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