You may not believe it, folks, but there was a period, circa late 2007, when I questioned my devotion to my ovoid Sable. It began after my sister had returned from college and then promptly gotten a job in Manhattan, leaving the hatchback to my father (technically, it was his, since he’d paid for it). I contemplated selling the Mercury, but let’s just say my experience with the little German car made me a born-again member of the Church of Tauriianity.
The MK4 Golf and Jetta arrived in the Unites States in 1999. Compared with their predecessors, they supposedly represented a huge step up in quality; they also featured much nicer interiors and far cleaner and more upscale exteriors (which actually have aged quite well) than their older counterparts.
And who can forget this ad? It’s quite humorous, and also features the actor who would play one of the many beloved characters on the Fox comedy Arrested Development–which, by the way, has been resurrected, but that’s probably a story for a different blog.
The North American MK4 was offered with quite a few engine options: The base 2.0-liter; a 1.9-liter diesel; a 2.8-liter V6; and a 1.8-liter turbocharged version for the GTI. Do you think we’ll ever again see a non-performance V6 offered in a C-segment car? I think not. But this was a car marketed to the young, most of whom wanted either a practical small car or a pocket rocket.
My sister was headed off to college in another state, so my dad wanted to get her something much more suited to Massachusetts winters than her current ride, a rear-wheel drive 1986 Toyota Cressida (I wish we’d kept that car; if my recollection is correct, though, it had some sort of terminal disease.) She immediately fell in love with the hatch, on which we got quite the deal since it had been a salesman’s car with very low miles.
Throughout the year, her nearly new hatch, equipped with the base 2.0-liter engine, shuttled her from Massachusetts to New York and back during student breaks, but otherwise it sat still–or so we thought…
My initial impressions of the car were very good. Being 16 years old at the time, I wasn’t allowed to drive this newest addition to the Snitkoff fleet since my birth, but that didn’t stop me from being a critic. The steering wheel and shifter felt indestructible to my touch; what’s more, the orange-reddish hue of the interior lights delighted me after I’d become so accustomed to the bland green illumination in my 1989 Taurus wagon. The base eight-speaker audio system (whose tweeters were built right into the side molding!) were a sonic revelation to my ears. Supportive seats that I actually didn’t sink into impressed my butt, and possibly my genitals: Hey, at the time I was a teenager driven by hormones.
The passenger experience with the car in motion also proved satisfactory. This car felt nothing like mine; it let you experience the road instead of shielding you from it, and could maneuver around traffic with ease. The cabin was quiet, too, and front-seat passengers had great visibility of whatever they wanted to look at. The doors offered up a very pleasing thunk when they were shut.
But, times changed. While my sister was off pursuing her degree, my Taurus left us and I acquired the Sable. I graduated high school and soon went to Albany, to pursue my own post-secondary education. Four years passed, and I became a more seasoned driver as between semesters I plied the New York State Thruway, among other things.
As 2007 came to an end, my sister’s desire to move to The Big Apple was realized when she got her first job. She quickly moved downstate, after which the Golf became a nice driveway ornament. When winter break came around, I began to ponder the idea of ditching the Sable and taking the Golf back up north with me. But there were a few things to consider.
By now, it was a heavily-used car. Both my dad and I were surprised to see 75,000 miles on the odometer. Where the hell had she been going all those years?
Nevertheless, I decided to leave the Sable behind and take the Volkswagen to SUNY Albany when I returned there in January 2008. My mind kept calculating how much money I could pocket if I sold the Mercury; certainly enough to pay for a lot of beer, after all.
Soon, questions surfaced: Why was this four-speed auto so jerky? Where was the power I thought it had? Why was the highway gas mileage inferior to the Sable’s? Sure, I could parallel park it with ease, but for me, that was hardly solace enough.
Then came disaster. One March night, I was enduring a blizzard in our dank college apartment when my dad called me with devastating news: My uncle had succumbed to the cancer he’d been fighting for years. The sound of his voice convinced me that I needed to be at his side as soon as possible, so I hopped in the Golf and started heading south on I-87.
