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“It’s a Volkswagen Golf” I informed her “Do you like it?”
“Yes, it’s very nice”
Although that wasn’t the most emphatic response in the world, it’s about the most amount of enthusiasm my mum can conjure up in relation to a car. I knew from that moment the seeds of thought had been ... Read review
Hatchback - Front (FWD) - 6 Speed Manual Gearbox, 6 Speed Manual, 6 Speed Automatic - 1598 cc - Max Speed: 119 mph - 115 bhp - Petrol - Available Trims: Sport, SE, S
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Advantages: Good looking, well spec'd, decent performance, excellent fuel economy Disadvantages: Not as well built as you'd think, rock hard seats, squellie wheels
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“It’s a Volkswagen Golf” I informed her “Do you like it?”
“Yes, it’s very nice”
Although that wasn’t the most emphatic response in the world, it’s about the most amount of enthusiasm my mum can conjure up in relation to a car. I knew from that moment the seeds of thought had been planted in her mind, and pretty soon it would be farewell to the Peugeot and hello to Volkswagen.
BUYING IT
...buying momentum and managed to get her down to the VW dealer a few days later. The silver one had already been sold and they only had 2 in the second hand section – both were pretty dull colours and pretty poverty spec. Needless to say she didn’t like them.
We then happened to chance on an independent dealer who specialised in VW’s – and they had plenty to choose from. Amongst the chaff was a little bit of wheat, in the shape of a ... more
Every year our local paper holds a “motor show” on the Park. The idea is that there’s a collection of new cars to look around, some classic motors to tyre kick, a chance to drive a bus or a fire engine together other “fun” things to do. When this started it was quite a glitzy affair, every local dealer seemed to take part and it was a good way of seeing lots of different makes all in one place. We even had a “pop” concert in the evening to celebrate (in fact the main act pulled out at the last minute and we were entertained by one of the Nolan sisters).
But amongst the cheesy music, the hoards of the great unwashed my mum seemed to enjoy herself. She even spent time looking around the various stands, sitting in various cars while still maintaining there was little wrong with her 5 year old 306. All that changed when she reached the VW section. Clocking a “silver car” from across the stand within moments she was sat inside stroking the steering wheel and pushing buttons. “What’s this?” she asked.
“It’s a Volkswagen Golf” I informed her “Do you like it?” “Yes, it’s very nice”
Although that wasn’t the most emphatic response in the world, it’s about the most amount of enthusiasm my mum can conjure up in relation to a car. I knew from that moment the seeds of thought had been planted in her mind, and pretty soon it would be farewell to the Peugeot and hello to Volkswagen.
BUYING IT
Me and my Dad managed to keep up the buying momentum and managed to get her down to the VW dealer a few days later. The silver one had already been sold and they only had 2 in the second hand section – both were pretty dull colours and pretty poverty spec. Needless to say she didn’t like them.
We then happened to chance on an independent dealer who specialised in VW’s – and they had plenty to choose from. Amongst the chaff was a little bit of wheat, in the shape of a 1999 (14 month old) Golf in jet Black. Although the badges on the back didn’t give any clues to its spec, it turned out to be a 1.9 TDi SE, Automatic. After a brief and exciting test drive (my mum doesn’t like driving with other people in the car, so her nervousness prevented us from going any further than round the block) she agreed to have it.
Although £14,500 sounds a bit pricey today, this was before all the car makers cut their prices. If we’d waited 6 months we could have purchased a brand new one for more or less the same money.
A GOLF’S LIFE
It’s normal weekly use involve a trip to the shops and a visit to granny’s. The rest of the time it’s supposed to live in the garage. Although this is “mums car”, it does tend to be a bit of a pool car for the whole family. When someone’s car breaks down, runs out of tax or is otherwise off the road – the VW’s keys always come out. I’ve just finished my latest week long stint with it – hence this review.
EXTERIOR, INTERIOR AND EQUIPMENT
From the outside, this is a good looking, understated car. The black colour is smart and contrasts well with the golf’s trademark reflector-free headlights. The wheels a little too big for the car – large steel wheels with hub caps covered in tyres which have a much too large profile (e.g. the sides of the tyre are very thick – but more on that later).
Also at the front is a set of pop out headlight washers, together with a pair of brackets where the bottom of the bumper used to be (dad ripped it off by driving over a kerb at Ikea). Round the back, there are just 2 badges, VW and Golf. If there was a full set it would say TDi (with the “i” being red) – meaning this is the more powerful of the 2 diesel engines available. The rear quarters do look a little frumpy – massive C pillars and an almost vertical back end means rearward visibility can be restricted. In the rain you have to have the back wiper going because the screen angle means it’s always covered in spray.
