Topic: CD Article: 2007 Volkswagen City Golf & Jetta

[safristi]

Are U and SirA    an "ITEM???".............

[onearmed]

I bought a white 2007 city jetta and are not impressed with the car. Very first time owning a Volkswagen and I think it will be the last time. ALot of things they say come with the car are not included and as well there is no way the car starts at 16,700. By the time I wanted to even start to build the car they wanted 19,900.

Buyers be ware..
AManda

You didn't research or test drive the car?  Yes, that is a base price and all car companies do this.  I think you screwed yourself until you explain a bit more.  Sorry to hear, like I said research does wonders.

[jww]

...  Yes, that is a base price and all car companies do this. ...

Like Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Honda, GM, Ford, etc.

Who buys a base car anyway? A friend of mine leased a 2003 Golf with no A/C and a 5spd stick. He tried to sell it on more than one occassion, and ended up letting the lease expire and simply handed it back to the dealer. His new wheels are a fully-kitted out V6 Ford Escape w/heated leather, sunroof, A/C, etc. He said never again will he get a base vehicle while he lives in North America.

[schaste]

Just got a new City Golf myself in November. I originally wanted a silver one with the winter package and extra airbags, but it would have taken 6 weeks to get it so I settled for a white one with air. After driving it for a few months, I have a few observations to make. Maybe I was spoiled by my previous "luxury" car, an '04 Magentis LX V6. Man that thing was solid as a tank and drank gas like a truck, but what a kick in the... um. Well, about the Golf (warning: long, punctuation-filled rant ahead):

Very well built externally, and the interior, all black, looks very nice. And it handles like a Golf, for sure  But I hear little little rattles inside. It's so quiet inside, that I hear little plasticky rattles (kind of a soft "tick" noise) going over bumps, which I suspect may be from the seat-belt anchors, or the seat-belt latches, or the rear seat, or inside a door, or a loose wiring harnes inside a panel.... argh! I can't figure it out. Not a deal-killer, but like I said, it's so quiet in there otherwise...

Drove over a bad bump going home from work... and the DASH below the steering wheel started to rattle and buzz like a screw had come loose. It still happens when driving on particularly bumpy roads, but around Montreal in the winter, that's almost everywhere. I looked underneath the dash, and there were no visible screws loose. Which means a screw inside the dash might have come loose, or one in my head Or maybe it's the OBD connector, which seems loosely seated. But no, if I tap the driver's side under-dash panel in just the right spot.... it buzzes like there's a loose screw inside. Wonder if that sort of annoyance is covered by warranty? Probably not   

Ergonomics are a disaster. Who ever thought of using the same control for both front and rear wipers out to have their head examined. So let me get this straight: to spray the windshield, I need to turn off the rear wiper??? And HVAC controls in front of the shifter knob. Headlight controls on the dash, like an old Ford. A tiny little heater vent for my feet means I can have a clear windshield or slightly warm feet, but not both.

While in S/W Ontario visiting family for Xmas, I had Richmond Motors in Chatham put on Gislaved NordFrost 3's, plus a set of rims. It's the best grand I ever spent; for the same money, a tire dealer around the corner wouldn't have been able to assure me they could order wheels with the correct offset.

Mileage: well, it could be better if the 5-speed wasn't geared to run at 100 kph at 3 grand. And 140 kph at 4500? No wonder it can't get better than 40 mpg with a tailwind in the summertime

Overall, it's ... well, I guess it's a car with personality. I read somewhere that a rattling VW is just talking to you, so I guess I just have to learn the language.

Steve

[onearmed]

My GTI does make little noises in these cold winter months.  Kinda like what you were describing, ticking and little things like that.  Summer months are almost pitch quiet.  Once the radio is on though, I don't hear anything.  It's much worse in the first couple of minutes of a drive and seems to quiet down as the car warms up.  Enough blabbing, time to sleep!



 

[Snowman]

Absolutely.  If it's hot or cold, humid or dry, VW electrical systems are prone to random acts of failure.  Also, temperate conditions will cause problems, so you should avoid that weather too.  As for other "special conditions" light and/or dark might cause electrical gremlins, so stay home during the day and/or night.

... you and the horse you rode in on, ass-wipe. If you can't post an intelligent reply, don't post at all...

