long time Commodore driver about to buy Golf but has a few questions...

[BooHiss]

Hello,

I've driven Commodores for the last 25 years and took a golf for a test drive last week and pretty much decided to take a leap of faith and take advantage of the current offer and buy a new Golf MK6 Comfortline 118DSI.

I've always liked the look of them but after driving one was very impressed with the way it drives and of course the quality interior, however I do have a few questions about Golf reliability and maintenance costs, they are:

1) Is the engine reliable: the 1.4 litre is in my eyes quite small, I've always assumed small engines wear out more quickly than larger ones, in your experience is the engine reliable and in the long term durable?

2) Turbo engine: I know nothing about turbos except they provide a better response, has VW been making Turbo engines for Golf for very long? I suppose I'd be a cautious if I learned Golf's have only had Turbos for the last couple of years however if they have a long history of producing quality turbos then I'd been more assured.

3) Maintenance costs: I'm sure you've all heard it, foreign cars are expensive to maintain e.g. when they are serviced. So, are Golfs expensive to maintain or service or are they on par with other cars? A salesman from Mazda said warned me Golf owners often sold their cars after a couple of years because they increasingly become too expensive

4) Spare parts costs: almost the same question as above but relate to spare parts i.e. are they expensive and are they difficult to obtain. I've had a few people say I'd find it difficult to source parts for a Golf, since I've become interested in them I've noticed there's heaps of them on the roads so surely this can't be right?

Finally, please feel free to advise me of anything else that I should be made aware of. My impression is that Golf is a quality car but buying a different make really is a bit a leap of faith so any info I can get from actual owners is valuable.

thanks

[SilvrFoxX]

All good questions, some of which time will answer for me as well.

The challenge with answering your questions are they are relative to your current experiences not a generalization. Others here who have come from the Australian marques would be better positioned to provide that relativity question.

But to answer your questions lets pose the following

1. You are buying a German car, you will find the leap in technology significant from that of an Australian make, yes there is going to be a cost uplift. Though fuel consumption is possibly going to surprise you nicely .

2. Given that it is European this means that parts and servicing is more expensive than both Japanese and Oz makes. It won't be as high as the performance models but be prepared. This does mean however that you can enjoy in most cases a higher value retention and resale

3. Servicing is an interesting proposition, Japanese cars need to be done every six months whereas the German cars seem to want it annually ( this is a generalization and not true in all cases) so although the cost of services seems high comparably you are only servicing half the time..

4. Turbos.. I stand to be corrected but my recollection is the Europeans pioneered the Turbo so yes it has been around a long time, the tech is shared across Audi, VW and I think Porsche but again need some one more informed to argue that one

5. Reliability , well like all cars you have the good stories and not much and then how it is measured, given Golf is one of the biggest selling cars throughout Europe and I suspect more broadly their record is pretty sound.

My only comment is if you are coming from a Commodore 3.6 V6 engine you might find the experience ( especially with DSG) a significant change ..

[Alok]

Annual servicing costs on the golf would be very similar to something like the Mazda 3. Under warranty the golf is great, but I would be very uncomfortable owning one outside of warranty. Considering the high level of integration of complex system involved in the golf, when something breaks down it costs ALOT to repair/replace. For example I recently had to have my clutch kit replaced, fortunately it was under warranty, outside of warranty it would have cost my easily over $5,000 (parts + labour).

You can spend an extra $1500 (approx) extended the warranty for another 3 years, there is another thread on that in this forum. So if you don't intend to keep it much longer than 6 years, you have nothing to worry about. I know I will be selling mine before the extended warranty is up.

I think it really comes down to if you think the possibility that the golf could cost more to run is justified or not. The main reason I got a golf is because it is a much more enjoyable drive than other cars of the same class, and to me that justifies the possibility of having to spend a little more.

[gt_eye]

$5K for replacing a clutch??
I find that hard to believe...u have a DSG box??

[Alok]

Yeah, DSG. They had to replace the clutch kit. They had to take out the DSG gearbox. From what I've been told that's a lot of labour. They had to keep the car for 2 days.

[Transporter]

Most people when they have a problem with the DSG, it is at the beginning when the car is new. Our Golf5 is well over 4 years old; I'm not worried about the DSG now. We didn't take extended warranty, which can be bought at any time before the 3 years manufacturer warranty runs out.

[Alok]

Most people when they have a problem with the DSG, it is at the beginning when the car is new. Our Golf5 is well over 4 years old; I'm not worried about the DSG now. We didn't take extended warranty, which can be bought at any time before the 3 years manufacturer warranty runs out.

Why do you say the problem is only at the beginning when the car is new? The reason I ask is that my 3 years warranty will run out in a few months, the only reason I'm looking at extending it is because I'm concerned about the DSG.

[SilvrFoxX]

good question

[TomC]

Considering the high level of integration of complex system involved in the golf, when something breaks down it costs ALOT to repair/replace. I know I will be selling mine before the extended warranty is up.

Really though, this is true of any new, modern car and does not relate to just a Golf. So you could expect this to be true of purchasing any new European car. The fact of the matter is, many of those complex systems actually help the car to run more reliably and efficiently, minimising costs in the long run.

