Volkswagen Owners?

[rasp]

Just traded a 96 golf, needed a head gasket, entire exhaust, and other odd suspension issues. It was fun to drive and served well, even put up with a fair bit of abuse from me

 

[CanadaRAM]

VW hater here. Had a Rabbit. Shoddy, shoddy quality. Neighbor has a Golf Cabriolet. We can count on her stalling an restarting 4 - 6 times before she can actually get to the end of the block. VW 'factorytrained' mechanics can't do anything for her.

 

[bousozoku]

You mean for the frequent repairs or for the added weight to keep it on the road in a stiff breeze? The trunk lid had this nasty habit of flying up when it got too windy, so along with the extra weight I needed to tie down the trunk with bungie cords so I could avoid it popping up on the freeway.

One feature I liked about the old '55 bug was the reserve tank. There was no gas gauge, just a lever on the floor you flipped with your foot when you started to run out of gas. Gave you an extra gallon of gas to get to a station. It was also one of the few cars I could push by myself. Came in useful when I had to start it by pushing the car and then jumping in to pop the clutch.

For the added weight--I thought that everyone knew that. My parents had a 1960 Beetle in Japan that was transported to the U.S.A. and later, a 1970 convertible. The toolkit approach also worked in our 1965 Chevrolet Corvair. That needed it for frequent repairs, the Beetles didn't.

It's kinda funny about the reserve tank. My VWs have let me know when there is about 1 gallon left. Thankfully, they dropped the single turn signal indicator.

 

[oreomac]

Especially in a 1980's Turbo form...

The Beetle just lacks plain mechanical grip... takes commitment to hustle one, but it's massively rewarding when you do. 3rd 50-60, tight and twisty lane... far more engaging than ANY Mini.

I'd have to agree with you there about the mini, I've had so many mini's but once I got my beetle, they were no where near as good as the beetle, also they don't stand up accidents getting hit by lorries (trucks) like old beetles do, everything just bounces off them

 

[rickvanr]

I'd have to agree with you there about the mini, I've had so many mini's but once I got my beetle, they were no where near as good as the beetle, also they don't stand up accidents getting hit by lorries (trucks) like old beetles do, everything just bounces off them

The new ones are fairly good on low speed impacts. I remember seeing on TV that they could sustain a 30km/h front or rear hit without sustaining damage. I couldn't stop soon enough one time, and my car was fine.

 

[adk]

I have a 2000 jetta with the base 4-banger. It's a nice car, just hellaciously slow. A lot of stuff breaks on it though. The Driver's side window actuator or something has broken twice. Fortunately, this is a documented problem and VW extended the warranty on this problem. Oh, and the other day My car got sort of steamy on the inside, which caused something in the LCD odometer display to short out, leaving me with no odometer for a week..... fortunately that problem fixed itself.

 

[mrfrosty]

I have a 2001 VW Golf GT TDI (130 BHP Version). Its is nice, but for some reason I can't get attached to it. Not like the freelander we had before...

All this car talk reminds me of a Jimmy Carr joke....

"Women say a mans car is usually just a pe*is extension, what does that mean for women who drive the renault espace?"

 

[pseudobrit]

All this car talk reminds me of a Jimmy Carr joke....

"Women say a mans car is usually just a pe*is extension, what does that mean for women who drive the renault espace?"

And now half the forum is asking "what's a Renault?"

 

[mrfrosty]

And now half the forum is asking "what's a Renault?"

That's the beauty of the information superhighway, you can find out anything.

 

[bousozoku]

And now half the forum is asking "what's a Renault?"

Do you remember the deal with American Motors and the jokes about handing out cans of Franco-American Spaghettios with each purchase of a Renault 9/Alliance?

At least, the Zastava Yugo ($3999 when other cars were $6999 minimum) kept people from thinking that French cars were the worst built.

 

[iGav]

And now half the forum is asking "what's a Renault?"

Though those that are old enough should remember the Le Car and Fuego from the '80's.