Golf's on rainy days

Cius

Cius

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So I always take a perverse kind of interest on very wet days seeing which cars break down. Yesterday during the JHB downpour I passed 4 broken down cars on my way home from work. Every last one of them was a VW golf. This did not surprise me at all. I really don't get the love for VW some people have, especially the Golf. I have driven a few VW's that other people owned and have personally known 20 VW's owned by either friends, family, businesses, etc. Of those 20 VW's I seem to recall 5 where complete lemon's perpetually breaking down or costing money. Another 5 or so where not outright lemons but they caused occasional issues. The rest where good to great. Funnily enough of the 20 VW's most of the bad one's where Golf's or Caravels and most of the decent one's where either Jetta's or Polo's. The Golf fanboys need to explain this to me.

I seriously don't understand why people still go for such a crap brand. On the other hand I have had the opposite impression of Honda's. They seem indestructible and the most reliable car you can own these days. Also the KIA/Hyndai brands seem to have fixed up their image in a big way. I am hearing all kinds of good things about the newer models of those cars as well as about their value for money.

So what is your impressions of different brands. Share your most and least reliable car brands here.
 
I had a problem with some or other fuse that is housed in a really stupid place. When it rains, the housing gets wet and shorts the fuse leaving the golf dead. I had the housing moved after my mechanic told me about this when he had to revive my car and I haven't had a problem since.
 
I have a little VW Playa with over 200 000 on the clock and he has not broken down with me on the highway once. Even with the rain yesterday and going through deep pools of water, surely getting the engine wet, no problems what so ever.
 
I saw 2 new Polos stuck in a lane on the highway with hazards on last night, also saw a Maserati stuck on William Nicol, if that helps.
 
Been looking at getting a new small car and it was quite funny to see that the Polo 1.4 which costs R155k doesn't even have a radio(~R4k) or A/C(~R9.5k):wtf:

I simply can't understand why people buy these things(at these prices).
 
Yep, all the older brands are loosing out to the cheaper cars these days. VW, Honda, Opel, Toyota, they all seem expensive these days. The brands that are growing in SA are Suzuki, Hyndai, and Kia. Just in my area I have seen a few dealers closing recently yet a big new Kia got opened on the corner of CR Swart and Malibongwe. Tells you a bit about affordability.
 
Ockie said:
I have a little VW Playa with over 200 000 on the clock and he has not broken down with me on the highway once. Even with the rain yesterday and going through deep pools of water, surely getting the engine wet, no problems what so ever.
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Yep. I know of a lot of those that are doing great. They seem to have made a good car there at least.
 
Had to do 400 km through the storm for work purposes. Saw a couple of broken down Citi Golfs (and a Nissan bakkie).

On the drive I was amusing myself by seeing which cars seemed to handle the wet weather better than others (not just from a reliability point of view). Looks like the difference between different types of cars grows as the conditions get more challanging.
 
A while back I used to post pictures here of VWs that broke down, but I got bored because it happened so much. Now in their defense, they sell the most cars so you should expect to see the majority of break downs to be a VW.

That being said I am of the opinion that VW quality is over rated and they are over priced. Still if you look after your car, no matter what brand, it is extremely unlikely that it will leave you standing next to the road.

PS. Not every VW hater is me :p
 
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@Cius

Are you talking Golfs in general or are you referring to Golf 1/2/3. On most these golfs there were no splash plates, so if they go through big puddles, water will splash and wet the distributor and/or the coil. This will cause it to die.

If newer cars die while driving through puddles, then the splash plate has be removed or the driver stood still in a dam of water and the electronics got wet.
 
Bah.

Had a Golf once. Never again, it cost me a lot of money to keep running. Clutch plate kept on breaking :mad: That, or either the pushrod drill a hole right through the pressure plate. Poor design. I don't want that sort of junk anymore.

In contrast, my Corolla (1996) still is going strong, despite a minor engine overhaul (valve stem seals replaced) and the odd CV boot or two, and a clutch replacement @ 400000kms.
 