Stepping inside, the rather sombre black of the outside is matched by the black plastics of the dashboard. Things are lifted rather by the use of light seats, doors, carpet and lower dash all being a sort of beige colour.
The levels of equipment are pretty generous and didn’t really fit in with my preconceptions of the Germans being a bit mean. You get electric windows all round, central locking, electric heated mirrors, air conditioning, decent stereo together with heated seats, trip computer and an electric sunroof.
The driving position is pretty good overall, with a good range of adjustments on the seat and steering wheel. Two criticisms I have in this area is that the steering wheel is a bit small, and the hard seats give me terrible back ache after a couple of hours.
A night the dials are bathed in a soothing blue light, which is almost universally accepted a bloody good idea. Other nice touches include a dial to open the sunroof (just set the position and it will open without you having to keep your finger in the button), red lights in the doors (always a touch of class) and the fact the interior lights come on as soon as you remove the key.
The rotary controlled air conditioning is simple to use, giving a good flow of cold air in the summer through very large central vents. My dad says the heater is too slow to blow out hot air when it’s really cold outside, but I can’t say I ever noticed.
ON THE ROAD
The combination of an automatic gear box and a diesel doesn’t sound very promising for good performance but it is surprising nippy. Although you won’t be racing sports cars at the lights, the quick changes means it goes well enough. The perky performance small steering wheel does sometimes leave you feeling like you’ve just been driving a tuned up go-kart rather than mum’s shopping trolley.
Although the going is generally good, the automatic gear box occasionally makes some bizarre choices of gears especially in kick-down mode where it’s pretty jerky and unrefined.
The biggest moan is about the handling – it’s crap. Go into a corner quickly there’s plenty of body roll and the large tyres struggle for grip. Drive anywhere on a sunny day (even slowly) and a turn of the wheel will produce a squeal from the tyres. I’m sure my mums neighbours thinks she drives like a nutter as she comes screeching into the street! The ride isn’t particularly good either, it’s much too hard. I’m sure given the right wheels and low-profile tyres it would be much improved, but I don’t really think mum’s into Max Power style modifying.
SAFETY AND ECONOMY
This is where you can forgive the poor road manners – 54mpg is the average displayed by the trip computer, which is normally based on town driving. The tank only cost about £35 to fill, so it’s pretty cheap on juice.
In case you have a crash, you have 4 airbags to bounce off together with ABS brakes to get you out of trouble in the first place. The Euro NCap crash test awarded it 4 out of 5 stars, which is damn good going for what’s now a 5 year old car.
So you don’t let undesirables in when you plip the central locking the two stage processes does the drivers door only, then the rest of the car on a second press of the button.
RELIABILITY AND RUNNING
It was still under the manufacturer 3 year warranty when it entered the Parnham family fleet and a good thing too.
The interior faired the worst with numerous problems requiring attention: The electric window switch pack fell off the driver door, the mirror adjust switch broke, the centre console and lower dash all split apart, the rear and front ashtrays both fell to bits, the clock just shows random times, the sunroof doesn’t seal the wind out properly and the battery went completely scrap.
Most of these problems were fixed under warranty, even though it had missed a VW dealer service. We only got around this because the supplying dealer had written the wrong years in the “next service due” box. If it wasn’t for this slip of the pen, none of these costs would have been covered.
We’ve only given it one main dealer service, at a cost of £150. It’s also been back recently to have some “campaign” (or safety recall) work done. On both occasions customer service skills seemed lacking and they gave you the distinct impression that the aftercare programme would run much more smoothly, if it wasn’t for all those bloody customers.
Since it had the lower dashboard replaced, there’s now an annoying rattle which sounds distinctly like something’s been left loose. I know it’s only minor, but if there’s nothing on the radio, it really gets on your tits.
At a present mileage of 22,000 it hasn’t really had a very hard life – and for my money the quality certainly doesn’t live up to the brand reputation.
Insurance is also cheap, mum only pays £120 per year, fully comp; but that’s what you get when you only drive 2,000 miles a year!
SUMMARY
Well, would I recommend one? Yes. Although the ride and handling isn’t up to much and the interior seems to have the longevity of papier-mâché; it’s a decent motor. It’s cheap to run, has plenty of equipment and is mechanically sound.
There’s also just something about Golf’s – they have a sort of class-less appeal meaning they are just as at home pottering to Tescos as when they're doing doughnuts on a council estate.
Just make sure yours is still under warranty so if it does all fall to bits, they’ll be someone there to fix it.
