RE: Shed of the Week: Volkswagen Golf Mk2

[the_hood]

Better than taking the bus. That's it's only positive feature!

[Lester H]

Gribs said:

Spumfry said:

57K miles my arse.
You don't wear through seats like that or polish the steering wheel smooth in that sort of mileage.

I'm presuming mk2 Golf clocks only go up to 100k and then start again.

Agreed, the interior is awful. However having had VWs of this era in the family I learned this: In the short term, they didn’t rust like most contemporaries (then you saw bubbles around fuel filler and wheel arches), brakes were poor because of cheap RHD conversion, seat bolsters on Golf Jetta and Polo looked like they had been inhabited by rats at medium, not intergalactic mileages ,oil dripped from rocker cover direct into alternator, so much so that back street garages had a bent tin remedy ,and similarly a plate, as did RAC patrols, for the clutch cable which ripped through the unreinforced bulkhead. In sum, they appeared so much better than their rivals at the time, though they were sold then, as now, at a premium.

Edited by Lester H on Friday 11th May 22:02

[J4CKO]

It has survived this far, so something in that but they were wilfully dull, even the GTI models were puritanical apart from decent engines but the lowly types were really an exercise in some kind of middle class communism, the basics were right but there was no garnish whatsoever, weedy engine, hair shirt interior, 4 speed gearbox, muscle power windows and no revcounter, but they did the job, the only redeeming feature was they were reasonably well made, in every other metric, an Astra MK2 or even an Escort was more fun.

The classless and timeless thing appeals but as something to actually drive, oh do fk off, pretty turgid, even the 1.8 driver was, 8 valve GTI was good, 16 valve better but the rest, no thanks !

[BFleming]

J4CKO said:

The classless and timeless thing appeals but as something to actually drive, oh do fk off, pretty turgid, even the 1.8 driver was, 8 valve GTI was good, 16 valve better but the rest, no thanks !

But what do you really mean?

[Mr Tidy]

I had a 1980 MK1 1300 GLS back in 1986 and even with an alleged 60 bhp it was painfully slow back then!

And it was revving at over 4,000 rpm at 70 mph in top gear (4th).

My mother had a 1981 MK3 Escort 1300 GL at the time and it was so much quicker!

Some years later I had a MK1 1600cc Golf GTi which was fantastic, as was the MK2 GTi 16V I had later, but a MK2 1300 with seats that have been eaten - just no!

So sticking to the Fleetwood Mac theme it must surely be "Little Lies".

Edited by Mr Tidy on Saturday 12th May 00:11

[soxboy]

I’ve had 3 mk2s that have gone past 100,000 miles and none had an interior looking anywhere near as bad as that, mileage does seem rather fishy.

Likewise it has the wrong front grille (later one fitted), wonder if it’s had a front end bump at some point?

[FN2TypeR]

1974foggy said:

Reminds me of my second car, a basic 1.3 CL, (The joke being, as they were so poorly specced, that the CL stood for cigarette lighter).
Progress was leisurely to say the least, but on mines spax suspension at least i didnt need to slow for corners (Handled so, so well).
My 16v mk2 that followed was so unreliable in comparison.
This just brings home how well specified cars of today are as well.

That really made me chuckle

[Kawasicki]

As others have mentioned the interior is trashed way more than the mileage warrants. I‘ve driven a fair few VW golfs from this era and even with 300,000 miles they looked way better than this car.

[CDP]

Kawasicki said:

As others have mentioned the interior is trashed way more than the mileage warrants. I‘ve driven a fair few VW golfs from this era and even with 300,000 miles they looked way better than this car.

The interior certainly looks to be of a car with 200,000 miles (at least) but the from the pictures the bodywork looks excellent. This doesn't really tie up.

Maybe it once belonged to Edward Scissor Hands?

[loose cannon]

No thanks surprised it hasn’t been Chav’d to death by the dub crew, so for that alone it can have 1 point

[JoshMay]

I had a GTI one of these in purple with the number plate ending MHV the ‘Mauve Horny Vehicle’ as it was branded, was a pocket rocket that took me and up to 4 mates at speed all over Europe for a summer for £1,500.
It had 120k on the clock and rock solid reliability, despite a horrid 1990’s paint job.
I loved it and have a soft spot for Golfs as a result, happy memories.