This is my own impressions of the car to date:
I took delivery of the vehicle on the 3rd of January 2002. A gold Golf 1.6 Comfortline (South Africa), 33km on the "clock", smelling only like a new car can smell
. I had to buy fast so I had to take what they had on the floor. There was a big price increase in Jan so I had to finalise the deal before end of December. Did it in THREE days!
It has electric windows, 6 disc in-dash cd changer, airconditioner, cloth seats (leather too expensive
), no cruise control (
thought it had), armrest, etc.... I saw the car the first time on the day of delivery. When I climbed in I just knew I made the right choice. Driving it of the showroom floor was even better! It pulled away smooth, engine barely audible. I noticed because my wife drives a 2.0 New Beetle and boy, is that a coffee grinder!
Now came the time to fiddle with the buttons! I immediately inserted some cd's into the slot in the player. Really an amazing thing. 6 discs into one slot. Sound quality more than satisfied my needs. Then I remembered my friend warning me his GTi had rattles from day one. I turned off the radio just to find the cabin hushed in silence, not a rattle, squeek or knock. It was much nicer to listen to than the cd I had playing so I drove home in silence, playing with the trip computer , occasionally turning on the wiper blades trying to push te small buttons on the stalk.
The next week the novelty wore off a bit and I was wondering why everybody buying in this price range would buy anything else! This car impressed me from day one to day seven
I had to find something wrong. There must be a reason people are looking (and buying ) elsewhere. Here follows a list of my gripes: ( I knew you where waiting for this)
1. My car had no mags. It has ugly wheel caps, stuck on narrow rubber (175/14"/80). Car is not considered cheap here by any means (R137 000= approx $12000) Do not laugh, our currency sucks. Can write column about that too
2. You have to be careful loading stuff in the back because you can easily scratch the bumper whilst loading. That is the only complaint about the exteriour. Car looks great (although getting a bit dated compared to newer models like Peugeot 307 http://****************.com/smile/emthdown.gif ) Oh, the boot does not open remotely. Beetle is nice to open whilst walking towards car or sitting inside car.
3. The color of the interiour is too light. It is going to be a nightmare to keep clean. Leather is just so much better.
4. Difficult to reach the radio whilst driving. How about some satellite controls within reach, maybe even on that big open space they call the "steering wheel". That bit you use to point the car with.
5. Cupholders opens and obscures my cd player, then again it takes 6 cd's and a coke only lasts three songs!! Not horrible, but I have to find something wrong
6. Rear legroom is not great. Then again seats are normally folded down to accomodate my fairly large model aircraft. The reason I bought the Golf!
7. No climate control. Aircon works very well, even in our very hot climate, but climate control is soooo nice
8. The cubby hold has a barn door but the manual does not fit in the slot!! Can barely fit my 6 empty cd cases in there. (Source of one rattle
)
9. I am still waiting for my power windows to fail on me!! Thanks to this forum!!!! (Just kidding)
10. No cupholders in the back?
Phew!! Was struggling to get to 10 there. The car is without fault. Ok, it is only a month old, but you just get that feeling it will remain like that for a while. Great build quality. Beetle is good, Golf is better
I have no regrets ever purchasing one. There is about 1200 sold in South Africa per month! Only second to the Toyota Corolla. Give me a Golf any day!
Sorry about the long post. Flame away if it was too long
My car still feels like the day I got it, even after 2300 km. Service from the dealer was great. Hope to hear about more positive things from this forum.
Hope you enjoy trouble free driving your Volkswagen's.