Thanks for reading
Rob
PS – I’ll try and get some pictures to go with this on Saturday
My VW Golf TDI looks a bit different to most, I have modified mine with some lovely 18 inch RS4 Replica alloys (normally seen on Audi TT Quattro and Audi S3) so it does stand out from the crowd and is a bit of a head turner if I must say so myself! I also added some smoked black hella rear lamps instead of the standard red/orange ones. So it looks more bad boy racer than a reliable economic diesel, not that I am a barry or sharon for that matter ... ...mine second-hand in October 2003 from Marshall's Used Car Centre in Cambridge and managed to get £800 knocked off the price plus a tank of fuel and 6 months road tax, so was quite pleased with my bargaining! The whole package including an extended 3 years warranty plus RAC cover cost £8000 so I was very pleased as I had done my research and visited a VW dealer and they said that was a fair price for the car. A 2000 W plate with 48,000 on the clock.
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danni_elle 18.05.2004
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Volkswagen Golf IV 1.9 TDI
Advantages: Economical, Great Build Quality, Nippy, Quiet for a Diesel, Looks, Great Residues Disadvantages: Rear Legroom, Standard Suspension Setup, Headlight beam
...much resembles the Passat's.
Volkswagen have been accused of skimping on features before but this isn't true anymore. In SE specification, my Golf came with full electric windows, heated mirrors and sunroof, remote central locking with alarm/immobilisor (which is an insurance friendly Thatcham Cat 1 alarm), driver and passenger airbags, Antilock Brake System (ABS) and power steering. It also features a Multi-Function Indicator (otherwords a Trip ... ...average speed, average fuel consumption, miles driven, temperature and journey time. Entertainment is provided by a 8 Speaker system which sounds clear, loud and bassy especially if you have the single slot CD player. The seats are very comfortable and have height adjustment and there are many nice touches such as the arm rest with storage space and drinks holders in the front and in the back. I love the blue/red instrument lights which are a great ...
rayliu 08.11.2001 (30.01.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Volkswagen Golf IV 1.9 TDI
Advantages: Great car, good fuel economy, well built - and extremely safe Disadvantages: No real huge disadvantages
I've owned my Golf TDI S for almost 5 years now, and I've been really pleased with it. Unfortunately my insurance company have purchased the car back from me following a 7 vehicle pile up (not my fault!). However, I thought I'd put the experience to good use and tell you not only about how great the car is as a drive, but also show how well it can stand up to a battering.
The car looks good. There's no getting away from it: when VW bring out a new ... ...given a few weeks to get used to it, and it really grows on you. On the outside the car comes in a range of colours (I'd opted for a nice metallic blue on mine), with the mirrors and part of the bumper finished in the same colour. There are no front foglights as standard, but there are fog lights fitted to the rear. There's also a parking light which I never used, but could see why it might be handy. The interior is nicely finished and certainly ...
sally.jenkins 05.06.2007
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Volkswagen Golf IV 1.9 TDI
Advantages: Quality and a refined driving experience. Disadvantages: Not the fastest car on the road by any means.
...I was looking for, (a Volkswagen Golf TDI SE 5 door hatch 90 bhp - in either silver or green, and within my budget of £10,500), even by using the VW website and doing whole country searches. I had already called in at all of my local dealers (Ipswich, Colchester, Stowmarket, Lowestoft) and was told that they are often sold even before they even appear on the garage forecourt or the VW website.
Hearing this was rather off-putting, but I continued ... ...thing I have learned about Volkswagen is to check very carefully what is included for the price, and what isn't. I was very surprised to find that although the SE specification (according to the brochure) included an 8 speaker VW Gamma audio, my car had the VW Beta radio/cassette, which works on just the 4 front speakers. Upgrading to the Gamma unit costs over £300, and adding the VW CD player a further £250. Then I discovered that my car didn't ...
johnalderton 07.09.2003 (25.07.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Volkswagen Golf IV 1.9 TDI
Well this is the story of my time with my Golf.
What can I say, I had 2 previous Rovers beforehand and both had been pretty good reliable cars. However I was on the market for something diesel and my friend had recently bought a diesel golf and it seemed very quick and offered good mpg that I thought I should consider a golf as my next car.
So I had a look around for golfs and came across a 1998 R reg VW Golf 1.9 GT TDI with 114,000 miles on the ... ...Went to view it and bought it. I paid £2540 Features
The features within the Golf were very good. It had electric sunroof, electric windows all round, electric mirrors, remote locking etc. It also had lights everywhere.
Insurance
I found it really easy to insure and it actually worked out slightly cheaper than my previous Rover 216 Coupe SE.
Drive
The body roll is horrendous. Its really the only word I can use to describe it. It rolls around ...
kris214 09.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Volkswagen Golf IV 1.9 TDI
