Reports of Bora unreliablity??

[Manaz]

My mate used to work for a VW dealer in the service department and said most of his time was spent fixing Golf's and he barely saw any issues with the Bora V5 & V6.

Sales volumes would account for that - a lot more Golfs got sold than Boras.

[gavs]

I can see the headlines now: Woman impregnated by Dyldo. It'll cause a revolution.

I reckon the Golf is more of a girl's car than the Bora. Nothing like a Polo though.

P.S how do you end up buying a Rallye if you were shopping for a 4mo?
It's like "I thought about buying an Evo but settled for a Lancer VRX instead."

Ah, that would be the thing in life that always gets in the way of life's little pleasures.....FINANCE and the ar*eholes who deal with it!!!

[Mr Messy]

Too true, haha.
If I could make the payments, I'd be driving an RS4. GTI will do for now.

[Sixie]

Hi guys


I mentioned my possible future car to a trusted mate of mine, and he said it'd be a very bad choice because of their "terrible reliability issues" and that "they are woeful cars". His cousin is a lead shop mechanic at a BMW dealer in Sydney's west and for a few years was handed the servicing duties for the local VW dealer. not sure if they still do this (I think it was Denlo Parramatta) but he said his biggest headache by far was handling all the problems on the Bora.

:

How could Bora's be any worse than a Golf they are the same car! Kind of makes me think the person does not know what the **** they are talking about.

In fact unlike some Golfs all Boras came from Wolfsburg, not South Africa or some other crazy place.

I have owned four (company cars, when I had a company) one was terrible, the list of problems would make your eyes bleed, the other three just the standard issues mentioned elsewhere in this thread.

In fact the 2000 one I drove had absolutely nothing go wrong with it in the 50K I had it for, it just didnt like being T-boned.

My biggest issue currently is that the fuel filler flap release thingy likes to fire off at random intervals around the cabin, but at $22 I just decided to change it.

[FarQ]

Have had mine since new and even though its only done 62k, nothing wrong with it. The only thing that comes to mind is the sunroof will sometimes tilt by itself and the suspension is too soft....

[torque]

I have to agree with what it's been said, you are better off with a Bora than with a Golf, the gearbox is the strong one, engines are all good, 4Mo is good and reliable ( same unit used in Audi ) , etc. Electrics are weak and cheap compared to the Audi ( but that is for all VW ) , but nothing is a deal breaker.

I say buy it!

[Dyldo]

wow guys, what a great forum for feedback. thank you to all thats piped up its been a good little learning experience. I for one always try and do my best searches but with this it proved too hard typing things like "bora" or reliability" so your comments and (more importantly) personal experiences with the Bora are appreciated.

I was never in danger of being turned away from the Bora idea and i just wanted to put forth the opinions of my mate's cousin. maybe he got some duds, maybe his team got lazy, i dunno.

and moreover, i am watching the related thread about the R32 zorst being modded to fit the Bora. Should sound awesome.

i definitely want to test drive a few asap and figure out the mods i'd like first. it sounds like i should help it breathe better with a catback zorst (I hear the R32 mkiv's headers are the same length?) and then it appears not much can be done to the power levels but the torque curve can be smoother. next steps appear to be brakes and suspension/handling.

i can't wait to get into one (should be a few months away yet tbh) and then to pepper the forums with questions and try and pick up parts too

again, thank you all and hopefully i can change my sig soon.

[torque]

wow guys, what a great forum for feedback. thank you to all thats piped up its been a good little learning experience. I for one always try and do my best searches but with this it proved too hard typing things like "bora" or reliability" so your comments and (more importantly) personal experiences with the Bora are appreciated.

I was never in danger of being turned away from the Bora idea and i just wanted to put forth the opinions of my mate's cousin. maybe he got some duds, maybe his team got lazy, i dunno.

and moreover, i am watching the related thread about the R32 zorst being modded to fit the Bora. Should sound awesome.

i definitely want to test drive a few asap and figure out the mods i'd like first. it sounds like i should help it breathe better with a catback zorst (I hear the R32 mkiv's headers are the same length?) and then it appears not much can be done to the power levels but the torque curve can be smoother. next steps appear to be brakes and suspension/handling.

i can't wait to get into one (should be a few months away yet tbh) and then to pepper the forums with questions and try and pick up parts too

again, thank you all and hopefully i can change my sig soon.

What is a My08 Pacific 2.0 TDI ?

What car is that if anything ?

[torque]

Oh nooooo, it's a Golf of course; a diesel truck !

[Manaz]

How could Bora's be any worse than a Golf they are the same car! Kind of makes me think the person does not know what the **** they are talking about.

With all due respect, that's only partially true.

Only one of the three engine/drivetrain variants in the Bora were shared with the Golf in Australia, and that's the 2.0L 4-cylinder version. It should also be noted that the V6 4Motion shared its gearbox and AWD system with the Mk4 Golf R32, but not the engine, and whilst the Mk3 Golf VR6 had a 2.8L V6 in it, it was the 12v engine, and not the later 24v engine that the Bora V6 4Motion received.

The V5 and V6 were not shared with the Golf in Australia at all, and thus it's entirely possible that if these engines and their associated drivetrains were more prone to faults than the 1.6/1.8T/2.0 engines, then it would be entirely possible for the Bora to be less reliable (generally) than the Golf. That said, The 02M 6-speed gearbox on the V6 4Motion and R32 is tougher I believe than the 5-speed, and the 1.6L has a (potentially undeserved) reputation for having a slightly dodgy gearbox.

i definitely want to test drive a few asap and figure out the mods i'd like first. it sounds like i should help it breathe better with a catback zorst (I hear the R32 mkiv's headers are the same length?) and then it appears not much can be done to the power levels but the torque curve can be smoother. next steps appear to be brakes and suspension/handling.

There's at least two of us in Sydney with Bora V6 4Motions - goodfella has the Custom-Code flash on his, and his car definitely has more "pull" than mine with the stock engine management. My car on the other hand has the upgraded Haldex controller and upgraded brakes on it, and will shortly be sitting on coilovers as well, so that'll give you an idea on those upgrades. Both these cars were built after the mid-life model upgrade (mid 2002), so they do have some differences when stock to the earlier models (largely cosmetic from what I can tell).