why everybody says VW's are unreliable junk? and some questions

[blackers10]

Hello All,

I am new to the VW scene and looking to buy a mk4 GTI but trying to sort the truth from the rubbish is frustrating at best!
I have always liked the Mk4 shape and they are in my price range,

reading on here they seem like a solid reliable hot hatch with parts being a bit $$ due to coming from Europe but otherwise pretty good.

yet when you talk to others they are expensive to maintain, overpriced and break down a lot?

I am looking at 150-200k km cars and it will be my daily for work so can't have too much going wrong etc.

Is there any truth to all this or is it just people hearing only the bad stories and making their own clouded opinion??

Is there anything in particular with a 150-200k km car that I should be watching out for beside a good service history?? Ie major repairs coming up like timing belts or clutches? (kind of expecting a clutch but the price seems reasonable for a single mass flywheel and clutch conversion from overseas)

Thanks
Brenden

[SLAJ]

Don't listen to people, everyone I spoke to before I got my GTI told me that they cost a fortune to fix amongst a bunch of other stuff, even tho not one of those people had ever owned a mk4, or any kind of VW for that matter. You might pay extra on shipping for some parts but it's nothing over the top like people make it out to be.

150-200,000k should be ok as long as it has been looked after by the previous owner(s).
I haven't had any serious problems with mine personally and I think they're a very reliable car.

[blackers10]

glad to hear mate!
sounds like they suffer from Ford Explorer syndrome... just because people hear bad things they assume they are all junk.
just the ones that aren't looked after or have some issues that the factory fixed(the plastic window clips seem a big one?)

but once all said and done they are great vehicles

[CamYoung]

My thoughts are that European cars in general are usually mechanically ver reliable, but the electronics can be a bit of an issue. Having said that mk4 's suffer from the same issues regardless of model things like door lock modules, cooling fans, recirculation stepper motors etc. my car had all these ( mk4bora) but all were quite easy to fix myself and aside from shipping being expensive, parts are quite reasonable from ecs tuning in states.
the other part of my theory why volkswagens get a bad rap is that compared to a bomb adore or a corolla of similar age, that have a lot more features and electronic gismos, so they are likely to have a few more issues. I had a mate take my 4 motion v6 for a spin on weekend. This guys works for BMW and could not believe how well an 11 year old 215k Volkswagen drove compared to many new cars.

I say make sure you get a good one ( service history clean etc) and you will be fine.

[blackers10]

thanks for all the information guys, sounds like they just have their own set of problems like any manufacturer.
looking forward to making the purchase

[schwartza3]

As slaj said don't listen to people who haven't owned one.
I've had my car (audi a3, same as mkiv gti) since 2004 and over 10 years I've only had to replace
1x temp sensor, 1x brake switch, bent clutch fork and misfiring issue that disappeared
Good luck with your purchase

[h100vw]

There's nothing that can't be fixed pretty cheap. Check out A3s as well.

My S3 (same running gear pretty much) just did 4500km in 4 days and never missed a beat. If you see a car in Brisbane that you want looking at let me know. I am in Narangba too.

Gavin

[blackers10]

Sweet thanks Gavin,