Most people when they have a problem with the DSG, it is at the beginning when the car is new. Our Golf5 is well over 4 years old; I'm not worried about the DSG now. We didn't take extended warranty, which can be bought at any time before the 3 years manufacturer warranty runs out.

Ditto. In every case I have ever heard of, DSG problems happened early on in the life of the car. As long as the DSG is serviced when it should be and isn't put under massive stress through tuning etc. it'll be fine unless a problem has come up early on. Remember also, there are now over 1 million of these in circulation, so really, the number of problems that have been reported are miniscule in relation to the total number of units in operation.

[Transporter]

Why do you say the problem is only at the beginning when the car is new? The reason I ask is that my 3 years warranty will run out in a few months, the only reason I'm looking at extending it is because I'm concerned about the DSG.

If you had no problems with the DSG at all and the car is running well, you will most likely not use it.
How many km's the car done?

[anglo_dude]

I'm on to my second VW. The first was a 2006 Jetta TDI, which had precisely no problems in the 5 years I've owned it. This was a manual, and low kms (51,000 by the time I sold it), but it was pretty much running as smoothly as the day I bought it when I sold it. I've now replaced it with a GTI with DSG.

I went with the DSG this time around as it felt so much smoother than the Mk5 DSG and I figured that the technology was 5 years more advanced than the first time around. The hesitancy I found in the Mk5 DSG is no longer there (ignore the reviews which still say it's hesitant, I can't see or feel it), and the normal sports and paddle shift modes just all feel so right now that it's a joy to drive in any kind of traffic.

So far (after all of 2 weeks) I'm really really happy with the change over. The golf feels so much more together than any other car in the price bracket, and it goes so well, even in the running in period.

Servicing is every 12 months or 15,000kms and the Jetta touched me up for about $400 every service. With the 118 TSI DSG I don't think that the DSG oil has to be changed (happy to be corrected on that though), and so the servicing should be about the same (ie $400) all through the warranty period.

I'm also playing the waiting game with the extended warranty. I did the same with the Jetta, and as I had no issues after 3 years I figured that it wasn't worth the extra $1500. I'd just put this into a "fixing" fund and hope that it wouldn't be needed. I'll do the same with the GTI.

Parts are expensive, there is no getting away from that, but on the plus side you have 3 years where this isn't an issue. The mk6 golfs have been built for years now, and as this was effectively a facelift (albeit major) over the mk5 the car has effectively been built in the same way at the same plants for 6 years now, and so any production faults should be well and truly out of the way now. Certainly the GTI feels incredibly well put together and has the solidity that the VE just doesn't have.

I also really dislike the VE auto box and the way that it shifts down (clunk) compared with the GTI. I've had a few VE (SV6s) as hire cars over the last 2 years, and they just feel heavy, awkward at speed and very very thirsty.

I'm currently averaging about 8l/100k with the golf with purely city driving. The VE would be about 14l/100k with the same driving and you have the huge blind spot with the A pillar to contend with...

In short, go with the Golf, you won't be disappointed!

Anglo

[SMOK3Y]

i went from SS 9.5 ute to a 90tsi 11 golf manual. i love the golf it is so much more quality than the ute (always had holdens) only thing
i miss is performance but i did buy golf for economy. ive had it since july & have done 9500ks has not missed a beat love it.

[Alok]

If you had no problems with the DSG at all and the car is running well, you will most likely not use it.
How many km's the car done?

I've done 45,000km on my 2009 90TSI. Just had my clutch kit replaced due to a harsh shudder last week. I guess that counts as DSG problems...

[Ryan_R]

I'm not sure if I'm the first to reply who has the 118 TSI, but my thoughts after one year of 2nd-hand ownership are:

1. Yes the engine is reliable. As some have already mentioned, some of the earlier 2009 models had DSG clutch issues at around 20,000 - 30,000 kms, most of which have been fixed under warranty. This has only affected the 7-speed DSG transmission so far (the GTI is the 6-speed wet clutch, which has its own major service at 60,000).

2. The 118 TSI is twin-charged. It has a supercharger for the lower RPM, then the turbo for the higher RPM. If you never rev the car beyond 3,500rpm or so, you may find that you rarely use it. I've only heard of one or two people who had turbo issues on the 90 TSI, so nothing much to worry about there.

3. The VW costs might be more than the Mazda, but the frequency is lesser. When I took a Mazda 3 for a test driver in early 2010, I was told you had to service the car every 6 months/10,000 kms. With the Golf, the price might be slightly higher, but it's every 12 months/15,000 kms, which works out cheaper for minor servicing at least. Some VW dealers charge up to $100 more than other dealers, so be sure to shop around. There's also an independant VW specialist in Burwood who I used for my last service (was cheaper than the dealer, plus they washed the car and stamped my log book). They also installed the software tune that makes the 118 TSI an absolute hoot to drive.

4. Probably more expensive as they come from overseas, but some have been able to locate genuine parts for less over the Internet (as long as they have the same product code) and then get the dealers to fit them. Many accessories can be retrofitted on the Golf too (see my signature as an example).


The 118 TSI is a great car compared to all the other hatchbacks (although it costs slightly more), but I have no doubt you'll love it.

[Chris_r32]

Having owned a Mazda 3 before the golf, I found that the twice yearly service does end up costing you more. But not just that, it seamed like a hassle having to go every 6 months (organising time off work etc), heaps happier now.