Welcome to this page, I passed my test when I was 20 and since then I've only ever driven 5 cars, a lot of the forum user names I created were focussed around my first car I used to love it. The cars I've had over the years were as follows and some comments I had about them. For the most newer cars I've added some technical documents to my Youtube videos and download section on common faults that occur with the cars and how to resolve them (or possible solutions to attempt to fix them). I'm a lot more mechanically savvy now so I'm not afraid to do things myself on cars. Although note to self, any auto-electrical work, remember to disconnect batteries first. Me and electricity don't mix well :O)
My first car on passing my test at 20 (I think!), this model has a 1.9 Turbo Charged Engine via a Lucas Fuel Pump (Bosch ones were better although these I believe were only fitted to the DTurbos (3-door)). I was happy when I bought the car because it was my first car, got screwed on prices when I first bought it (think it was £3500 at the time) and £1500 for insurance on the thing (TPF&T) but I was happy paying it because I had my eyes set on the car, and quite frankly it had more performance than other shitty cars that was recommended for those who had just passed their driving tests!
In terms of performance the car had 92hp and I think 155lb/ft of torque, it fairly hauled arse and was good for towing. These cars are reliable when driven, being young and stupid I risked my lifes multiple times the way I used to drive the car and calling back to it can't believe the things I used to do. When I was into my cars and the whole "cruising" scene I was regularly driving around locally and did around 27,000 miles in 6 months (and around £200+) in fuel of my first week of owning the car. Naturally I wanted faster being a car modifier and made the fatal flaw of thinking I new it all, fucked on with the engine timing and screwed around with the hard rev limiter on the Peugeot (was mechanical fuel injection on these things not electronic) I drove very fast and driving home @ 30mph the engine just ground to a halt
Long story short, I had the car towed to a garage, I found out my antics had destroyed the entire turbo and top half of the engine, I paid £1500 to get the engine rebuilt (only 52,000 miles on failure)... note to all you n0000bs who think of rebuilding, it's USUALLY cheaper to swap the engine than rebuild it, only recommend rebuilding if you're good with a spanner or know you can do it cheaper! Anyway, I had the engine rebuilt, after 1.5 months of the car off the road I got it back (weird feeling when driving too) drove it around and probably the same day the engine overheated and seized, needless to say I broke down in tears and sold the car in parts suffering a major heartbreak and a loss of probably £6000-7000 in car, labour, engine repairs. So a warning to all you know-it-alls, reap what you sew. Look after your car, it will look after you!
Didn't have much money after the incident with my Peugeot so about 3 months later I bought the cheapest car I could afford (think it was £400) and the same price to insure the thing. Anyway, I can't really fault this car, an old 95 M-Reg, I was a lot more respectful and it ran on fresh air, no matter how little in the tank. The engine was a bit shitty req'd a mobile mechanic to clean it and I'm not / wasn't technically savvy at the time and got it up and running. Only reason I got rid of it was quite frankly it was like an elephant in a match box I was tiny, oh and the fact that come MOT time the engine failed on emissions probably due to piston ring wear and being a complete rot box, so it was scrapped (I think can't remember now)
My second car following getting rid of the Fiesta, I had this car for nearly 2-3 years, EXCELLENT all around motor, I bought it for £300 and quite frankly wasn't going to argue, it had 191,000 miles on it when I bought it and 210,000 when I scrapped it. Full electrics, full leather and a aggressive look (I love the front ends of cars the old P10 Nissan Primeras and the fronts on 306 DTurbos (square fogs) they appeal to me) anyway, the engine was a 2 litre, not too bad on economy, but the car was a bastard for snapping exhausts. Was so damn low as standard, kept pissing me off. I'd definately have another one of these cars, engine was done via a timing chain so always best performance and never used a single drop of oil / water. Brilliant motor and if you can ignore the old mans image, these things are quite poky for their size (especially the GT and SRi) I believe the old P10 eGT had an 8500 redline!
