Purchase price and date: £3200 April 2012

Current mileage:  110,000

Maintenance bills and problems:  oil and filter change,  new front tyres

Price sold (or currently car): £5040 March 2014

BHP: 190 (estimated) (150 stock)

Torque (lbs):  350 (estimated)

Modifications:  Remapped, up-rated clutch, lowered, 19” silver/gold bbs lm’s (real not replica’s), full sound system, brushed alloys interior trim, and full stainless steel non restrictive exhaust

Good points

Fuel:  Even on 19” wheels the golf averages 48 mpg with a heavy foot, if driven like a saint 55mpg can be squeezed out of it. Before I switched to the 19’s the car was on 18” replicas and it averaged 52 mpg with heavy foot and 60mpg when driven like a saint. So I imagine that with standard 17” wheels that the car rolled out the factory on 65mpg would be achievable. Its worth noting that the car had already been remapped when I acquired it, so the figures for a stock 150 will be different, and also I clean the air flow meter regularly to keep the car running at its optimum performance.

Interior cabin quality: It might be 10.5 years old but still feels like a high spec'd GT car inside, the seats, arm pillows, and cabin layout make the car extremely comfortable to drive or be driven in.

Styling:  The best looking golf, in my opinion, is the mk2. There’s a lot of golf’s on the road so comparing the different styles is a daily event. I’ve come to the conclusion that as a stock car, the mk4 golf tdi 150 is an average looking car at best, but with a few tweaks can be turned into a good looking car. I like the look of this golf, a lot of that has to do with the fact that the 19” bbs lm’s really exenterate its best features, and as a combination together  work really well (for an everyday car).

Torque: As soon as you start driving the car the first thing that you notice is the torque. In gears 2-6 any push on the accelerator below 3500rpm is a very pleasing experience, it has ‘push you into the back of you seat power’ from very low down in the rev range, which for everyday driving is very use able.

Bad points

Its front wheel drive: Volkswagen only did the mk4 golf diesels in front wheel dive,  after driving a lot of rear wheel drive cars, going round corners in front wheel drive is a lot less fun.

Pot holes: driving over pot holed roads on 19’s and stiff suspension is a bumpy experience.

Over view

 I originally purchased the golf for a family member, after their car went to the scrap yard unexpectedly. I’d previously owned a 2001 golf gt tdi 115 black 5 door in 2005-2007 and after speaking to the family member they decided that a golf mk4 TDI would be an ideal car for them.

So I went about my search, the reason I went for this one is because of the lessons I’d leaned from driving the other golf all those years before.  It’s a 2003 model which is right at the end of the model line, which means that it had all the little problem ironed out and all the revised parts and updates are present, like the ESP traction control that was only introduced in 2002. Also I learned with the 115 (at the time that’s the maximum I could insure) that after a while you always crave the next step up, but with this one it’s the top spec car of the TDI range, so it rules out that craving reducing the risk of wanting to sell it.  Also a big attraction was that all the modifications had been done by a tuning company and this car had been their project car to showcase their services. Anyway, after only six months their circumstances changed, and they asked me to sell the car for them, after driving it while it was initially up for sale I realised that I didn’t have the heart to sell it as it drove so nice. So I bought it and kept it for myself.

I know its an old cliché but the golf is a really good all-rounder, it covers all the basis if your just running one car. Saying this no car has everything, and the golf tdi 150 does have its weakness; for all the torque at the end of the day it is still a turbo diesel, and when you press your foot down it doesn’t have that insane ‘feels like you’ve gone into light speed’ power that only high end petrol powered cars have. As mentioned above the fact that it is front wheel drive does limit the driving experience, but saying that this car is a grand tourer; designed for covering a lot of ground quickly and in comfort, so it does what it’s designed for very well, also the wide wheels and lowered suspension really improve the handling in corners compared to stock, so compared to other front wheel drive diesels its handles spot on, but for saying that compared to a e30 325i bmw (petrol/10 years older/rear wheel drive) it does not handle too good.

A big factor in deciding to keep the car was fuel; to say this car is good on fuel is an understatement. Because of the low down torque it covers ground so quickly its untrue, the car likes it best when you short shift at 3500rpm as you constantly ride the turbo at its peak power range, which results in you hardly needing to press the throttle, yes it has turbo lag if your not in the right gear and the throttle response compared to naturally aspirated petrol’s is poor, but this is hardly noticeable if your in the right gear for your required action, and when you see the trip computer reading close to 50mpg even cursing at a good speed in that fast lane of the motorway, its easy to forget the other issues.

In summary if you take into consideration the performance figures for some of the latest diesel hatchbacks that are rolling off the production line at the moment and then look at what it costs to buy one (even excluding the interest on the finance deals), then you look at the performance figures and costs for this particular remapped golf that’s over 10 years old, its not hard for me to conclude that the mk4 golf tdi 150 was a car that was ahead of its time, and certainly as far as value for money is concerned  a well looked after one represents a lot of car for the money today, as well as being a good all-round everyday car that ticks more boxes than most.

Comments (0)

View More