'96 Golf

[tkoole]

I have just recently begun looking at some used golfs and this is one that i ran accross today. I was just wondering whether there were some recurring problems with this year or model.

1996 VW GOFL CL

2 door
1.8L 4cyl gas
manual
FWD

Thanks for the help.

[Mr_Diesel]

A 1.8L engine eh? Where are you located? I haven't had too many problems with my Mark III volkswagens. The issues I can recall are wheel bearings in the front... but that was only because my car had 190,000 miles. I also had trouble with my instrument cluster (on the same car) which I had to replace. I honestly think these are some of the more reliable cars you can get.

Is your 1.8L engine carb or fuel injection?

[tkoole]

Thanks for the feed back. I live in St. Catharines, Ontario.

I think, but not positive that it is fuel injected.

[Mr_Diesel]

Yeah... The Mark III Jetta is a terrific car, man. If you take care of them, they will take care of you. I purchased my first Mark III Jetta with 182,000 miles on it. I drove it clear into the mid 250's before I decided to overhaul the engine. Hell... you can pickup a Mark 3 these days for around $2,000 USD. I think that is an unbelievable deal for a German car, no matter what the make or model.

[zukgod1]

Gotta figure in here as well that 15 years ago the German's were designing their cars to last 150k+ while the US was going for 100k max, time has only improved, figure the Germans are shooting for 300k at this point and I don't see that as a problem at all.

It's hard to beat a German car that's not been beat to death, heck I looked at a 89 mk2 the other day that had clearly been abused it's entire life and the dang thing still ran good and was safe structurally.
Ugly as hell but drive able.

My mk2 diesel has 200k on it and it would have had more had the PO not ran it out of oil and tossed a rod out the front of the block. You can still see the cross hatch in the bores and there is no ridge either. To bad the block is junk. :(

German cars ROCK!!

[DerSubtileVento]

Yeah... The Mark III Jetta is a terrific car, man. If you take care of them, they will take care of you.

I can vouch for this statement. I bought my Jetta just over a year ago and it has been great to me with just some minor maintenance items, but what do you expect when you buy a car with 100K+ miles. You'll have to do some basic things.

I couldn't be happier with mine, unless it had a BBM S/C kit on it, of course... :D

[tkoole]

hey guys, thanks for the input. i picked the car up on monday and it runs beautifully, ill post some pictures soon.

[zukgod1]

Good deal, get some pics.... :)

[tkoole]

http://www.dubnetworks.net/dubhost/d/3091-2/DSCN5831.JPG (http://www.dubnetworks.net/dubhost/v/tkoole/DSCN5831.JPG.html)
http://www.dubnetworks.net/dubhost/d/3095-2/DSCN5832.JPG (http://www.dubnetworks.net/dubhost/v/tkoole/DSCN5832.JPG.html)

its a bit dirty, but its winter, what can you do...
there are more photos in the album.