It had to have been around 9:00 PM, and the road was completely deserted. No snow plows were anywhere. The normal rules of the road vanished, and soon it became a struggle just to stay straight amidst the snow and sleet. I couldn’t see a thing. The Golf wanted absolutely nothing to do with the snow-covered interstate, and it fought me every mile. Going over 40 mph seemed like asking for a death sentence, and a fast-moving tractor-trailer nearly rear-ended me. Astounded as to why this behavior would occur–and terrified of going any farther–I decided to turn back to the Capital.
After somehow getting back to my apartment in one piece, I examined the German compact. Ice had started caking on the car almost everywhere, but that wasn’t the problem. One taillight was out, and the other was extremely dim. No wonder that trucker barely saw me; I must have looked like a snow mound. Dejected and depressed about the situation, I went right to bed. I headed out again the next morning as soon as I heard the roads had cleared.
After saying my goodbyes to my beloved uncle, it was back to school–only this time I returned with the Sable. And that was pretty much the last time any of us drove the Golf extensively. As you can guess from these pictures, we decided to sell it shortly after. It was an easy decision in view of several costly repairs it would need within a short time frame, including a new antenna, the aforementioned brake lights and a misfiring cylinder. All of these were corrected by the local (and very pretentious) Volkswagen dealer, for an astoundingly high sum of money. Oh yeah, and the rubber weatherstripping was coming loose and some buttons had fallen off the radio. It was time to give our problem to someone else. I absolutely love this picture; my Sable, lurking in the background, looks like it just knows that it won the war for my heart. In truth, it was parked in that spot waiting for a much-deserved wash.
We sold the VW extremely quickly, and for a price that made my dad laugh all the way to the bank. The buyer? An older teenager who’d just crashed his Sentra. He had to have that “V-Dub.” We did not.
That’s likely why I’ve never been a big VW fan. I’ve driven a few as rentals, and they drive and handle great. I had a Passat earlier ths year with the 2.0 T engine, and it was one of the best cars I’ve ever driven. Note that I say “driven”. Lived with is another matter. Nearly everyone I know who’s owned a VW product complains about how expensive they are to keep on the road and they generally trade them in for something a little more reliable and cheaper to fix. My oldest sister had a new Jetta for a few years and when the repair bills started piling up she ditched it for a used Honda Accord. She loves the Acccord and was very happy to be rid of the Jetta.
Exactly. My six year old Sable had less problems than the Golf, and we got the hatch after the Mercury.
Seems to me the only people who can get past VW issues are the complete fanatics, but they’re car lovers just like us, so I guess I should have some empathy for them…
In my COAL I’ve had 2 VW’s, a 90 GLI and 93 Passat GLX. Loved ’em both, they’re great drivers. Currently mulling over the Golf R purchase for a weekend driver.
The key to happy V-dub ownership is to dump them by 60-70000 miles.
You’ve hit the nail on the head, caljin.
My dad bought an ’86 Golf several weeks before I was born. It lasted 280,000 miles.
The 2003 Golf had serious issues at 76,000 miles. How the mighty have fallen…
I had the same experience with a ’99 Jetta. I bought it with 110k on the clock and sold it for half what I paid a year later with 125k. In that time, the glove box fell out of the dash, the headliner fell down, both keys broke in half, one headlight started on fire (!), The rear springs fell out (!!), the engine, transmission, and cooling system all leaked, the air conditioner seized up, the parking brake cable snapped, the first gear syncros shattered, the power windows stopped working, and when I was heading out to sign the papers to buy my first house the car totally shut down while driving on the freeway (!!!) It took a week for the mechanic to figure out and $600 to replace the offending sensor. While fixing the sensor, the Mech discovered that the ignition system and fuel pump were both ready to die.