Goodbye

  Look up sarcasm in the dictionary. Or perhaps in your situation it is Sarchasm:
The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

[UmroAyyar]

...  Yes, that is a base price and all car companies do this. ...

Like Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Honda, GM, Ford, etc.

Who buys a base car anyway? A friend of mine leased a 2003 Golf with no A/C and a 5spd stick. He tried to sell it on more than one occassion, and ended up letting the lease expire and simply handed it back to the dealer. His new wheels are a fully-kitted out V6 Ford Escape w/heated leather, sunroof, A/C, etc. He said never again will he get a base vehicle while he lives in North America.

I bought a base 2007 Camry LE. It has almost everything I want in it, minus few desirables I can do without (alloys, power seats). If the car is kitted out like a Camry in base trim, nothing wrong with that.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Both Wing and Schaste commented on the complex or illogical wiper stalk, which I happen to love. It's all on one stalk, is intuitive to me and I don't have to take my hands off the wheel. I HATE a separate rear wiper button on the dash, where you have to hold it to spray.

It's true that to spray the front, you turn off the rear. This is the one true quirk. But really, don't think I've ever encountered more than a handful of situations over 6 years where I've had to do this. If it's raining and I have the rear wiper on, there's enough rain hitting the front windshield that I wouldn't have to spray front wiper fluid. Ditto with snow.

I like the one-sweep function too, and versus many competitors, variable intermittent has 4-5 settings not 1 to 3.

I've always liked driving in snow. Cars ride so serenely through it.

[safristi]

Can relate to the Glorious Quiteness of Being on Snow  SirA...woz driving down some sideroads on the weekend that are normally a rattletrap of gravel hitting the underside and washboard surfaces with dust flying...and ALL was as U say SERENE
 like wafting along on a magic carpet a ribbon of  white silk,a cotton balled hi-way,a anechonic wonderland....fack I just slipped inta the bluddy DITCH....

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Can related to the Glorious Quiteness of Being on Snow  SirA...woz driving down some sideroads on the weekend that are normally a rattletrap of gravel hitting the underside and washboard surfaces with dust flying...and ALL was as U say SERENE
 like wafting along on a magic carpet a ribbon of  white silk,a cotton balled hi-way,a anechonic wonderland....fack I just slipped inta the bluddy DITCH....

Would turn that Brit of yours into a Bentley? 

[safristi]

 4 of them lashed tagether wif rope...and Maybe yer onta something there

[mowd]

Picked up my city golf last week.  First, I love the car, no surprise as I have always been a big fan of the way VW's drive (first drove parents' '92 Passat for years, then owned '89 Golf, then parents' '02 1.8T Jetta) .  I just wanted to mention that the interior of the City vs. the old Golf (which the dealer assured me was the "exact same car as the City" when I test drove it) is not the same.  I am most accustomed to the interior of the 2002 Jetta (drove parents' for ~3 years), so that is what I was basically expecting.  The difference I'm talking about is not the placement of the radio, cupholders, etc., which did change over the years, but general quality - or less thereof in the City.  I notice that the seat material, floor carpeting, and interior door material are not as nice in the City.  Also, no clips for the floor mats (makes the Monster mat less worthwhile).  I'm sure there are others, some of which I had read about (e.g. no centre console/arm rest), but the general quality is different.
These are not major major issues, but truth is when I test drove the 07 Civic, I didn't like how some of the interior materials (e.g. trunk liner) seemed cheap.  I would say the City Golf is equally as cheap 'seeming' to me, at least as compared with the '02 Jetta.
As I said, I still love the car, and likely wouldn't have made a different decision had I known all this --- but others shouldn't be surprised (e.g. make sure even if you test drive a 5-spd used Golf as I did, you then check out the interior of the automatic City Golf that is probably on the lot.)

[UmroAyyar]

Both Wing and Schaste commented on the complex or illogical wiper stalk, which I happen to love. It's all on one stalk, is intuitive to me and I don't have to take my hands off the wheel. I HATE a separate rear wiper button on the dash, where you have to hold it to spray.

It's true that to spray the front, you turn off the rear. This is the one true quirk. But really, don't think I've ever encountered more than a handful of situations over 6 years where I've had to do this. If it's raining and I have the rear wiper on, there's enough rain hitting the front windshield that I wouldn't have to spray front wiper fluid. Ditto with snow.

