VW Vento

rander00

Can any1 give me some links or site, forums preferrably to find out some info on these cars.
google is useless aand so are all the search engiens on this car for some reason. Prob cos there not really a sporty / mod friendly car.

Any1 know of any decent motoring forums in general that discuss and review cars. Sec hand models, not new car reviews.
And forums discussing faults / traits ect.. of particular models. Preferrably Vento`s.

And whats the general opinion of these cars amongst ye bords users.

caze

Hi Rander,

Check out the car by car breakdown section on http://www.honestjohn.co.uk for car reviews.

Vento is practically identical to Mark III Golf mechanically wise.
I bought a 96 golf in 99 with 60000 miles on it, sold it to my brother at the start of the year and it's still going strong with 130000 on it.

A 1.4 golf or vento is not going to set the world on fire perforamce wise, but you should gets 40 mpg out of it.

If diesel is your thing, my uncle reckons he get 55mpg out of his 97 Vento.

Vento has huge boot, Golf boot is big when you put the seats down.

I'll try and buy one with a service history if I was you. Older models, especially diesels can have very high milage and tend to be favoured by farmers a lot down the country so they may have had a hard life.

I found servicing and parts prices reasonable, though I used a small local garage. VW ones labour rates are quite steep.

I think the vento ran from 1992 to 1998. From 96 on they normally have electric front windows, airbag, central locking etc

Hope this was of some help!
Caze

BrianD3

http://www.carsurvey.org/manufacturer_Volkswagen.html

Not many reviews of the Vento there. But there's loads of reviews of the Mk3 Golf (1992-1998) which as Caze says is pretty much identical.

As for my opinion of the Vento/Golf...well I'm not a fan at all. These cars have a fantastic reputation for safety, reliability and durability which IMO is not justified. OK the cars are good, but don't believe the hype they're not *that* good and many other cars are as good or better in these areas.

A vento with a 1.4 engine is a dog of a car. That 1.4 has only 60 bhp in quite a heavy body. Performance is terrible and fuel economy isn't even that good - maybe something to do with the engine having to work so hard. The 1.6 is a bit better but still very sluggish compared to similar engined cars from other manufacturers. Non turbo diesels are worse still, extremely slow, coarse and noisy.

The cars have terrible handling very soggy with poor damping, lots of body roll and poor steering. They're also uncomfortable and really tend to lurch around on bad roads. This combined with the hard seats mean they're not a nice car to travel in on a poor road. Equipment levels are also generally poor.

BrianD3

mike65

http://www.parkers.co.uk/choosing/car_reviews/main_review.asp?model_id=441

http://www.venommotorsports.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=14

For deisel models
http://forums.tdiclub.com/postlist.php?Board=UBB3

Mike.

JohnBoy

http://www.vwvortex.com/

yeah they're slow, and yes they don't set the world on fire handling wise, but I have travelled a fair few miles in my friends one and I have to say that they're not that uncomfortable.

They do however have crap spec levels, but I think they do look quite ok.

anyway vwvortex is seemingly the place to go for vw info. there's a lot of yanks there, who mostly refer to it as a jetta (cos in the states they have never dropped the jetta name.

John

rander00

Thanks for the replies and links folks.

Ny one have an idea how much it would cost to insure me (20 yr old, Provisional) as a name driver on a 1.9 one of these.

And what insurance companies will actually quote me? Or will they all seen as ill b a name driver?

rander00

What insurance companies will actually quote me.
Any1 got any tips on who to fone, my dads sortin out the insurance for himself and i want to add my name on it.

wud E1500approx cover me, perhaps?

Chimaera

wud E1500approx cover me, perhaps?

If you're very lucky, it might.

There's a list of insurance companies in a sticky thread on this forum - no point listing them here again.