2001 Volkswagen Golf GLS 1.8T Reviews

Thanks to my autophile father I was pretty much born with petrol coarsing through my veins and grew up lusting after italian exotica and french ingenuity.

So when it came to fulfilling my motoring destiny by parting with the hard earned, I fully expected to return home with a sonorous and stylish Alfa or a quirky old Citroen.

How then did I become the owner of a Volkswagen Golf? And not even the iconic mk1, desirable mk2 or rejuvenated mk5, nope the stodgy if solid mk4.

The actual reasons for this decision are somewhat dull and practical and as it happens I'm planning to swap it for aforementioned alfa in the next few months. But saying goodbye to the Golf won't be as easy as you may think. It may be staid, evolutionary and a little bit dull, but even to a petrolhead like me there has been a guilty pleasure about owning this car.

Mine is a 1.8T GTI which helps the case enormously. The engine must be the pick of the mk4 bunch; it is silken smooth and pulls like a train, with lovely turbo torque from 2000rpm and some good old fashioned top end go as the 20 valves come on song around 4000rpm.

The GTI also has significantly firmer springing and weightier steering than your boggo 1.6. Neither of these is going to mask the inherent shortcomings of the mk4 chassis, and on your favourite piece of twisty road it feels safe and competent rather than fun and involving. But in 90% of real world driving this is irrelevant.

What is relevent, is where you are sitting and what you've got and here the Golf excels. It is beautifully built (far nicer than the mk5) and in GTI trim very well equipped - my favourite feature being the superb recaro seats which are comfortable and supportive.

And then there's all the other stuff about owning a Golf, like good reliability and strong resale values which shouldn't get you excited but when it's your own money does.

So there you go, i've said it, I'm glad to own a mk4 Golf and frankly would recommend it to anyone. Now where did I put that Alfa brochure....  

fun to drive, good torque and hp. very good handling. not that gas consuming. interior very roomy for a hatch. maintenance is expensive when major parts brake. interior has couple of defaults, no car is perfect, but this one was the most fun i had of all.

The turbo ensures good acceleration and sounds cool. The
handling is good. The best things are the ride quality and build
quality, good german engineering. I like the apperance too
nice interior. The fuel consumption  is average, 35 mpg ish.

I owned this car for more than three years and it put a smile on my face everytime I planted my foot on the accelerator. This car has it all acceleration, handling, comfort, reliability and its practical. Only problem was the 25MPG.

This car is a blast to drive.  Its pure farfanugen.  The turbo is a lot of fun to wind up and let go.  Also, I have moved between 3 apartments with this car and the only thing it couldn't handle were my bed and my sofa.  Its basically the same car as my dad's Audi A4.  Same engine, better sound system, but the golf dosen't have 4 wheel drive or independent rear suspension.  The brakes are a little different too.