I sold the demonic thing with full disclosure (not sure if they understood me though, hardly spoke English) to some guys who had a bunch of VW’s. Me? I said ‘never again’ and bought a brand new Nissan.
Someone on TTAC once described VW ownership in this way, more or less: The relativery low initial purchase price allows more entry-level buyers to experience of genuine German engineering, along with very similar maintenance costs “enjoyed” by owners of Mercedes and BMWs.
Yup. Perfect statement.
I too briefly worshipped at the VW altar as a 20-something. I kept my 85 GTI through the 2 year warranty, which paid for a fairly thick service folder. Experience told me that such a situation rarely got better with age, and I sold the car (along with the service folder) to another 20-something guy who wanted to replace a ratty 76ish Cutlass Supreme. I reverted to my Mopar/big car-love with the 66 Fury III. 4 years of 20 year old Fury III made for less of a service folder than 2 years of a new VW. Lesson learned.
Did you not get the blue dash lights over there? In Europe they were blue and they were and are extremely ugly and annoying to look at.
Ah, okay. A Youtube video has confirmed that the dash lights were blue, while the audio head unit was orange/red. Of course the “check engine” light was on in that same video…
My pastor has a Bug from this similar era with the 2.0 and she has 171k on it and she said she’s had hardly any problems with it. It goes to show these cars are either super reliable or they break often.
Or more likely she has VW Big Repair Bill Amnesia. It’s a common affliction. I’d wager she’s had more than a few oil changes that cost $500.
It’s kind of like owning an Apple product; when you pay so much for something, you can’t tell anybody how often it breaks.
I fail to see the apple connection.
Try working on one and you’ll definitely see the parallel.”Remove grommet 4c with VW Tool 958-B”. Also the nonstandard OBD connector conjures up thoughts of Apple’s notorious refusal to use standardized connectors for anything (think the Lightning port on the Iphone). This was my first car, I got it secondhand after my grandfather passed away with only 8k on the clock. Even from day one the check engine light has been off and on, and the automatic is downright awful. However, there is an undeniable appeal to it, and I can’t seem to bring myself to sell it. I also appear to be a masochist in my car purchases, as I recently decided to buy a 260k mile 1991 Vanagon as a project car, with the notorious 2.1 “Wasserboxer”. The overflow tank popped like an overwatered tomato in my work parking lot, prompting my co-workers to question my sanity in devotedly wrenching on this aging 80’s technological hulk on my lunch breaks. Happy VW ownership requires a dedication to spending large chunks of your paycheck on preventative maintenance and a lot of time devoted to finding obscure parts and pouring over arcane service manuals.
Seems we all have a VW horror story for our COAL submissions. If it is any consolation, 1986 my Jetta was even worse than your Golf. It started to malfunction the second day I had it and the condescending dealer didn’t even bother to fix it most of the time.
I spend a fair amount of time in Europe and especially in Germany. The Germans are about the most nationalistic people in the world (save the Koreans) and it would be unthinkable to buy anything else. For them, regular cash injections are a part of car ownership they are used to and thus they don’t bat a eye to it. A German friend recently spent 2000 Euro repairing a four year old A4 that was just out of warranty. When I expressed my shock at this, he replied something like, “Well, what’s so unusual about that?” I don’t even bother telling Germans there are cars out there that don’t cost E2000 a year in simple repairs.
+1! VW has been able to capitalize on the first generation-Golfs’ reputation for reliability to such a point that (in Europe at least) the Golf is generally viewed as more upmarket than it actually is – not to mention small Audis like the A4 and the A3, which are even more overrated. These are not really cheap cars and they are not supposed to be either.
As a result, people are ready to put up with generally obnoxious VW-Audi dealers (I live in Luxembourg and they have earned quite a reputation here as well), and they are ready to fork out large sums of money for basic maintenance, just like the friend you’re talking about. In a perverse way, high service bills suggest you’re driving an upmarket car. Golf and small Audi owners feel that somehow the car is worth it and believe they’ll be able to sell it for good money anyway when they get tired of it.
