VW Golf long-term test review

Published: 21 December 2009

Long term update - 29 December 2008

We get a lot of readers asking what cars we own ourselves and although I'm lucky that even being just the Art director I get a good chance to drive lots of cars. But I live in the real world and actually do own a vehicle. Its a VW golf 1.9 td (1998), oh and I must apologies for the number plate, its not a private one but has been kept from a previous car.

Sadly the car in question has actually been sitting for a while, in fact 1 year to be precise. Why? well we ended up getting an 06 plate VW golf GT last christmas and sadly the old one just got left. Crime I know, but my wife generally uses our cars and when the MOT expired I just didn't have the time to get it going, or the cash for 2 cars at once. But this year after a year of it sitting on my drive I decided to get it running and back on the road. The longer I leave it the more its just going to decay and be a waste of money.

Our VW golf 1.9 td thats been with the family for about 10 years and has severed the family well. It originally was my mother in laws, then my wife bought it off her and now well its been passed on to me. Its been a thoroughly decent car and with 140k on the clock it still feels like it runs like new and those miles have been hard mile. It regularly made trips to the south of France. Yet it been looked after with it having full service history. Over the course of the last year, I've kept the battery on charge and turned the engine over about 3 times. Its been moved back and forth on the drive to get things turning but nothing more so I'm fascinated to see how it fairs in the Mot.

It hard to think that its over 10 years old and VW have brought out 2 generations since then. But to me this reletively new to compare to the other cars I've had, triumph herald 13/60 conv and a MK3 golf gti 16v (I still own the herald) so after a year will it feel like a classic car or will that german engineering hold up to its reputation. In an ideal world I hope that it will sail through the MOT and back on the road for £60, what do you think? Ok so its not as exciting as Ben Barry's M3 but this is the real world and its a daily user, but whos knows once I get it back on the road maybe I'll turn it in to a track weapon...or wake up!

Next up the MOT.


By Andrew Franklin

 

 

 

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