My next replacement car after scrapping the Primera and quite frankly my first experience into VW ranges. I've always loved the VAG family (ever since Herbie!) and will still do. The old cars like this one are reliable as shit and you can't fault them for reliability. Only thing I'd warn you is to make sure you get a one which has LOTS of service history or you're asking for problems with the motor. My Passat had none, in terms of reliable the car never broke down once. I paid £1500 for the vehicle, with 147,000 miles on it, stopped driving at 183,000 miles due to the vehicle showing major signs of headgasket failure. I'm currently stripping it down to sell for spares or repairs. The vehicle was still running when I stopped using it, but it was costing more money to repair so in the long run I got a new motor. Mine was the AFN Engine, they're WIDELY reliable if maintained, I neglected maintenance on mine (did nearly 30k with no oil change and not realising it), towing my brothers VXR home and a vehicle with limp mode problems (due to turbo vanes jammming) - see what I warned you earlier about the cars. End result was an overheated engine (first time ever) this is I believe what screwed the engine up, causing it to overheat and warp the head. I'm going to strip the engine down to inspect it. As for performance, the car had 110hp and 173lb/ft of torque as standard, fairly quick. Never bothered fixing the limp mode issues. Watch out for water ingress faults too ;o)
This vehicle is no longer owned by me as of 17/10/18, another driver collided into it when I was going home. The steering on the car was damaged. The car insurance wrote the vehicle off as a total loss. I was paid the "market" value of the car for it's age and mileage £1607.00, but I couldn't buy the car back because it was a total loss. The majority of the damage was taken by side impact, which translated into the steering when the car hit the kerb knocking the tracking out and the steering rack started making clunking noises - to add insult to injury I ended up needing Physiotheraphy because of a back injury. A low speed (~30mph} impact doesn't seem like much, but I can assure you another car which hits you hard enough to slow a 1400kg vehicle down to a stop is enough to cause some damage. Needless to say, I'm gutted - a car I owned for several years and had plans for gone :(
The newest car I have to date (54-plate) and still it's 12 years old! Bought the car with 39,000 miles on it, cost me £7000 and it has full dealer history from new. I scanned it with VAGCOM and 0 faults!
I bought this car after owning my Passat and wanted something from the Volkswagen range, I wanted something reliable for work and VW still has good reliability. The car has a really good performance figures although the handling is a bit shit in my opinion. Factory figures are 140hp and 255lb/ft torque (although values on the web suggest it's nearer 150 standard). I'm going to get the car rolling road for a bassline performance and then get a Superchip Bluefin installed, this should take it to nearly 180hp and 300lb/ft torque. I drive like a grandad but I'm not afraid to put my foot down. Most MPG I've ever gained has been around 72mpg (driving very gently, no harsh acceleration etc) at @ 13'c. Normal day to day B-Road driving I get about 52mpg average and around 48mpg on motorways / dual carriageways. I bought this car over the 170hp version because I'd read there is negligble difference between the 140/170 but my primary concern was the 170 had issues with injector recall and also the DPF filters are bastards. For reference however these cars aren't fault free, they do suffer from bad ECU Maps, Injector Faults and Electrical gremlins but I'll come to that when I cross it. My car has a hot-start issue, but I don't really power cycle the engine much when hot so hasn't really bothered me yet and superchipping them sometimes fixes it. A car review is coming up on my Youtube channel in the upcoming future for the golf so watch out for it. I'm always adding technical VW documents to my site aswell.
This vehicle is no longer on the road as of 07/03/20 - The gearbox seized on the car. I decided it wasn't financially vehicle to keep the vehicle on the road as I needed something reliable for work, so I'm changing cars.
After my VW Golf was written off, I wanted a cheap run about - quite frankly haven't got much interest in the car. Not intending to keep it as a long term solution, I juss miss the Golf too much. When I went to to buy the car it looked familiar and I couldn't figure out why. There was something about the car. Turns out it was owned by someone I work with, that's why I had a Deja-Vu feeling. From when I used to see it in the works car park. There's nothing really much to do with these cars. Nissan engines are reliable, you have to watch out for the timing chains. The QG15DE engine had a timing chain stretch issue (it affects ALL the 1.5 Petrols), normally starts with shitty fuelling issue, then eventually misfires and stalls. You get red-herrings like crankshaft sensor timing issues
I had a guaranteed bank loan of £7000 so I was looking at a buying a VW Tiguan R-Line from Leeds through a company called WR Car Sales. I was going to buy the vehicle directly on reputation/reviews of the company alone because they were so highly recommended without even viewing the vehicle. However they pissed me off with the constant questions and didn't even bother getting back to me with simple things like the vehicle registration. As much as I loved the vehicle (really loved it), it wasn't worth the hassle of going back and forth to me if they couldn't even do the basics. So I purchased another car from somewhere local. I've been depressed since my Golf was written off, and wanted something VW again. So Audi it was
This is my current vehicle, my 2nd purchase from DH Car Sales in Seaham. I got around 15 months of driving before failure on the Almera. So the car overall was OK for it's age. Due to the Audi A3 being a VAG essentially and similar to the Golf MK5 I owned (it's actually using the same BKD engine as my old Golf). I'm faimilar with a lot of things that can wrong on these cars (Steering Racks, ABS Pumps are the biggies). The service history looked good on the vehicle. So I purchased it. I'll be documenting the money I spend on the vehicle in the service history as always, given that this vehicle is VAG and was 4 x the price of the Almera I expect it to be more reliable. For my own piece of mind, I purchased a 6-month warranty for the car aswell to help cover me financially (unlimited £1000 claims in 6-months) which I hope to never need. In terms of overall thoughts on the car. I have to admit I was seriously impressed. I've nick named the car Stormin Norman, it's been looked after well. Pulls like a damn train.
Incase you're wondering by the way, the colour of this car is paint code LZ6E. I'm not sure of it's exact name, from what I find online it's either Tief Green, Cambridge Green or Green Pearl. Looks almost black, but when the sunlight hits it, you can see it's true colour. I love the colour