Which is just not true. Not here at least. The used car market in Luxembourg is quite large compared to the country’s very small size and population. Wages are good, so people change their cars often. The national used car market attracts buyers from neighbouring Germany, France and Belgium too. The used car ads tell their own story. Apparently, there are quite a few VW owners out there who look back at their service folder, realize that warranty has just lapsed or will lapse soon, and decide to sell before serious trouble begins.
As a result, at any given time, there are enormous quantities of VWs and small Audis for sale with +/- 60 000 miles on the clock (ie. just around the dreaded 100 000 km-mark). It’s anything but a seller’s market. And there are quite a few sob stories from people who bought such a used one in the sincere belief that “these are such good cars anyway”, and eventually ended up running up Mercedes-like bills. Which doesn’t really make sense, but the VW management is very good at creating expectations. The new generation Golf is all over the media, and short of major, obvious quality issues people WILL buy it. And sell their “old” Golf, etc etc. The ball keeps rolling.
I’ve had 3 VWs in my life, all used, all self-maintained. The ’73 Super (project bought in 99) was just used up and I should have run away, but the others were more-or-less acceptable. Not great in electrics, and the Rabbit could have used better plastics. A crumbling rear-window washer tank makes a hell of a mess in the car.
Note: I never put that many miles on the VWs. The Rabbit had been expensively maintained by the former owner, and I needed a commuter for a couple of years. Sold it before the next round of failures.
Test drove a new ’03 Jetta, OK driver, but my wife hated the rear seat, so we’ve never had the new-car dealer experience from them. VWs are pretty rare in Klamath County (we have a limited number of brands, so if it ain’t Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda or Subaru, you won’t see many new cars from the others.) Yeah, we lost all GM dealerships.
I bought an 85 Golf in 1988 that had 35,000 miles on the clock. After owning it a few weeks I noticed it was only registering 1 mile for every 2 driven! Interesting problem for an on the road advertising salesman. Also I noticed my periodic maintenance costs at the dealer were costing $300 to $400. I had bought it mostly because of having a new 16 year old driver in the family and the crash tests on it scored very nicely. It all worked out for the best. My 16 year old daughter totaled it the day after getting her license! She and her girlfriend in the other front seat were not injured despite being hit during a poorly timed left turn in front of a speeding Camaro. I then bought her a cherry 81 Toyota Celica that lasted her through college and bought myself an 82 Thunderbird Landau that she did not drive. She is now 40 and has not had another accident. She now ferries her toddlers in a Mazda CX7. Me, I have never bought another VW. Love my Volvo V70.
Volkswagens of that vintage are notorious for having flaky odometers. Most of them ended up just stopping at some point…
I still love my 81 Scirocco S
I had one of these too…my first VW was a ’78 Scirocco “Champagne Edition” (remember those?) in a very nice goldish color (guess it was supposed to like color of champagne, it it has a specific color). Before I bought it I was looking at new ’81 Sciroccos and wanted an “S” but couldn’t swing it…last year of the original body style I prefer. Still wish I’d kept it, but an older me probably wouldn’t now enjoy getting into and out of it (separating my “romantic” memory of it from my practical nature).
Anyhow, as opposed to my father owning a ’59 Beetle, I’ve only owned watercooled VWs for the past 31 years now….on my third, which is an older (2000 version) of the Golf shown here. Besides the Scirocco I also owned a ’86 GTI. I’ll admit that VWs aren’t for everyone, and also that my taste in cars isn’t usually the same as most people, and also (despite the 31 years owning only VW) that I’d also consider another brand of car when I buy my next car (whenever that will be). One thing I like about VW is they keep making hatchbacks, which is my preferred body style (other makers seem to sometimes sell them and sometimes not, where VW has had them since they’ve had watercooled models in the 70’s).
