Quote:
Originally Posted by LingLongRaceTeam
its not weird, almost all our european ****box-hatchbacks are handling similar. ^^
I had an Seat Arosa (= VW Lupo) with an 1.7 non Turbo. 230.000 Miles in 4 Years. Cornered also pretty well, but had also its flaws. Parts were pretty expensive, every year a timing belt change, no A/C Available, and needed all the time new doorstraps.
The Non-Turbo engines were low mainteance compared to never ones, thats true. But off course they needed (and need) a little more then glow plugs.
Timing belt, injectors, and after a certain mileage the distributor injection pump needs some work.
I wouldnt go such long distances in these cars today, they were built to keep to price low, but such a lack of comfort wasnt even back in the day necessary. On the other hand the Golf was the sucessor of the bug, so for the typical VW Driver this was already ScienceFiction.
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Thanks for putting it into perspective. For long trips the car was rather uncomfortable. Still, the car seemed quite awesome for it's age.
What I liked about the Golf diesel was that it was easy to work on. I had a factory repair manual and could change everything myself. But the Toyota hybrids I have now are different. I want to change the brake fluid on them, but can't without a $600 tool and a $2000/year subscription. I even took the Avalon to the dealer (200 miles away) and asked if they would do it. They took the car, changed the oil instead and "forgot" to change brake fluid.
What I liked about the Golf is that it still didn't even burn oil, even with so many miles on it. I did have to change out a couple seals so it wouldn't leak, but that was about it. The Prius burns oil, about 2 quarts per oil change. And it has only 200,000 miles on it, less than half what the Golf had. And of course that has now fouled the catalytic converter. I'm looking at the possibility of having to change out the rings and pistons. And if the block is scratched, that would be the end of story for the Prius because the block can't be bored. Unlike the Golf, that if I ever did need to rebuild the engine I could bore the block and drop in some oversized pistons.
The Prius also is having hybrid battery problems, I had to change out a module because of a dead cell. I know this is a temporary fix, and will cost me potentially thousands to fix properly. My Golf never had a problem like that in the 7 years I owned it, and it was over 30 years old. The Prius I've only owned for one year, and it's only 15 years old. The Prius is also needing a wheel bearing, and the dash lights aren't working either now.
Long trips? I feel somewhat the other way around, I'd still take the Golf on a hundreds of miles trip, but not the Prius, even though it's much newer. Even if I got everything fixed on the Prius it would be a while before I trusted it.
In the Avalon, the radio stopped working and I can't figure out how to fix it. And looking in the previous owner's repair notes, this isn't the first time it has gone out. In the Golf I could just swap out the radio for something else if it ever stopped working. I did change the transaxle fluid and the radiator fluid on it though. But I still can't do the brake fluid. (How infuriating!)
I also use two sets of rims for winter and summer tires. Well that makes the TPMS light stay on all winter long. And these cars don't do near as well going slow in the snow.
It's just several little things like these that drive me nuts with newer cars.