Faults:

1.7 liter motor needed replacement shortly after I purchased the car. Main bearings were bad, so I replaced the engine with a 1.8 Fox motor with only 100kms on it. Shortly before selling the car it began burning the synthetic oil I was running in it (bad new engine too).

- In very cold weather, car would die after being started

- wheel bearings, struts, electrical system all needed replacement or constant repair after a mere 150kms

- serious rust-through issues at 170kms

- several exterior/interior pieces broke after cautious driving and care

- After owning this car, I have gone onto purchasing e30 BMW 3 series cars with twice the mileage, and have both performed like new cars. This does not say much for VW, especially since many of their products are compared to BMW's. VW has done a great job of marketing a very poor product, and has continued to do so until today, where the younger market all want a VW product... too bad they don't know that their cars are just an expensive name brand that should not even compared to the Japanese competitors.

General Comments:

Looked cool when I wanted it.

Handled pretty good.

I liked the rear wiper idea (same like my 245 Volvo wagon, but that was a much better car overall)

Fuel economy was OK at best.

This car cannot be compared with anything else other than Hyundai ponies, and Yugo's, it does not share any quality aspects with any Japanese or other German products.

Faults:

Exhaust system 249,600.

Oil pump, pan, and gasket 249,500.

Ignition coil 249,000.

Cap, wires, and rotor 241,000.

Parking brake cable 235,000.

Front wheel bearings 231,000.

Front strut cartridges 230, 000.

Front rotors and ball joints 218,000.

Heater core 210,000.

Back-up switch 205,000.

Fuel filter has been replaced 4 times due to rust in gas tank from rusted out gas tank fill pipe. Pipe was replaced at 218,000.

Clutch cable has been replaced 3 times due to broken bracket on engine firewall.

General Comments:

This car, from Vancouver, BC, drives very well in all seasons. A joy to drive in the summer.

Starts right up at -29C! Excellent handling in 20 cm of snow when equipped with 4 snow tires.

Repair this car yourself if you can. It's a relatively cheap car to operate this way. My cost has been about .08 per km (excluding gas and insurance)

Not a safe car, but better than most soft tops.

My wife is learning to drive so we will have to sell this car on account of the manual transmission and manual steering. It will be hard to let it go.