It was this or a Scirocco and I decided the extra over the Scirocco would be worth it and I think I was pretty much right.
It's such a refined ride, no matter what you do with it, or at what speed, it is just consistently powerful and thrilling to be driving, I think VW really have knocked the nail right on the head here. You can throw it into corners if you're feeling a bit daring and it will retain absolute composure throughout. Its more adult than GTIs of old: you can actually use it to cruise long journeys and arrive in absolute comfort and I don't think this is a bad thing at all.
I love the interior, it's just perfect: quality is there, its nice to look at and more than anything, you know you're in a GTI and I think that is the most important thing. Quality deserves more of a mention because it is possibly the best I've ever seen on a car, everything works with well-oiled precision and is soft to the touch and just generally nice to use, as daft as it sounds. If you behave yourself, you can probably get a good 30mpg but my personal best is 25mpg, and I don't behave myself very much.
Very reliable. Great all rounder for everyone.
Almost 2 months ago my wife and I decided to trade in our Citroen C3 and get a proper car. I'd pretty much set my heart on a Golf and my wife a mini but we needed to try some other cars
After test driving a few cars we finally decided that the Golf was our favourite and that was what we were going to get. Next onto whether to get a base model or one with a few bits on. From the outside I definitely preferred the Match. Its more distinguished and easily recognisable.
The thing that sold it to me was the interior. Once you sit inside the mark 6 match you can't help but be impressed. Of course the coolest thing of all is the dash but aside from that it looks and feels much better than its predecessor. As soon as you sit down at the drivers seat you are surrounded by a lovely looking car that puts everything at your finger tips.
I won't bother going into every detail about the car and what it has on it because if I did then I'd be here for hours! What I will say is that the driving position is very good. You can adjust the seats vertically and horizontally so that you are well placed to see the road ahead of you. The gear box is positioned quite high and adds to the comfy feel. The gears also have a very close ratio so each gear is positioned close to another making changing gears a very quick thing.
There is also plenty of space in the car. I like to sit with my chair quite far back in the car and if I do that then there is still enough room for someone 6 foot tall to sit down and not be uncomfortable.
Obviously, having three people in the back is also not too cramped. Boot space is very good. Obviously the back seats will fold down to give you more room if you need it but I have found it to have more than enough space.
Onto the actual driving. The Golf drives beautifully (which isn't hard compared to my previous car). It is solid and holds the road very well. I have recently driven my mothers 2004 focus and that is awful to drive compared to the Golf. You feel detached from the road and like you don't have full control of the car. The Golf suffers from none of these problems and you feel every curve and get a really good all round drive.
One thing I like is that the power steering also varies depending on your speed. At slower speeds it is much lighter and lets you be more nimble with the car. At higher speeds it feels a lot heavier.
One of the factors that helped me decide to get a Golf was the fact that it looses very little value compared to other cars. It is also very fuel economic and servicing costs are reasonable. If you were to get a focus or something, it would loose a hell of a lot of its value very quickly and, for me, I didn't want that.
I'm a bit of a gadget man and I must say the toys that came with the match are great, parking assist, auto lights, wipers, touchscreen media centre, confort pack, bluetooth, Ipod connect the list is endless.
Overall I have to say that I love my Golf. It feels good to drive and the inside is lovely. Fuel economy is good and running costs are reasonable. Ok so the car is a bit more expensive than other cars similar to it, but you certainly pay for what you get.
For a 1.8 8v engine the way this car performs it is rather hard to digest VW built such an amazing car so long ago which still not many people know about as it was not mass produced compared to the standard GTi models and was only available in left hand drive the special models such as the Wolfsburg Edition One's or the likes of the Rallye. Both of which bare the GTi G60 name.
The G60 Edition Ones where optional to order from new with either four wheel drive or front wheel drive as the rallye was always four wheel drive and had bigger boxy arches/fenders like the e30 M3 and the UR Quattro.
with the help of the supercharger and fine tuning the car is well capable of doing 140mph fast acceleration most tuned versions you find on the market are 200 to 225BHP bare in mind the light shell body weight the car is explosively quick for a small hatch and the handling on one of these is not far from a go kart they are very agile and quick in terms of fun I can honestly say my G60 is more fun to drive at night 2am in the country lanes then my 911 turboS and I am not making this up I really mean that, but then on a motorway or dual carriageway its the other way round. They have a cult like following due to that reason some G60's are capable of hitting 160mph and 300BHP+ in the tuning world to me that is amazing power out of a small 1.8 8v GTi engine. S3 or R32 I'll pick a G60 over them any day not only would you bring retro back in but be sure to be exclusive and a different way of coolness compared to the common person, also your car should not depreciate like the S3 or R32 as they are becoming more rare every day the price also goes up with age so your joy would also become a great investment over time.
I loved driving the VW Golf. It's extremely comfortable and easy to handle. The only problem is that it needs a lot of fuel. When will VW come up with a less polluting car model? The engine is also a little bit noisy (Diesel engine).
I hate to say it (because I really love my VW Golf) but I am a bit disappointed that things should be going wrong already. I've only had it about two years and for rust to be appearing now seems really not good enough, hence marking down the build quality. It's just a small amount of rust on the underside but I spotted it when having a check over of the exhaust and it's just a bit of a downer. Also of course the dealer didn't have any interest at all about this in terms of the warranty, it's obviously not covered.