I like the one-sweep function too, and versus many competitors, variable intermittent has 4-5 settings not 1 to 3.

I've always liked driving in snow. Cars ride so serenely through it.

The rental 2006 RAV4 I'm driving has all the wiper functions on one stalk as well. I couldn't figure it out the first two days, looked for buttons for rear wiper. Like you, I find it more convenient that way and not to look for buttons.

[Julie]

...  Yes, that is a base price and all car companies do this. ...

Like Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Honda, GM, Ford, etc.

Who buys a base car anyway? A friend of mine leased a 2003 Golf with no A/C and a 5spd stick. He tried to sell it on more than one occassion, and ended up letting the lease expire and simply handed it back to the dealer. His new wheels are a fully-kitted out V6 Ford Escape w/heated leather, sunroof, A/C, etc. He said never again will he get a base vehicle while he lives in North America.

I bought a base 2007 Camry LE. It has almost everything I want in it, minus few desirables I can do without (alloys, power seats). If the car is kitted out like a Camry in base trim, nothing wrong with that.

I was amazed when we bought our 'base' Camry in '05, and realized it already had everything we wanted. But, in fact, our base Camry is not the 'real' base Camry. There was a cheaper one below the LE in the States, called the Standard, which was de-contented. And before, there were CE Camrys in Canada....

[safristi]

were ya de contented wif it then..or un contendeness ain't about content but contentiousness with continuing content correctness configuration capice!!!

[JSCC]

Picked up my city golf last week.  First, I love the car, no surprise as I have always been a big fan of the way VW's drive (first drove parents' '92 Passat for years, then owned '89 Golf, then parents' '02 1.8T Jetta) .  I just wanted to mention that the interior of the City vs. the old Golf (which the dealer assured me was the "exact same car as the City" when I test drove it) is not the same.  I am most accustomed to the interior of the 2002 Jetta (drove parents' for ~3 years), so that is what I was basically expecting.  The difference I'm talking about is not the placement of the radio, cupholders, etc., which did change over the years, but general quality - or less thereof in the City.  I notice that the seat material, floor carpeting, and interior door material are not as nice in the City.  Also, no clips for the floor mats (makes the Monster mat less worthwhile).  I'm sure there are others, some of which I had read about (e.g. no centre console/arm rest), but the general quality is different.
These are not major major issues, but truth is when I test drove the 07 Civic, I didn't like how some of the interior materials (e.g. trunk liner) seemed cheap.  I would say the City Golf is equally as cheap 'seeming' to me, at least as compared with the '02 Jetta.
As I said, I still love the car, and likely wouldn't have made a different decision had I known all this --- but others shouldn't be surprised (e.g. make sure even if you test drive a 5-spd used Golf as I did, you then check out the interior of the automatic City Golf that is probably on the lot.)

Nothing is for free.
The price of the $4000-$7000 savings compared to the 2005 models has to be paid from somewhere.
Lower prices can be acheived through lower margins and/or cutting cost.

[mowd]

[/quote]

Nothing is for free.
The price of the $4000-$7000 savings compared to the 2005 models has to be paid from somewhere.
Lower prices can be acheived through lower margins and/or cutting cost.
[/quote]

Agreed - but in the event others get the same line as I did from the salesman, they will know to decide for themselves (as it's certainly not coming from lower margins alone).

[Rabbit Girl]

Not sure if you have all heard of the "One Red paper Clip" guy...well if you have then you'll understand what this article is about....

apparently VW was filming a commercial in Saskatchewan for the VW POLO!

I haven't been on this site lately as I have been away so I'm not sure if something has already been mentioned.

You can read the blurbs around the bottom of this article...http://www.canada.com/topics/finance/story.html?id=9b3709be-ac01-4c71-b3b6-bb46f2b45bbc&k=65812

Cheers!    :cheers:Happy February everyone!

[JSCC]

Not sure if you have all heard of the "One Red paper Clip" guy...well if you have then you'll understand what this article is about....

apparently VW was filming a commercial in Saskatchewan for the VW POLO!

I haven't been on this site lately as I have been away so I'm not sure if something has already been mentioned.

You can read the blurbs around the bottom of this article...http://www.canada.com/topics/finance/story.html?id=9b3709be-ac01-4c71-b3b6-bb46f2b45bbc&k=65812

Cheers!    :cheers:Happy February everyone!

