Golf GTi Disappointment

Is this possible?!!!??!

After years of owning and maintaining and repairing mk2 golf Gtis I moved on to various company cars, and a Subaru impreza which was great, and a Volvo T5 which was super fast. I now have a passat company car, and have bought a 1997 mk3 Golf Gti 8v.

What happened?

My car is slow, lazy around the bends, poor braking (ABS issues!) and worst of all its very poorly built. There is mass corrosion in many places which I am very disappointed about.

What happened to the charisma of the mk1 and mk2 golfs? Do any of you own a mk3 which is good? Should I sell the 8v and get a 16v or should I go back to the mk2? Should I but a performance exhaust/filter on it chip it???! New Cam?!!! Or just buy a car thats fast to start with?????

Comments on your rides and preferences to guide me is greatly appreciated! I am soooooo disappointed!

 

if you were local id let you try mine, but mine isnt really too civilised anymore.

the standard mk3 was really under damped hence the handling suffered.

they do rust, that ****es me off cos i cant fix rust.

they last well, mine is on 190k miles now. the 16v one does go well is sorted out properly.

but a mk3 8v, engine wise its not a fireball but chassis wise, with the right tweaks it can be good

 

compared to an impreza or a T5 its going to feel so slow!!!!

 

Hi, i got my self a Mk3 gti coulour concept last week and on the first day i thought WoW what a nice car then the next day [:^(] Its got a bad miss fire and wont rev over 5k. So since last monday i have been spending money on it to try and get it sorted but its still there. Now today the clutch is slipping and i am ready to get the hammer out and have a smashing time. A lot of years ago i had one of these cars and all i did then was spend money on it and i now think why the hell did i get another Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

well mk3's are pretty easy to fix, parts are fairly cheap. Its at least 10years old if not older so things will go wrong. Mine has been 100% reliable though so can't complain

 

Ive had my mk3 for 2 years now and I've spent a massive 32 on a coil and 8 on an oil pressure switch and put in 2 litres of oil in it over that time. The problem with the oil pressure switch was that it was pumping out oil so some of that 2 litres went that way and not burnt in the engine. This is a good car. I'm off to the Essex meet soon so I hope I havent bock myself. Mine pretty standard and I agree with the suspension comments as it does have a bit of roll. Mines done 117000 miles and it would give others a run for there money.

 

Two years and no full oil & filter change?
Note to self; Do not buy a car from this man

 

^^^ best thing for it.... pamper a car and it just bites you in the ****... abuse it and it loves you. 50k miles in mine with one full service, and that was only because my garage did it for for free......

 

Or that one^^^

 

Yup make this one a sticky as i have a bad memory...

 

I would never sell my gti anyway so your safe!!!! lol.... I had a passat td once with full history at VW, imacculate which blew up within a 1000 miles of me buying it!!!

Bought my golf and its been 100% reliable, hence why i wouldn't sell it

 

Well i think mine was patched up so it would sell. Its a shame some ppl are like that in this world but when its sorted out i guess it will be a good car again. Just have to keep my chin up and keep spending i guess

 

i vagcom'd his car tonight. no faults, it gets big mpg too. its a healthy abf, and hes only done c.7k miles in those years, innit

 

I had the same thought, then deleted it rather than post it

 

I've had my mk3 8v for 8 and a bit years now and I still get pleasure from it. I've put 75,000 miles onto it (got it with 20k, so total 95k). For the first 3 years, I hand-washed the car two or three times a week and waxed it fairly regularly too. It was mint and people used to comment on the car regularly. However, I've let it slip badly since, although its still a fairly tidy wee car.

I suppose its what your used to - my Golf fits me like a favourite pair of trainers. I know what to expect from it all the time - mine is standard apart from a Jetex stainless exhaust and I find it reasonably quick still and I love how it handles - I think you get the best from it when you know it well, know when to push and when to lift, when to turn in hard, etc - hard to explain in words, but on the road it comes intuitively to me in my car.

Its also been very reliable - only once has it let me down - the coil. I've spent minimum cash on it and it never skips a beat. Also, there isn't much rust on mine - one spot at the bottom of the passenger door which I believe was caused by a stone chip and has been noticable for 6 years, yet is still not big.

I love my mk3.

 

couldn't agree more about the first bit, even on the standard 4x4 suspension I used to have great fun in mine. The back end has always been fairly snappy, but i got used to it and really enjoyed driving it and felt in total control right upto the limit

 

yup, you have to learn how to drive around the car's inherent retardedness. they can be pedelled along at a fair old rate, it just takes "involvement" lol

 

You ever read Kells post about his dads mk4??? Full VW service history - engine blew up at 70k....

I have always changed the air filter regularly and never ran it low on oil, but only did one complete oil and filter change after 20k miles and it hasn't missed a beat and pulls hard

 

*shock horror*

person disappointed by Mk3 GTI

 

hed be on suicide watch if he got a mk4