Faults:
Got the car home and didn't start it for about 2 days. Came to start it and the battery was flat. Jump started it and the problem persisted. Brought a new battery. Next day, went to go to work and it was flat again. Had the car looked at and couldn't find anything wrong with it.
Then a specialist car electrician found it was linked to the radio. This was sent away and I was told it would be £400 for a standard head unit. I also then had to pay £15.00 for the code to unlock the radio when it was returned.
The exhaust mid section had a large hole in it around 42,000 miles, but this was the original so I can't really complain.
Rear Heater de-mister button fell apart one day in my hand. Cost £3.00 for a new one so not a major problem.
I am having something fixed this week regarding the gear box or drive chain as whenever the wheels are driving it makes a grinding ticking noise.
I think that's about all that has gone wrong. Seems a lot more now that I think about it.
General Comments:
Compared to my Golf (God rest its soul) this car seemed like Brand New. For a 1.4 its fast and handles really well. So far I've had 118mph out of it.
For a Meridian the car has side skirts, a front spoiler and fog lights so once I added some alloy wheels to it and it really looks good.
It has a lot of equipment as well for the money. It cost me just over £5,000 and has 2 airbags, A/C, Electric windows, mirrors etc.
The interior is a little cheap, but it is all color coded and matches well, but the poor build quality gives way to a lot of rattles and niggles.
Overall a nice car, but the poor build quality sometimes lets it down. Despite the few problems it is reliable and looks and runs like new.
21st Sep 2003, 07:20
I had the work done on the car regarding the gearbox. It ended up having a new clutch and the whole gearbox rebuilt from scratch that in total cost me just under £800.00. I am 18 years old and cannot keep affording to pay out large sums of money like this. The garage said they couldn't understand what had gone wrong and why this had decided to happen at this time in its life. BRING BACK MY GOLF ANY DAY!!