One thing I can say about the VWs is that they are not without their problems, maybe not what I would call always a reliable car, they have lots of problems (some silly ones like the glove compartment door breaking on many of them, and the stupid power window regulator where they used plastic clips which caused the window to fall into the door) and also repair parts aren’t inexpensive (as is true for many European cars), but I’m able to do a fair amount of the work on them, but they tend to be durable in that if you keep up the maintenance they tend to last a long time (maybe VW owners tend to hang onto their cars longer for some reason too). Maybe because in the past they kept their models around a lot longer (they’d appear long in the tooth by the time the next model came out) though this is changing and they are shortening their model cycles for some of the more recent introductions…so your VW didn’t appear so old since they made that same model for quite awhile before the next one came out.
One thing I’ve actually noticed about VWs over the years (especially with my ‘2000 Golf) is that VW seems to be trying to make their cars more mainstream by emulating some of the characteristics of other (more popular) cars like Japanese cars like the Accord and Civic. For instance, the driving position has changed greatly from the previous generation where you sat more upright “tall” position to lower position.
I know some Japanese cars also now have the upright position (like some of the Scions) as well as some American cars like the Focus, but I think it is to try to make the car more aerodynamic and maybe get a bit better fuel economy on the highway. I’m a fan of the older “upright” seating position and maybe will change to another brand in my next car since as I get older I appreciate easier ingress/egress. Even dumb things like now having a left and right turn signal indicator (for years I think VW only had a single indicator which flashed when you used your turn signals independent of which direction you were indicating your turn) are more mainstream….not quite as different as older Saabs, but they didn’t follow design cues from popularly selling cars so much in the past (at least they don’t still have semiphores!). I guess that’ inevitable, every manufacturer would like to sell more cars and what is popular is what the manufactures tend to gravitate toward. (or maybe I’m just making more of it than it really is?)
VW went downhill once they introduced water-cooled engines. Gimme a clean Beetle, a complete toolbox and a fresh copy of John Muir’s book over anything they’ve offered since.
It always baffles me that Golfs (and VWs in general) have such a bad reputation stateside. Over this side of the pond they’re known for being exceptionally solid little cars…
My sister-in-law’s car is the same generation as this (2004 from memory), a silver 1.6 petrol 5-door. She adores it, and it just keeps cranking up the miles as their default, drama-free family hauler.
It’s not all that baffling, when you realize it boils down to two factors.
First, parts costs much more than usual for a non-prestige make, so small (yet expensive) issues tend to be noticed more by owners, and sometimes ignored, creating an even larger and more expensive problem. I’m not sure if the high cost of parts is due to the exchange rate, or perhaps VW has higher distribution costs in the U.S. as compared to other makes, but it’s an oft-repeated factor in the reputation.
Second – and I’ve noticed this in more than one city in which I’ve lived – VW dealers have developed a reputation for being at best indifferent, if not downright arrogant. Quite a contrast to the early days of VW in the U.S., when the mutterschiff demanded exceptional levels of dealers’ technical training and customer service. Of course, that was much easier when VW was basically selling one model, and a rather simple one, at that.
I’ve yet to meet a dealership where they weren’t arrogant. I don’t think that you can just say that about VW. My experience with them was no more or less shitty than my experiences with Chrysler.
This generation of VW (Mk4, 1999-2005) seems to have done a lot of damage to the brand. Not that the Mk3 (1993-1998) was a hallmark of reliability, but the Mk4 promised so much more in the showroom and on test drives. Classy styling, premium interior, available turbo, VR6, and diesel engines – what more could you ask for? Unfortunately, as the cars left their warranties (a measly two years, as I remember), sunroofs leaked, the soft-touch materials started to peel, electrical gremlins developed, automatic transmissions blew, coil packs (1.8T) failed – the quality fell short in countless ways.
Fortunately, the Mk5 (2005.5-2010) were a 100% new design and greatly improved in terms of quality, as long as you avoided the early 2.0T FSI. The Mk6 (which seems to be keeping up with the Mk5 in terms of quality) is setting sales records. In fact, I will probably be considering one soon.
