VW Golf Match 1.4.

Excellent buy and the most reliable car ive ever owned.

Bought this Golf at 3 years old with 35,600 miles on the clock from the main VW Dealership on Heigham Street Norwich. Ok it's the smallest engine fitted to the MK4 but was suitable for my needs as a commuter and shopping vehicle as my other forms of transport were Honda Fireblades for more serious fun!!.
Not meaning to keep this car as long as i have, it has never given me much reason to change it.
I have now had the car 16 years and it's only ever thrown up one fault which was at 12 years old and was a Temperature Sensor. This brought on the engine management light, and which was diagnosed via a code reader/laptop at my local independant garage and at the same time swapped out the original battery as it was showing to be labouring on cold mornings.
This car is still looking great with no lacquer peel on the Diamond Black Pearl paint and still shines well from getting a good coat of wax twice a year!
It's just passed another MOT with no advisories on 72,200 miles so set for another year of cheap motoring, although the Road Tax[RFL] is now £220/year.
No rust/no blistering of the front wheelarches! Alloys still looking like new! The MOT tester tells me "all good underneath" and the emissions are zero C02 as i have run the car on Shell V-Power since buying it [as i did my Fireblades] I have kept on top of Cambelts/Waterpumps and Auxillery Belts every 5-6 years by independant garages.
So, It's like money in the bank this car as i never need to spend anything on it other than general servicing which i do myself.Thankfully it has Hydraulic Tappets/Valves so keeping clean oil in the engine is the best thing for looking after these. Amazing really!!. And it's on the original Catalytic Convertor at 19 years.
So, still got the Golf and just before this last MOT it threw-up it's second fault which was the dreaded central locking issue that i had been warned about on Golfs over the years that effected the rear offside door which locked shut and wouldn't respond to either the fob or key in the door.
While deciding what to do to open this door after contacting a number of independent VW dealers who ALL said that they couldn't help with getting the door open but could fit a new TPS supplied locking mechanism once i had fathomed a way of getting it open myself, I had a bit off luck while driving the car one day and at the same time flicking the lock/unlock button on the drivers door switch panel a number of times and it popped up out of the blue!!
Anyway, a good friend from Pete's Motors unplugged the the locking module/mechanism leaving the door in fully manual mode which could still be locked by pressing the button down and unlocked by pulling the internal door pull/release which then allows the door to be opened from the outside for the MOT to be achieved. This then saved me between £270 to £764 going by the quotes i was given.
Electric window plug not touched and still works and NO lights on the dashboard.
The car is 20 years old now so i can live with a few manual choices that saves me money as i never take rear passengers anyway. Had the car 17 years today and i am hoping for at least 2 more MOT's before i pass it on.

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