Tell ME i'm wrong: VW Golf Owners
Discussion
I'm on the hunt for a new winter mileage snotter as my trusty reliable 22 year old jap mobile died the other week (not the cars fault!) and so i've set my mind on a MK IV VW Golf 1.9 TDI. 5 doors, not fussed on colour, not too fussed about mileage as long as its been serviced; but THERE is the problem. Being serviced.
I've spent the last couple of weeks looking for one (nationwide) that has simply had a service every year (don't care where) and i'm finding that the trend with these TDI's is that the owners (in most circumstances that I have come across) don't seem to "think" they need servicing??!!
The countless places i've rang and asked, "has it got a full service history" and i've had every wrong answer under the sun ranging from:
"Yes, i 've got the last 3 MOTs printed off from VOSA"
"They don't need servicing mate, the light will come on if it needs out"
This was the worst - from a so called trader - "What exactly does full service history mean?".
I've driven over 300 miles this past couple of weeks looking at potential buys that were advertised with FSH (and I double checked over the phone before I decided to view the car) but when arrived they had not been serviced since 2007 or 2009, and no mention of having any cambelts done and one didn't have a drop of oil on the dip stick on a stone cold engine!
I dont care whether they've been serviced at main dealer or independent but i've never looked for a car and found so much lack of interest, knowledge or care before from a group of owners.
VW are not even high up on the yearly reliability surveys with most Jap cars and manufacturers dominating the top.
I've put this down to peoples "perception" of good quality that VW marketing has us believe and i'm severely being put off spending any more time into looking for one of these as it seems that most (not all) but most have had lazy owners with no mechanical sympathy.
High mileage VW diesel engines are all well and good and should keep going strong - AS LONG AS THEY HAVE BEEN SERVICED!!!!!!
To the current fleet of new diesel VW Golf owners now with DPF engines, please PLEASE service your cars or do NOT expect to get the premium back for them that you think (dream) you will.
Rant over.
I've spent the last couple of weeks looking for one (nationwide) that has simply had a service every year (don't care where) and i'm finding that the trend with these TDI's is that the owners (in most circumstances that I have come across) don't seem to "think" they need servicing??!!
The countless places i've rang and asked, "has it got a full service history" and i've had every wrong answer under the sun ranging from:
"Yes, i 've got the last 3 MOTs printed off from VOSA"
"They don't need servicing mate, the light will come on if it needs out"
This was the worst - from a so called trader - "What exactly does full service history mean?".
I've driven over 300 miles this past couple of weeks looking at potential buys that were advertised with FSH (and I double checked over the phone before I decided to view the car) but when arrived they had not been serviced since 2007 or 2009, and no mention of having any cambelts done and one didn't have a drop of oil on the dip stick on a stone cold engine!
I dont care whether they've been serviced at main dealer or independent but i've never looked for a car and found so much lack of interest, knowledge or care before from a group of owners.
VW are not even high up on the yearly reliability surveys with most Jap cars and manufacturers dominating the top.
I've put this down to peoples "perception" of good quality that VW marketing has us believe and i'm severely being put off spending any more time into looking for one of these as it seems that most (not all) but most have had lazy owners with no mechanical sympathy.
High mileage VW diesel engines are all well and good and should keep going strong - AS LONG AS THEY HAVE BEEN SERVICED!!!!!!
To the current fleet of new diesel VW Golf owners now with DPF engines, please PLEASE service your cars or do NOT expect to get the premium back for them that you think (dream) you will.
Rant over.
Well I had a mk4 1.9 Tdi that I had serviced every year. But I got shot 2 years ago at circa 130k. They are quite old now, mine was a "53" and I sold it for £1250 - I doubt the person who bought it will care for it the same as I did (I paid £6.5k for it so it was "worth" something to me)
elementad said:
Was it not 25k or yearly - whichever comes first?
No - it was when it called itself in. It called itself in upto a max of 30,000 miles or 24 months for diesels.eta: I ran my 1.9 TDI Octavia on a mix of fixed (10,000 miles / 12 months) and variable (in my case 2 years, which was about 20,000 miles) over the 8 or 9 years I had it. So you would have ruled mine out.
ross-co said:
problem with finding one that has been serviced every year is a huge amount of the 1.9Tdi's were put on the long life service plan which means up to 25K between services.
This, and while I am not disagreeing with you OP on both the monetary and engineering value of FSH, if you bought one of the VW servicing packs with the car then they will not take it in for service _unless_ the light is on.So you can see where the attitude stems from, and it is at least as much the fault of the manufacturers.
king new one AJB said:
No - it was when it called itself in. It called itself in upto a max of 30,000 miles or 24 months for diesels.
This link provides more information about the schedule and how it can vary depending on the type of driving.http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/regim...
OP: Having also been looking for a new car the last couple of months I can assure that lack of service history, not understanding the difference between a service and a MOT and claims of full service history on nearly every second car are NOT limited to VW Golfs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nearly everyone I know who ISN'T a petrolhead will drive their car every day and not think about servicing but then complain when the car breaks down , usually as a result of a service item failing.