I remember that commercial, but never realized it was Buster! I guess he still had both hands then!
Nice article. I think you made the right decision in keeping the Sable. I drove 2001-02 Tauruses (and an ’02 Sable GS) as company “pool cars” about ten years ago and they were very reliable, comfortable, and had a good-sized trunk too. We ran them to 125K with no issues.
“I’M A MONSTER!” – One of the best lines of any comedy, ever.
I remember during my brief flirtation with the VW, speaking with my mechanic about the decision. All he could say was “Well, they’re hip…”
Yeah, never regretted the decision.
It’d be hard to decide between the Mk4 in the ad and the MkI Cabrio Tobias has in the new season. I’d let him keep his vanity plate, though.
My brother-in-law bought one of these new in 2004 after having driven his 1986 Golf diesel into the ground. He had no end to electrical, suspension, transmission woes. He had it four about four years before selling it to his mother. She still has it but doesn’t drive it very much.
I’ve always liked the feel of Volkswagen compacts – but my experience is that ownership is a very different matter. Bro in law went to a Mitsu Endeavour and had no issues whatsoever.
Wow, your brother in law must not like his mother!
Maybe it an insurance scam… They will collect when the Golf burns her house to the ground.
All kidding aside, he points out something important, these were revised and the problems were “fixed” for the 2004 model year. His BIL’s was one of the “good” VW’s, what can I say? A polished turd is still a turd. I’m still trying to forget the proverbial VW stench.
Hey Edward, what years were you at SUNY Albany? We probably crossed paths… I lived there from ’05-’07 and worked at the I<3NY on Madison Avenue. My brother graduated from Saint Rose last year so I still made trips up there pretty regularly until recently. I had apartments on Allen, Hudson and some godforsaken corner of the South End.
My mom bought a used '01 Passat a few years back. Great car to drive but it was a total nightmare. Sludge ate the 1.8T motor around 100k miles and it had tons of weird electrical problems. My parents dumped almost $2k into it the week before it self destructed. Absolutely horrible…
Mr. Snitkoff, you were clearly listening to way too much of the Beatles when you were writing and/or thinking of the title for this CC!
If you think this is bad, you should see my first article here at CC…
Tell me about it.
Just read my CC on the 1996-1999 Taurus/Sable and you’ll see. All you have to do is click on my name at the top of this article and you’ll see all my work here. And yes, the title is inspired by “Hey Bulldog,” one of my favorite Beatles songs.
If you listen to the song carefully enough, you will hear John drop an F-Bomb in the middle of one of George’s guitar solos.
The title was a lyric from “Hey Bulldog”, isn’t it?
By any chance, was the Cressida that your sister previously owned blue? Around the same date you mentioned, I purchased an ’86 Cressida in New York from someone who transferred schools to Mass from Adelphi. It had a MAJOR oil leak, which I guess could be the terminal illness that you described.
Nope, think we gave ours to our local mechanic. Definitely didnt private sell it.
I wonder how many of VW’s North American issues could be attributed to the cars being made in Mexico.
Pretty sure Golfs are made in Germany, as well as all station wagons and diesel cars. I think only the Beetle, Jetta Sedan, and ‘third world’ Jetta (the 1980’s Jetta, kept in production far too long) were made at Pueblo at that time. Also, a lot of really great Ford and Nissan products are made in Mexico. I think the blame lays at the feet of VW management.
Nup, on the contrary, even the Jettas sold in Europe are built in Puebla, Mexico. Don’t know exactly how good or bad the Mexican-built VWs are but the European ones, assembled not only in Germany but also in Belgium and later Slovakia were not particularly reliable either, at least not in a way to justify their higher price. Latest chapter is the TSI drama which VW does seem to have taken up seriously for a change.
Interesting to think that at one point in the late ’90s if you wanted a new C-segment hatchback, your choices were this…or one of the last double-wishbone Honda Civics.