Seats started to crumble soon after I bought the car.
Power steering failed after 91,000 miles.
The power steering stopped working and had to be replaced. The seats started to fall apart. But I had both faults repaired and apart from that nothing ever went wrong with the car.
I bought it for £2,300 and sold it for £1,000.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 11th December, 2005
Top value for money on a second hand car
Other than the standard car maintenance of brakes bearings etc. I have found no real faults.
The driver's seat is now quite worn, and has deterioration of the foam cushioning, however, I think that this is to be expected of any car this age with original seats.
Spare parts for Volkswagens tend to be cheaper than many other vehicles.
This car has stiffened suspension, lowered by 40mm and has alloy wheels, but is otherwise original.
The car is wonderfully fun to drive.
The 1.3 engine gives very good acceleration although it does need to be revved in order to get it.
The Mach II Golf has the best styling of all the Golf models.
My top speed is 115 miles per hour, on the flat, and the engine sounded fine with it.
Mars Red (the listed color) to any normal person would be called orange.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 9th August, 2004
Good, but not what they're cracked up to be
Intermittent tappet noise.
Fuel pump fast idle stopped working.
Glowplugs failed.
Seat belt stopped retracting.
Heated rear window stopped working.
Rear wash wipe stopped working.
Gear linkage broke.
This car was family owned from new and had been impeccably serviced every 5,000 miles regardless of cost. Despite this, it was actually less reliable than the similar age and mileage Astra (petrol) that I had before. I'm not sure where VW get their reliability and build quality reputation from, but it's no better than you'd get with a Vauxhall in my experience.
This isn't a performance car, so I'm not going to criticise its painful lack of grunt. To be fair, the engine was very torquey and responsive so it wasn't actually too bad to drive. The 60 mpg it returned was very nice too, especially during the fuel crisis. 500 miles out of a £30 tankful was known regularly.
The rest of it was standard 80's small hatchback stuff. Cheap, creaky, angular interior, tidy front drive handling, so-so cloth seats and unbelievably heavy steering.
Although this was definitely a good economical banger, I felt a bit disappointed that having heard all the stories praising VW's bombproof build and engineering, and with the car having been so well looked after, it was all very creaky and tired inside, and there were quite a lot of problems. Parts from independents tended to be poor quality too, and those from dealers were extortionate.
As I say, this was a decent old runabout, but if I'm in the market for a similar car again, I'll save a few hundred quid and buy an old Astra or Escort, which are just as well made and reliable, as well as being more plentiful and cheaper to fix when they do go wrong.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 27th July, 2001
No. I think that any car that gets to 15 years old and hasn't been rebuilt or treated with kid gloves will break down, rattle and fall apart. VW's included. They don't have some sort of immunity because of the so-called prestige badge you know.
I am talking from experience of elderly / high mileage Ford, Vauxhall and VW ownership, and I reported the honest truth. Maybe other VW's are better, but this one wasn't the bombproof and unburstable example of solid German workmanship that I was lead to expect.
I'm dreadfully sorry if I've offended you, but they are the facts. Deal with them, I have.
A now Peugeot owner.
1st Oct 2001, 12:52
Yeah right! How can you compare a Volkswagen to a Ford or a Vauxhall? Fords and Vauxhalls are way, way, way behind Volkswagen! Do you honestly think that Volkswagen got an excellent reputation for reliability, build quality...etc. from out of nowhere?