Practically Classics Forum

tractorman wrote: Don't believe the "legendary" VW reliability thing - it's a legend based on the Beetle vs other 60's cars

Thirded - I couldn't have put it better myself.

Actually, I'm glad that everything in life isn't as reliable as a VW, it'd be chaos if it were.

Bought my son a Mk4 VW Polo a year ago, it was a major bargain and irresistable at that price. It came with a pack of history, showing that in its 88,000 mile history it had had a LOT of problems....

He's done about 2,000 miles in it, and in that time it's had two engine management faults, a replacement starter motor (this is now the third it's had) and now it needs a replacement gearbox, which will cost us around £800 all in to do.

By modern car standards this simply isn't good enough, I'd expect any modern car to do 150 - 200k before needing things like starters and gearboxes.

We'd have bought a Micra for him if this hadn't come available at a silly low price (it was a friend of my wife's, they virtually gave it to us). At least a Micra would have been reliable!

You will always get those who say that their VW has been perfectly OK, but that also applies to almost any other manufacturer these days, it's certainly not been my experience and there's an army of others who will agree!

I feel strongly about the myth of VW reliability - can you tell?

The VW Camper on Car SOS was a prime example of just how rotten VW's can be. I have seen a few VW vans and cars including Beetles and I am not impressed. Just because it's German or Japanese doesn't make it good. I had a Triumph Stag. Totally reliable. Never overheated, never broke down in 9 years. Some little ******* stole it never to be seeen again. I had a 2.8 Capri Special. Went like stink. Only breakdown in 5 years was a broken rear spring after hitting a large pot hole whilst driving it as they should be. That one was stolen off a secure car park after a bloke with a string of offences for TDA, GBH, ABH etc had it away. Two days later I spotted it being driven around and followed the piece of **** and saw him drive it into the garage of a house. I rang the Police and told them. They told me to keep away as he was not a very nice man and they would deal with it. 19 years later I am still waiting to see if they have been to see him yet. Most unreliable car was a Renault 14. I it could drop off, break, come loose etc etc it did! Next most unreliable car was a Rover SD1 2600. The engine had liners come loose, cam seized, cam belt broke, electrical faults by the dozen, I finally sold it to bloke who ran it for 5 years without a problem!

Micra, reliable? Not that great since the K11 was pensioned off they aren't. There were more soft recalls for Nissans than for every Mexican built car combined between April and the previous April, only the masses don't get to see that info on the web because Nissan are very, very good at securing soft status for most of their potentially critical faults. That said, at least the Washington factory pays well and its workforce set up a well-known Sunderland-based classic vehicle club that's now almost as big as the Nearly Everywheres and has, like them, gone almost national.

The last UK car factory to be involved to that extent in the classic scene was Canley, the cars I've owned that were built there never failed to complete a journey and, if all BL garages back in the day had realised that Dolomite/Stag/TR7/Saab99 heads weren't meant to be cross tightened like these on everyone else's engines, even more of these cars would have remained reliable throughout their typically long service lives. That was a 200,000 mile engine if looked after correctly and both the fours and the eights were advanced for their time.
I wouldn't have another Dolomite unless someone had already fitted the Corsa steering column modification but Stags were available with hydraulic PAS and I could happily live with one of those. Mainly because the DOHC, 3 litre Triumph V8 has a much more musical exhaust note than the better known Rover engine with its pushrods and its American simplicity.

Luxobarge wrote:He's done about 2,000 miles in it, and in that time it's had two engine management faults, a replacement starter motor (this is now the third it's had) and now it needs a replacement gearbox, which will cost us around £800 all in to do.

By modern car standards this simply isn't good enough, I'd expect any modern car to do 150 - 200k before needing things like starters and gearboxes.

I feel strongly about the myth of VW reliability - can you tell?

Not just Tourans then!

And I told you not to get me started on the Starter motor!

But since you have I shall regale you with the story...but I'll do it on my blog rather than polute Rich's further! Sorry again Rich!

Ok not an Espace...but what about the Toyota Previa?

mike, feel free to pollute any of my threads!! its all part of the fun

now tell me all about your starter motor problems
just imagine dr ruths voice when you read that

got the speeding ticket, 91kmh through a 90 limit €45 fine & 1 point... i was 17 days from getting my licence clean again after doing a chris huhne & wife... although i got the points

How many points do you need before you get a prize? Over here, it is 12 points then you get a bus pass

over here you start with 12 points & go down...

rich. wrote:over here you start with 12 points & go down...

So if a Brit had a licence that was suspended because they'd reached the magic dozen, does that mean that this person could go speeding in France and get caught a few times, eventually ending up with a clean licence? At a mere 45 Yoyos, it's a cheap fix!

I reckon that, if you worked it right, things would be great: go over to France with 11 points on your license, get caught eleven times for speeding (or whatever), come back to Blighty with 0 points and do the same here.

Perhaps not!