VW GOLF

driver02

I am just on the lookout for a VW Golf 1.4 petrol 2003/04 anything i need to look out for in particular.

Leonard Hofstadter

Oil burning and just general unreliability really. Those 1.4 engines are also horrendously underpowered too. The poverty spec unreliable underpowered 1.4 Golf is without a doubt one of the most overrated cars by the general public in Ireland.

Oh and the gearboxes are made from chocolate too. It never fails to amaze me how popular VWs are despite their lack of reliability for a nation that is obsessed with cars being reliable.

Buy one with a bigger engine if you must have a Golf, otherwise buy a Corolla or a Focus (but with at least a 1.6) or an Astra, they'll all be much more reliable as well as being nicer cars (if you can get over the badge snobbery).

sean1141

What is it with people going on about these 1.4 cars being underpowered and advising the bigger engines. They are perfectly good enough for most people to normal stuff like going to the shops, kids to school etc. Granted you wont set speed records in them but they will go fast enough to get you points in any speed limit.

NIMAN

I own one, wouldn't pull you outta bed as the car is too heavy, but I ain't a boy racer and once it gets to speed its grand.

No real reliability problems up to 130k.

Maybe I was one of the lucky ones?

Supergurrier

Haha so only boy racers need to be able to overtake, see the Convoy thread

NIMAN

I overtake all the time in my 1.4 Golf. And safely as well.

The Little Fella

got my first car last February which is a 2004 mk5 golf 1.4. Absolute dream of a car, it's a comfortline and has an inbuilt sat nav, cruise control and a few other fancy bits n bobs so it's well above the standard poverty spec. Once it gets up to speed it's fine and it's also decent on fuel. Flew through its NCT in the summer and there's 120k miles on the clock.

Moral of the story is they're not all piles of ****e.