Ok that's out of my system now. The rest of the VW Golf pretty much is great. It's amazing how fast it is for a diesel. Comfort is top notch especially when so many small cars really badly fail with comfort. On top of the power it always feels like it's got lots more acceleration left to give, through all the gears.
I really appreciate the parking helper gadgets that guide you into your spot. The VW Golf is a small car but even so the difference is amazing.
Another reason I bought the VW Golf is safety. I was reading up quite a bit about this when I was car shopping, and I was amazed to see seven airbags in one small car. Seven! I remember it otherwise scoring very highly, so that gives peace of mind especially with our little girl in the back.
Also on the safety thing, I like the way it's got three proper seatbelts in the back, all of them go over the shoulder. I suppose that's pretty much normal nowadays but I remember worrying before about the silly lap belt in the middle in our old car. All three back seats get head rests too, so no concerns about whiplash.
The fuel costs are pleasingly low. I'm getting up to around 60 miles a gallon if I'm careful, which is a massive improvement. Not quite so impressed with the insurance cost, but then I suppose VW Golfs do attract boy racers, no getting away from that.
The first thing I was impressed by in my Volkswagen Golf was how very quiet it was. I had it out on a local A road for a test drive. So very quiet. I had a Vauxhall Astra beforehand, which was extremely rattly and noisy by comparison. You come to be used to that sort of noise but once I'd felt that nice quietness I was more or less sold.
The other thing in its favour were small engine and good fuel economy, and the bags and bags of space in the back. I sometimes take my dad's dogs for a walk and that usually involves a short drive out of his area, so it's good for that. But it just swallows anything, much smarter use of space than other estates I'd seen when shopping around for this one.
The arm rest between the front seats is handy, but it's a bit useless if you drag the chair really far forward which my eldest daughter tends to do. She's just learning and likes to be right up as close to the road as possible.
There's a bit of a problem that the kids mention in the back. The seat belt clips poke out from the seats and can't be folded to one side or shoved down inside the seats. So basically if you're in the middle seat you've just got seat belt buckles prodding you in the bum from both sides, unless you're a small child, and my children are no longer small.
To be honest though that's probably the silliest thing about my VW Golf, so that shows how good it's been.
Really the biggest problem has been nothing to do with the car as such, and just the dealer whose after sales care has been pretty poor really. They were very cheery when I was about to buy a new car from them, but after that they've been pretty bad at keeping in touch about a couple of minor warranty repairs that needed doing, and generally don't seem to want to know me anymore. I'd probably buy privately next time as the car itself is great.
Some cars I know are popular and don't deserve it, like the Ford Ka which I've seen a few friends suffer with, lots of rust apparently and just generally falls to pieces. The VW Golf GT TDi on the other hand is a living legend and deserves every bit of it.
I've had a few before this one and the love affair continues basically. I haven't had this one that long, bought it second hand with about 30k on the clock a year ago. The only problem was something with the steering rack which was sorted under the used car warranty (it was a private dealer so I dunno how VW would sort that themselves).
What I really like about the Golf GT TDi is how adjustable everything is. My ex had a Fiesta which felt a lot more confined, and I couldn't quite get the right position, or get things how I liked.
Power wise, my VW Golf is blinding. I ignored the sniffs about diesels when I saw you could get 140 horse power from a 2 litre. It's not out of control at all, big improvement on previous Golfs, takes corners like it's on rails, no bother.
I should mention, I find it easy to park but my dad complains about the tiny back window. He's got a people carrier and he's been a bit spoiled with loads of visibility. The VW Golf back window is a bit high up and small, but it's ok as far as I'm concerned. What I will say in fairness to him is that the bonnet is a bit tricky to guess cos it slopes at a funny angle and u can't really see the end of it. Doesn't take much getting used to though.
I got the estate Golf because we had dogs and 3 kids, so it made sense for that. We didn't actually use it all that much for the years we had it, so it didn't have a hard life. We were able to sell it on but not before doing some pretty costly repairs, like the cam belt (argh!), dodgy locks, bits of paintwork that were too easily chipped, and other things.
The other thing that was kind of my fault but also seemed a bit of a design problem was that the sump fell clean off when I went over one of those speed bumps that just go under the middle of the car. I wasn't going fast and it wasn't that high a bump, so it seemed silly that it should come off, but it did and it seemed to me that it should just have been fitted higher up from the ground.
The space inside the Golf was the main selling factor. It's just a cave back there. We got all sorts of odd stuff back there, including a wardrobe and matching dresser (the old pre-Ikea sort that didn't come apart), then another time a huge sofa.
We had a roof rack too so it often held double the boot capacity. Even with full loads and 3 kids it didn't really grumble either, plenty of power. In normal driving it was easy to forget it was a diesel, overtook on motorways really easy. You remember the diesel bit at the pumps though, really economical. I was easily getting 55 mpg on longer trips.
I recall the automatic box was a bit confused sometimes, took a little time to choose which gear. Sometimes just putting your foot down did the trick.
A frugal 130bhp engine mated to a weak and wobbly platform. However, the Golf GT TDi has got just enough torque to make it a very usable and very economical load lugging runabout. Bags of space and very flexible in how you use it. The doors open wide allowing easy access to the back. Honestly - Golf MkIVs - whats to hate about them? (Only that rubbish, rolling, wobbly chassis).