Newc said:
ross-co said:
problem with finding one that has been serviced every year is a huge amount of the 1.9Tdi's were put on the long life service plan which means up to 25K between services.
This, and while I am not disagreeing with you OP on both the monetary and engineering value of FSH, if you bought one of the VW servicing packs with the car then they will not take it in for service _unless_ the light is on.So you can see where the attitude stems from, and it is at least as much the fault of the manufacturers.
So in essence (If i understand correctly), when bought new the new owner either:
A) bought it and had to service it every 12 months
OR
B) could purchase a "service package" at time of car purchase which meant that you only had to turn up every 25k for a service?
We have had a 52-plate TDI 130 from new, it has 182k miles and has been serviced every 10k miles as far as I am aware. Did have a few costly repairs last year (steering rack, water pump etc) but has been solidly reliable. Still on original clutch and turbo. It returns 60mpg driven conservatively (summer months anyway) and is quiet and comfortable. As cheap A to B transport you could do a lot worse!
Cosmetically ours is average at best (various bumper scuffs and badly corroded front wings) but it just goes on so there seems no sense in selling as it'll be worth next to nothing when you consider the high miles.
Cosmetically ours is average at best (various bumper scuffs and badly corroded front wings) but it just goes on so there seems no sense in selling as it'll be worth next to nothing when you consider the high miles.
A lot of them have a rolling oil change, they tend to use a fair amount of that expensive "taste the difference" PD specific oil, the owners report 50 mpg, very clever of VW to use what is in the sump to augment the diesel supply, the woners get to go on about 50 odd to the gallon but negelct to mention 12 quid for a litre of oil ever 1000 miles !
elementad said:
I did not know that.
So in essence (If i understand correctly), when bought new the new owner either:
A) bought it and had to service it every 12 months
OR
B) could purchase a "service package" at time of car purchase which meant that you only had to turn up every 25k for a service?
No - in the case of my Octavia I didn't buy any service package, but it was delivered set to Variable. So it first called itself in for a service (which I had to pay for) after 24 months. With my usage, that was about 20,000 miles.So in essence (If i understand correctly), when bought new the new owner either:
A) bought it and had to service it every 12 months
OR
B) could purchase a "service package" at time of car purchase which meant that you only had to turn up every 25k for a service?
I assume VWs were the same. The owner could request the dealer to change from variable to fixed when delivered, and the owner could choose fixed/variable when having the car serviced.
aka_kerrly said:
AJB said:
No - it was when it called itself in. It called itself in upto a max of 30,000 miles or 24 months for diesels.
This link provides more information about the schedule and how it can vary depending on the type of driving.http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/regim...
I have a 2001 VW Bora diesel - essentially the same as the golf of that age. Perfect vehicle.
there's a plethora of different amounts of power, pretty much down to the ECU tuning among other tweaks. I have the 115PS model with 191,000 miles on it. Serviced every 10,000 miles and I do about 20,000+ per year.
The 115 engine seem to get through head gaskets fairly readily - mine blew within 3 weeks of purchase, not cheap!
130PS is the one to go for, as far as my experience goes. but they tend to be slightly more pricey predictably.
there's a plethora of different amounts of power, pretty much down to the ECU tuning among other tweaks. I have the 115PS model with 191,000 miles on it. Serviced every 10,000 miles and I do about 20,000+ per year.
The 115 engine seem to get through head gaskets fairly readily - mine blew within 3 weeks of purchase, not cheap!
130PS is the one to go for, as far as my experience goes. but they tend to be slightly more pricey predictably.
aka_kerrly said:
AJB said:
No - it was when it called itself in. It called itself in upto a max of 30,000 miles or 24 months for diesels.
This link provides more information about the schedule and how it can vary depending on the type of driving.http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/regim...
OP: Having also been looking for a new car the last couple of months I can assure that lack of service history, not understanding the difference between a service and a MOT and claims of full service history on nearly every second car are NOT limited to VW Golfs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nearly everyone I know who ISN'T a petrolhead will drive their car every day and not think about servicing but then complain when the car breaks down , usually as a result of a service item failing.
The problem is, i'll bet even the short distance, sharp accelerating, hill climbing under full load folk still opt for the long service intervals.
It certainly means i will open my mind a little more with them though and as per another posters comments i will consider Octavia's as i believe they have the same engines.
We've got one. A 2008 1.9TDI Match with lovely full leather heated sports seats, mmmm...
Absolutely full VAG service history serviced on the dot every time and even goes into the dealer for incidentals like a new blower fan switch (actually the only thing that's ever gone wrong with it now I come to think about it).
Not selling it though, sorry! 75,000 miles in it still looks and drives like a brand new car so there is no point changing it.
Maybe that's the thing, maybe those of us that look after them don't part with them.
Absolutely full VAG service history serviced on the dot every time and even goes into the dealer for incidentals like a new blower fan switch (actually the only thing that's ever gone wrong with it now I come to think about it).
Not selling it though, sorry! 75,000 miles in it still looks and drives like a brand new car so there is no point changing it.
Maybe that's the thing, maybe those of us that look after them don't part with them.
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