Keep a can of wd40/tool in a can or similar in your car for this type of problem.

My UNO used to give me endless hassles, I used gasket maker to seal the carb and just keep a can of tool in a can handy for the really hectic bits (road leading to our house floods whenever it rains, water up to the car's doors).

Spray everything that might be effected by water if it's rainy and no issues.
 
pjjdp said:
@Cius

Are you talking Golfs in general or are you referring to Golf 1/2/3. On most these golfs there were no splash plates, so if they go through big puddles, water will splash and wet the distributor and/or the coil. This will cause it to die.

If newer cars die while driving through puddles, then the splash plate has be removed or the driver stood still in a dam of water and the electronics got wet.
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The cheaper golf's definitely. GTI's and Golf 5-6 I think are OK, or at least I have not heard of issues beyond my cousin in law having a succesion of GTI's stolen. I think in the 90's they had that Golf Chico or whatever and that was just a horrible car. Still, my dad owned two caravels while we grew up, top of the line expensive cars and they sucked. The engine was a V5 audi in both cases so it was OKish (used oil) but the bodywork was horrific. Endless issues with things falling off, aircon, central locking, electronic parts, you name it.
 
My boss had a 2.5i Kombi in the early 90's. Gave him lots of problems. Overheating was the biggest problem.
It was a straight 5 engine.

I drove it to JHB on many occasions from Estcourt.
 
Cius said:
So I always take a perverse kind of interest on very wet days seeing which cars break down. Yesterday during the JHB downpour I passed 4 broken down cars on my way home from work. Every last one of them was a VW golf. This did not surprise me at all. I really don't get the love for VW some people have, especially the Golf. I have driven a few VW's that other people owned and have personally known 20 VW's owned by either friends, family, businesses, etc. Of those 20 VW's I seem to recall 5 where complete lemon's perpetually breaking down or costing money. Another 5 or so where not outright lemons but they caused occasional issues. The rest where good to great. Funnily enough of the 20 VW's most of the bad one's where Golf's or Caravels and most of the decent one's where either Jetta's or Polo's. The Golf fanboys need to explain this to me.

I seriously don't understand why people still go for such a crap brand. On the other hand I have had the opposite impression of Honda's. They seem indestructible and the most reliable car you can own these days. Also the KIA/Hyndai brands seem to have fixed up their image in a big way. I am hearing all kinds of good things about the newer models of those cars as well as about their value for money.

So what is your impressions of different brands. Share your most and least reliable car brands here.
Click to expand...

What was the ratio between black and white Golfs next to the road? Was it mostly white Golfs that were breaking down? Hehehe...couldn't resist, Cius.
 
I'm just popping by to drop my extreme distaste for the VW Golf on the table.
The Citi Golf is probably the worst car I have ever driven, and I've driven a few. I have absolutely no idea why someone would even consider buying such an overpriced, boring and breakdown prone piece of crap when there's a ton of other options out there.
 
pjjdp said:
My boss had a 2.5i Kombi in the early 90's. Gave him lots of problems. Overheating was the biggest problem.
It was a straight 5 engine.

I drove it to JHB on many occasions from Estcourt.
Click to expand...
We had a 2.1i watercooled boxer Microbus. It was a good car but like all German cars if you do not take good car of it and have it serviced by reputable dealers it will let you down, again and again. Sold it on 235,000km after the 3rd engine and 2nd gearbox. Not a bad car but if you want it to keep on going you need to take special care of it. Japanese cars are not as fussy, we have a '93 KB 2.5 which is still going strong and our '82 Hilux 2.4D also ran beautifully until most of it rusted away.
 
Gee, Rouxy get yourself an Ipod or similar modern player as your broken gramophone vinyl record-player is getting quite old now. That needle is stuck deep in it's groove and will not last much longer. Repetitions on that anti VW theme must be very energy wasting, use it to enjoy your weekend instead. :whistle::erm::D
 
Quick question to the OP , did they look like standard golfs or where they modified by the driver to travel the speed of light ?
 
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