Faults:

Water pump burned up. This was fixed under warranty. (Without any moaning or whining) - a miracle.

Engine revving at 600 rpm. It should be idling at around 7-800 rpm. I know, I worked for Volkswagen for 5 years, and I can read. Unfortunately the dealership have no idea (as usual) and I was told, I quote: "Volkswagen specially tune their engines to idle on the very limit. That's why it sounds rough. This is because of the strict emission laws we have (in England)." What a load of crap. After threatening them, they 'suddenly' found a fault in the diagnostics and replaced the air mass sensor (hot wire, very expensive) which did...nothing. Moaned some more and finally got them to clean my carburettor, then after telling me there was nothing they could do, 'magically' got the revs up to 690. Trust them? Not a snowball in hell's chance.

Dash blowers blocked because the car was sold to me with blocked blowers. The exact words from a sales girl on the forecourt were: "The dashboard blowers aren't supposed to work when you have the air conditioning on"

Air conditioning ran out of gas. This was re gassed and the dealership I bought the car from kindly went 50/50 on the bill (after selling me a car with no gas in the air conditioning system) TIP: If you buy a car with air con, buy it in the summer.

Rear windscreen wiper broken. I can't be bothered to watch Volkswagen whine and moan and get me to drive there repeatedly in order to get such a small problem fixed, so I will live with it.

Alarm faulty. Yet to be sorted out, but knowing Volkswagen this will take repeated attempts to fix.

The car isn't really that bad - things do go wrong with cars, all cars. But Volkswagen have a habit of making a mountain out of a mole hill. If only they had decent no quibble customer service with OUR satisfaction as their goal, they would save themselves LOADS of money in the long run.

I.e. I got a 1 hour problem solved in 4 1/2 hours with three trips to Volkswagen, three loads of paperwork and 50 minutes (in total) of arguing.

'Thank God everything in life isn't as reliable as a Volkswagen (employee).'

General Comments:

Hopeless customer service.

Considering the engine spec, the suspension is much too soft.

Excellent braking.

Good sized boot.

Ageless styling.

Large roomy cabin.

I spend a lot of time filling it up with petrol!

Faults:

Pump for central locking & electric windows wailed at 40,000 miles - fixed under warranty.

Electrical fault on windows also fixed under warranty.

Everything else is consumables.

General Comments:

We bought the car after our daughter was born and my wife's old Polo could not cope with buggy's etc.

The load bay is not vast, but it is flat (no load lip like on some estates) which makes it easy for my 5 foot wife to slide in stuff into the back.

Being the 90 BHP turbodiesal it has good low down grunt. It will pull 5th gear at engine idle (i.e. no accelerator) and do 30 mph up a gentle gradient. Acceleration is good, except when going up very steep hills, when some times you have to drop down to 3rd or even 2nd.

It's quite happy at 80, but won't go above 85/90. Handbook listed speed is 110, but I don't believe this.

Economy never goes below 55 mpg even when fully loaded and with 2 bikes perched on top of the roof.

The seats aren't comfortable after 3 hours for me. The cabin is OK. We have a rattle from the dashboard, caused by the previous owner having an upgraded stereo, I think.

This is a Mark III, not a mark IV estate. Equipment is not good. No ABS, A/C or even a high level brakelight. I would swap the rear electric windows for any of the above.

The ride is a bit bumpy and wallowy. It goes round corners OK. Brakes are front disk with rear drums, which for a comparatively heavy car is a bit weak.

We bought the car second hand from a VW dealer. The warranty was good, but the dealer did not fix any of the minor faults as promised when we bought the car. We now get the car serviced at an independent garage specialising in VW's (their courtesy car is a Petrol Passat with 250K+ on the clock).

Reliability has been 100% so far.