Faults:

Absolutely nothing, save the usual wear and tear items.

General Comments:

Over the last 3 and a half years, the car has performed faultlessly.

It is extremely practical, with a capacious boot and split-folding rear seats. The seats themselves are very comfortable, even on long motorway journeys.

The car is nippy around town, and can quite easily keep up with traffic. Motorway driving however shows up the lack of power in the 1.6 8v engine. Overtaking requires dropping down to 4th or even 3rd gear, and even then the acceleration is fairly slow.

The car seems most comfortable when cruising at 70-80mph in 5th gear. It remains stable and composed, even at higher speeds.

This particular example did not come with power steering, however the steering is light and manageable when parking, and completely comfortable once driving.

Feel and feedback through the steering wheel are very good, and grip levels are surprisingly high, making this a very fun car to drive quickly.

Fuel economy is extremely reasonable for a car of this age, with each 55 litre tank of petrol able to provide me with around 400 miles of town driving (including some dual carriageways). This works out to be roughly 33mpg. Motorway journeys can see the figure go up to almost 500 miles on a tank, or 40mpg.

The ride quality on standard suspension is very good, the car easily soaking up bumps in the road. The body does tend to roll a fair bit through faster corners, and to remedy this I have fitted my car with Koni sports suspension. The car now has minimal body roll, and ride comfort on the suspensions softest setting is still extremely reasonable. The upgrade has the added advantage of lowering the car by 40mm for improved aesthetics.

A full service is easy to carry out on these cars, helped in no small part by the vast amounts of space in the engine bay, and easy access to all the main serviceable components.

An oil service every 6-8,000 miles will see the car running like a dream for years on end, with the 8v engine requiring a rebuild at 250,000 miles.

Perhaps the only real negatives with this car are the lack of power at higher speeds, and the brakes.

The 1.6 Driver utilises solid brake discs, and once they are hot (after having to make an emergency stop for example), braking power is reduced considerably until the brakes cool down again.

The solution is an easy one. Simply fit the front brake pads and discs for the 8v GTI, since the discs are exactly the same diameter. The difference is that they are vented, and can therefore withstand much more abuse.

In summary, the Golf Mk2 1.6 Driver is an excellent all-rounder, with little to complain about if properly maintained. The fact that so many of these cars are still seen on our roads today, is testament to the supreme build quality of German cars of this era.

Faults:

Engine mounts.

Rear wipe motor.

General Comments:

This car has only broken down twice, and on both occasions, it was my responsibility - flat battery (I left the side lights on) and dead glow plugs (I knew they needed to be replaced).

It starts first time, every time, once the yellow glow plug light goes out.

It's comfy, practical, spacious and sips diesel in a most frugal manner, but will hold an indicated 100mph if required to do so.

Faults:

Throttle body switch.

General Comments:

In all the time I have owned my Golf MK2 GTI 8v, only the throttle switch has given me problems resulting in 'hunting' at idle.

These cars are are great all rounders. I have owned many hot hatches; R5 GT Turbo, Clio 1.8 16v, Pug 205 GTI's, Astra GTE's etc. I have found the Golf to have a classy status to it, and you don't feel the image of a boyracer.

Performance wise it's good, not the best though, but I'm comparing it to my old GTE 16v, 205 1.9 GTI, Clio 16v. My GTE 16v was 156bhp, Clio was 137bhp and Pug was 130bhp, so all of these had a load more horses than my 112bhp Golf.

There is one thing in the Golf, you can drive it like a family car and get a healthy 35mpg around town or even 39 on a run, they are great on petrol, which helps in todays day with fuel rising by the second! If you do put your foot down you will see around 28, still very good, and with a top speed of 118mph showing via GPS (speedo had gone off the clock!!) whilst coming back from Germany on the Autobahn I was impressed.

If you get a tidy one be ready to get a lot of comments. I've been stopped whilst out shopping with people saying, lovely car... petrol stations, even taking my dog to the woods and I still get comments! Saying that, the boot space on these is very good, plenty of room for my 7st German Shepherd.

Get a good one and enjoy it! Remember, don't let the mileage put you off, they just get faster the more miles they seem to have!