Mk4 Golf: Any more Design faults?

Steve is pissed off because the price of Lamb in his area has gone up to £15/hr so he's having to resort to shaggin the missus instead.

Ah yes! I'd forgotten about my temp sensor replacement and the rear wash wipe leak (had to buy a whole motor unit as the pipe had seized to the spindle where it passes through it and snapped off - another design triumph!)

I also had the fuel filter spray fuel all over the road from a pinhole even though no corrosion was visible on it. Oh and I've had a strange knocking coming from the rear suspension over bumps for about year, but can't find anything wrong?

What gets me is that my 96 Polo was so reliable, never had any problems other than wear and tear, yet only a few years later VW could come up with this PoS that's been nothing but trouble. Its my wife's car but I have to fix it!

Thanks, I'll look forward to the rest in due course :-(

It's all about expectations - people expect a Golf to be perfect, when it isn't they get stroppy about it.

When a Ford goes wrong, people just shrug and say 'well, it's a Ford, isn't it'.

MkIVs may not be the pinnacle of VAG build quality, but a 150k mile old GTI, driven like it was stolen for the last 50k miles (He's a plod driver - say no more) has never given any issues.

Not if they have any sense.

Have you ever asked Germans what they think of VW's?

(Yawn). Your anti-Ford attitude is getting a bit boring; could you not at least try and be a bit more objective?

So this is one car out of how many sold in the UK? And what about any problems it may have had in the first 100k miles?

Chris

Or any knowledge about cars.

I know Germans who reckon the Rover 800 is better built and more reliable than the Mk5 Golf, which I thought harsh but probably true.

Objective without a prestige badge? From Steve? Never.

I drove a 60k mile GT TDi which had no issues, but was very surprised about it.

Given that I have a lot of German colleagues who all, without exception, choose to drive VAG products, despite there being many other options, I think I can safely say they don't have anything bad to say about them.

It's true, though. People have an expectation that a VAG product will be perfect. They get stroppy when little things go wrong.

Have you seen the list of known faults with the Focus? - I'm not a big fan of Honest John, but his list of known Focus issues is at least as long as MkIV Golf issues.

And the example given by the OP is but one of many thousands sold in the UK.

I'm equally sick of the traditional VAG and Fiat-group bashing, FWIW.

Heh. Good point.

The message from snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) contains these words:

Then again - the French drive a lot of French cars, so that's hardly a reliable guide!

Then yet again, your experience is diametrically opposed to mine.

Germans I have met generally tend to view VW in much the same way as you do Ford...

None of the people I know think this.

My stepson that I mentioned earlier did his apprenticeship at a VW main dealer. He then worked for the AA for a number of years. The AA took over the VW Assist contract for three years, so he transferred. They lost the contract recently to the RAC, so he is back with the AA. He is in a perfect position to judge the relative merits of all types of car from a reliability POV, but especially VW.

What does he drive? Well, he runs around in an ancient Sierra that he was given when the cam belt failed. He bought his Missus an Escort some time ago. (They have just taken on a mortgage, so money is tight.) His aspirations? A diesel Focus. Would he buy a VAG product? Not on your life!

The same Honest John that earlier in this thread you describe as "full of s**te"?

Why did you mention the Focus? Because you know I drive one?

Perhaps I'm old enough to not want to indulge in "my car is better than yours" type arguments. I like my Focus; I've had no real issues with it, nor with any of the various Fords I've owned since 1983.

However, I'm quite willing to admit they have their faults and to accept that some owners may get a bad one.

This doesn't alter the fact that VAG lost their way around the time the Mk 4 came out, and up until now they haven't found it yet. I hope they do; they built good cars compared to their competitors in the '80s.

Indeed. But the hundreds of dissatisfied owners I know of indirectly tend to support my POV.

There's no smoke without fire, Steve...

Chris

That expectation wasn't even deserved in the '80's quality heyday though.

There are known faults with every car. The advantage with the Focus is that most of the faults don't strand the car - most of the Golfs ones do.

I like Alfas, I've had more of them than most. I've also had plenty of Fiats, a few Lancias and loads of Fords as well and at the moment I own a VW that does plenty of miles. I've even had new Alfas as company cars.

In terms of build quality I'd put them 1) Ford, 2) VW, 3) Italian.

In terms of reliability I'd put them 1) Ford, 2) Italian,3) VW.

VWs tend to have issues that stem from good parts but bad design. Ford have problems with average but decent enough parts designed well but with built in obselecance (sp?), and Fiats just have problems with mainly overdesign or bad quality bits.

If Fiat stopped trying too hard to impress and spent a bit more on actually putting the things together they'd be great. If VW would pack in adding weight and "perceived value" and actually spent more time getting things right they'd be great. Ford tend to get the design and build right and are improving constantly with parts quality but they go overboard saving money.

SteveH ( snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Where's Uno-Hoo when you need him?

Lol.

Said mate is nothing like Uno-Hoo..... he's just put in for armed response, and his car-owning history is an encyclopedia of rusty old hot hatches.

Is that right? I had the passenger side window of my gf's Mk4 Golf bust its clips and drop into the door about a year ago. The car is a 2001 model, but was just approaching 5 years old at the time. The VW garage where we took it to be fixed charged the best part of £300. I suspected that it must be a known fault because they had a VW supplied "kit" for fixing the problem. No mention was made, however, of VW picking up the bill. You think I could chase them for it now?

Regards, Jim

The door thing, as you say, seems to be well known. I wish I had known about it when the local VW garage stung me for around £300 to fix my gf's one.

One other fault I know of: the lock mechanism of the glove box door often fails.

I have to say that the quality of these cars is very poor and certainly well below the standard one would expect. The interior fittings in particular feel cheap and weaker than they should be.

The gf's car is a V6 4Motion and it is fun to drive, but the build quality is lousy. I would certainly steer her and anyone else away from VW products in future.

Regards, Jim

Ouch! I just bought a kit off ebay for ~£30, fiddly job though.

Totally agree, I don't expect it to be perfect, but if it was half as reliable as the 96 Polo I'd be happy. My Dad had a Mk3 Golf for many years with nothing major. The Golf's been in the family since new and there's just been a stream of various problems since it was about 3 years old. Not impressed.

Mate had one of those a couple of years ago. Got fed up with the regular £300 - £400+ garage bills and is still using his wife's old Polo!

Worth a try. Maybe worth ringing again saying your window has fallen into the door and telling them you believe there is a good will gesture on this repair. When they say yes, you have them!

I had a V6 4mo up until April of this year and that cost me a fair chunk of money. Another issue with mk4 golf's is a fan issue with cars with climate control. With the climate control switched on, the fans should run continuously and NOT pulse. If they pulse, they are knackered, you need new ones.

On my V6 the emissions light came on. A quick scan with vagcom reported faulty Lambda sensors. These are £83.10 + vat each.....the V6 has 4 of them (2 before the cat, 2 after)

Talk about double standards...

Market forces.

They're not premium priced when new, so there has to be a reason why they're premium priced on the used market.

You can't knock them for being expensive to buy used when they're similarly priced when new.

Market forces - Ford and Vauxhall have a reputation for building cars to last as long as the warranty is in force and fall apart rapidly after that.

It's a fair reputation and one that, in my experience, still applies.