What's your best price for a Polo?
A red paper clip! LOLZ!

[Rabbit Girl]

Very well built externally, and the interior, all black, looks very nice. And it handles like a Golf, for sure  But I hear little little rattles inside. It's so quiet inside, that I hear little plasticky rattles (kind of a soft "tick" noise) going over bumps, which I suspect may be from the seat-belt anchors, or the seat-belt latches, or the rear seat, or inside a door, or a loose wiring harnes inside a panel.... argh! I can't figure it out. Not a deal-killer, but like I said, it's so quiet in there otherwise...

Drove over a bad bump going home from work... and the DASH below the steering wheel started to rattle and buzz like a screw had come loose. It still happens when driving on particularly bumpy roads, but around Montreal in the winter, that's almost everywhere. I looked underneath the dash, and there were no visible screws loose. Which means a screw inside the dash might have come loose, or one in my head Or maybe it's the OBD connector, which seems loosely seated. But no, if I tap the driver's side under-dash panel in just the right spot.... it buzzes like there's a loose screw inside. Wonder if that sort of annoyance is covered by warranty? Probably not   

Steve

Hey Steve,
Reading your story reminds me of what happned to me...Just to put your mind at ease I hope.... About 7 years ago (WOW I can't believe how time flys) anyhow,  I had wanted a 2000 mellinium model car and the new style Honda Accord 2dr exr had just come out. This was going to be my first brand new car after 1 VW 92 passat and 1 other 92 Honda Accord exr that was falling apart in the engine but the interior was fabulous - this one was still built in Japan back then.

Anyhow, because of the quality of my previous Japaneese built accord I decided to get another one. I payed $35,000 for my new 2000 honda accord with leather, woodgrain etc... I was so super excited! Well, This car was the worst of any car I owned and I had done my reasearch, test drove  the model many times but not the exact car cause they had to bring it in from some other dealer.

Well, from the minute I picked this car up and drove it off the lot and over their little speed bumps in the lot I heard a lot of creeks and cracks from the roof, then the dash...etc.. It sounded like the car had been in an accident or something but it only had 35klms on the car when I picked it up. Before it had 500lms on it, it had been in the shop 5 times and all of the dash and roof ripped apart trying to find out where these rattles were cause they were not quite rattles and I wasn't about to go deaf by turning up the radio that loud to drown them out.

Also, I had picked the car up at night which I learned I will never do again. For a brand new car, the tail light looked like someone took an s.o.s pad to it, the woodgrain was all swirly from someone cleaning it with a really bad rag, the passengers side kick panel was cracked, the "a" panel pillar had a crack in it, the instrument plastic cover had a big scratch across it and the leather was scratched on the head rest along with the side of the back of the seat....and this was just the cosmetic damage alone that they had to look after ontop of the rattles.

I was seriously disappointed. The dealer no longer wanted to deal with me even though it was them who gave me a bum car. The Sales manager started to threaten me...this example shows that sometimes women shouldn't buy a car alone cause he really tried to take advantage of me by his aggreessive, threatening attitude.

Anyhow, that car lasted two years until I sold it to an unsuspecting buyer. The engine was fine and all of the stuff had been fixed but the car still rattled even though there was more foam in that dash board and roof then you would believe.

I hoep that helps to show that it isn't VW who sometimes has some quality issues. But as JCSS said, which sometimes the general public doesn't understand (not to say you don't), but when you are in sales you start to understand how companies work a bit and either a company has to raise their profit (margins) a bit to stay in competitive in the market and/or the options and quality has to be tweaked a bit to make it profitable for them to sell and cheap enough for the price point that the consumers are wanting. I know I always naively, when I was younger, thought that I could get a lot for nothing cause I was a great customer and the sales people always liked me but I just didn't understand that companies just can't give anyway anything. Everything always cost something and as I learned from my friend who is a commercial Ford sales person, even those gifts that companies offer, like free gas and oil changes, is still written into the price (numbers) somehow. Nothing is ever free. You are still paying for some of that gift somehow in yor price. Though I'm sure you know all about that.

Anyhow, I'm rabbling but I hope that has helped. A VW is a great car. Yes, sometimes they have some crazy porblems/issues  but they have character and are a lot safer and stable then most vehicles on the road for the money.

Cheers.