Volkswagen Golf Hatchback (1997 - 2004) 1.4 Match 5d Owner Review

Running an 18 year old car as a main driver and using it for international trips with the family is pretty unusual. Thing is, there are some basic preventative maintenance tips which are fairly cheap to take care of and after that it is pretty reliable, economical, practical, easy to live with and has some important features, 5 doors, an alarm, air conditioning and no stupid on board sat navigation. In 6 years I have fixed a number of well known problems; the common speedo fault (engine vibration breaks a connection on the wiring loom), misfiring coil (common) drivers window collapsed into the door (well known clip failure). The rear wash has stopped worker and the brain in the drivers door has failed - I might get them sorted if I am feeling extravagant. On motorways it uses a litre of oil every 1k miles and I now always keep a couple of litres in the boot. 7 years in it costs me nothing in depreciation and if I am carefull I can stretch it to 50 mpg and it will hold 80 mph on the French roads. More than this, after three days standing down to -10 degrees on the Christmas ski trip it started first time and we can get all the stuff in the tardis like boot.