Why drive anything else? (VW Golf MK4)

Member Name: mattrichardson

Product:	VW Golf MK4
Date:	08/09/08 (2931 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything about it

Disadvantages: Parts are expensive

The Golf, A car that came into production soon after the fad of Noah and his Arc began to fade away... From then on wheels were the way forward (boats were SOOO last year). But I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that. Unless you have spent your entire life hiding in a cave I think its pretty safe to say we have all become accustomed to seeing Golf's on our roads, as they came into production in 1974 (I think), and since then they have clearly gone from strength to strength.

I own a 3 door Mk4 03 plate Golf Match. The 'Match' part means I get some extra toys.... electric windows, alloy wheels, electric heated door mirrors, CD player to name a few. His name is Basil and I love him very muchly! I have owned him for around 14 months now. I bought him used from my local VW dealer and at the time I paid around £7500. I could have bought one privately for around a thousand less but my Basil had very low mileage and came with a years warranty so I was quite happy to pay that bit extra and buy him from the dealers.

Within the first year we had a few teething problems but nothing major. Within a week of owning him his brakes started making a funny noise when going round tight corners. I took him back to VW because when I bought him they had fitted four new Dunlop tyres and replaced all brake disks and pads. Turns out one of the rear brake disks was slightly warped. They replaced it and that fixed the problem immediately. Not exactly a fault with the car itself though. Shortly afterwards I noticed one of the interior panels in the back of the car (where there would be rear door on a 5 door car) was slightly loose at the bottom. Again I took the car back to VW and they quickly responded by replacing a small plastic clip. This didn't work however and in the end they replaced the panel, claiming the old one must have been faulty.

We had no more problems until a few months later during the winter months. One night at around 10pm Basils alarm started going off. I looked out of the bedroom window and jabbed the button on the key fob to silence him, 10 minutes later the same thing happened again. This time I got dressed and went out to investigate. I thought maybe there was a spider or something else moving within the sight of the interior motion detectors, alas I found nothing. So I locked him again and went back to bed. At 2am the alarm started going off again, only this time it wouldn't stop. As soon as I locked him it would start straight away. So I phoned the RAC and they sent somebody to investigate. The RAC man wasn't much use and could only suggest I left the car unlocked until I could return it to VW. So I sat up all night guarding my car while I waited for VW to open at 9am. I tried pressing the button inside the car that allows you to lock the car without the alarm being activated but it was no use, nothing seemed to work. On the way to the VW garage later that morning 'luggage compartment open' kept flashing up on the little screen in the dashboard. Turns out that I hadn't put enough antifreeze in the washer bottle and the pipe for the rear window wash jet had cracked in the frost, allowing liquid to drip all over the boot central locking system and alarm sensor. Lucky for me this was covered under warranty as they had to replace the lock mechanism and the sensor.

All was well again and I have since had no more faults or problems.

So now we have the few negatives out of the way let's get down to the good points....

As I have said already Basil is a 03 plate 3 door Golf Match. His colour is classed as metallic desert beige (silvery gold to you and me). He has a 1.4i 16 valve engine that on the whole is okay. Its quite quick off the mark although it seems pretty relaxed between 30 and 50mph. In fifth gear on the motorway at 70mph if you put your foot down you can still feel the car 'pull' and you know that there is more power there if you need it. It will quite happily cruise along at 110mph (only ever done this once on a private road to see what he had in him) and top speed is around 120mph. For a 1.4 petrol engine I'm very happy with his overall performance even with a car full of people. There is sometimes a feeling of a lack of power if you are going up a steep incline on a main road, but you've just got to get used to how the car drives and work out how to push it that bit more with the gears as the torque can be quite different from other cars. I drive 2.0 turbo diesels at work and at the end of the working day I'm still more than happy to get back into my 1.4 petrol Golf.

Fuel economy is very good. I tend to use fifth gear at 30mph as this increases fuel economy to just over 41mpg about town. Best reading I've ever come up on the display with a mixture of town and motorway driving was 47.7mpg. A full tank of petrol will do about 600 miles of typical driving.... Commuting to work and social use ect.

Driving experience is very good. As soon as you sit inside and close the door you know you're in a solid well built car just from the weight of the doors and the solid 'clunk' they make as they shut. The driver's seat is height adjustable and the steering wheel can be adjusted to just about any position you want, meaning every size and shape of driver can be accommodated for. I'm 6ft 3 and I'm more than comfortable behind the wheel. All the controls such as lights and heaters are well within reach and are easy to use. The pedals are also very easy to push as they are hydraulic. Gear shift is easy and when driving along a straight road the car almost drives itself. Driving has never been so pleasurable. Handling is very VERY good even in wet condition - I'm not sure what it would be like if the car was fitted with cheap tyres though.

