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?