to work while driving. very safe.

Looks like you're just not lucky with that car, I have same year VW Golf TDI 110bhp with manual transmission, and haven't got any problems with it yet. Best car I have ever owned...

The reverse gear problem is not user error. It is a bad tranny and a lot of them have this exact problem.

I bought a 1998 Golf Wolfsberg Edition. 2.0 5 speed.

Used with 50k miles.

My reverse gear makes the sound you got when as a kid you'd clip playing cards to your bike forks so that the spokes spun by them and made a clicking sound. The guy at the garage told me the tranny was "on the way out" and to "baby the reverse gear" and I might get another year or two out of it.

Electrical is also a complete mess. Radio, alarm system, lights, you name it - it's insane.

Just yesterday I drove through a puddle that was NOT terribly deep - probably 6 - 8", and probably splashed up onto the engine block pretty well. I got through it OK, and then the car sputtered and died. When I finally got it started, an hour later, my running lights were off, and one of my head beams was out.

I think these are lovely looking cars, and they drive nice and tight, but I was a FOOL to buy it. never again.

I am on my 2nd mk3 golf. If you are the kind of person who takes good care of your cars and doesn't drive them irresponsibly, the golf will never let you down. That being said, the interior build quality is shoddy at best. The cloth tears like tissue paper!

My first golf was loaded down with all the power options which occasionally gave me trouble. I would strongly suggest getting manual windows as VW seems to get their power window equipment from cracker-jack boxes. The only problem is the manual cranks rattle like hell if you like your music loud. Minor issue I guess but it can get under your skin.

I have driven cross country at high speed in the middle of the summer with the AC up and averaged 35mpg. Bottom line, even cheap German engineering is still German engineering and these little 2 liter engines run like a top.