Safety features include ABS, front and side airbags and ESP (electronic stability programme). I've only ever know the light to say the ESP has been activated come on once and that was when I hit a patch of snow on the motorway at 60mph. I could almost feel the car correcting itself, preventing me from losing control or skidding while I braked. Both front are rear seats have adjustable head restraints and the obvious... seatbelts.

Interior quality is very good. The seats are solid yet comfortable even on long journeys. Everything seems very solid and gives the impression that it is built to last. The only area I've found that's showing any sign of wear is the inside door grips. The 'rubber' film over them is starting to wear slightly but this is of no concern to me, if they start to look shabby I will buy new ones as they're not expensive and are easy to fit. There may not be built in sat-nav like in new 08 plate cars but you get enough nice features without going completely overboard and over complicating things. It has more than the necessities such as the electric heated door mirrors. The only thing I think could improve the interior of my car would be automatic climate control. But I'm still more than happy as I've got good air conditioning at least! Leg room is good and there is ample space for two adults or three children in the back of the car. Boot space is also very good and it will swallow a pram and the results of a large shopping trip with ease. All the dials on the dash board light up blue and red and it looks great, I've even had people comment on how much nicer it looks than their own car and asking how much it cost me, thinking its some kind of modification I've made. The cup holder that comes out of the dash board like the drawer on a DVD player is also very neat and always comes in handy when visiting the drive-through, beware if buying a used golf though as if the cup holder does break it will cost you £50 for a new mechanism.

Exterior quality is just as good as the inside. Solid bodywork and good paint are just a few of the perks. The headlights are solid glass and when cleaned shine like crystals. The door handles are solid as are the wing mirrors, just like the rest of the car. Even things down to the flip key give off a feeling of robust quality.

Speaking of how solid these cars are brings up something that happened not long ago. I was sat in traffic chatting to my passenger as we waited for the traffic to start moving again. We were clearly going nowhere fast so I applied the hand break. A car pulled up behind me and a few seconds later there was this almighty bang. Me and my friend were violently jolted forwards. It took a few seconds to realise what was happening and I then got out the car to investigate. A 02 plate Clio had pulled up behind me but the lady driving it had not applied her handbrake, a V reg Nissan Almera came up behind her at 40mph and made no attempt to stop! The lady driving the Nissan claimed she hadn't seen the traffic. The front end of the Nissan was crumpled quite badly and the Clio was crushed at both the front and the back, it was clearly a write off. And my car? Nothing! Apart from a chip of paint missing off were part of the Clio had dug into my rear bumper there was no sign of any damage. Everything still aligned up perfectly. Everything was covered by the insurance company of the driver who was at fault and my car was sent to the body shop to be repaired. My back bumper got a re-spray and they stripped the back of the car down to check for any hidden damage but there was nothing. All that needed doing other than the bumper needing a re-spray was the mounts that hold the bumper onto the car needed replacing as they had been damaged from the force of the impact. Not bad eh? I now feel even safer than I did before when I'm driving my Basil.

In the 14 months I've owned Basil I've done 18,000 very happy miles in all weather conditions. Since I bought him I have removed the standard VW CD player and fitted a JVC one that allows me to plug my I-pod into the car, meaning I'm kept well entertained on longer journeys. The front windows were already tinted to the legal limit as standard from the factory but I've had the rear 3 windows blacked out completely in 'limo black'. To add to the effect of the blacked out windows I had the standard red rear brake light covers removed and purchased some completely black Hella ones (they still light up the correct colours obviously and are road legal). When my tyres are due for replacement I'm considering replacing the standard VW alloy wheels with some black ones to emphasise on the black and gold effect, although this is only an idea at present as there is still a lot of wear in my current tyres.

He gets washed and vacuumed once a week without fail and gets a good coating of 'high gloss guard' once a month to keep the rain water beading off nicely and his 'just off the forecourt' shine in top condition.

All in all I'm VERY happy with my Golf. And I recommend them to anybody looking to buy a new car. I sometimes wish I'd bought the 1.6 to give that bit more power but it doesn't bother me majorly. They also hold their value a lot better than any other car so resale prices are quite good too.

All in all - A great car!

Summary: Oh I do love my Basil

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