So a year ago I bagged myself a Golf. You can read about my first thoughts here. However now 30,000 miles in what has it been like to own, drive and run? Am I still saying it's 4.5*... Well read on my fellow petrol heads!
Fundamentally the question you all want to know is am I still in love with is as I was 12 months ago. Yes.
Right that's about it then.
Well no. It's not.
There is more. If you read the first thoughts, my concern was basically over the fuel consumption. Now on the first drives I was getting in the high 40's and the height of 50mpg was a bit far fetched... However a year on in, I'm finding that actually 54-56 is really VERY achievable. Yes if it's totally town driving you are doing then your number is going to start with a 4, but any motorway miles and you'll have to be doing your best Lewis Hamilton impressions to be doing that badly. I even reached the heady heights of 62mpg on one journey just seeing if I could actually achieve that. I was driving like a granny which is no fun though.
Other gripes I had at the start was about the USB charging. This still annoys me. Although I've now moved my phones around and I use one for my music and my Podcasts I can't have two devices or phones at the same time. I use my personal one through the USB and with apple car play but the work phone sits on the bluetooth. However if you are using apple car play you can't have the blue tooth as well. It's a small thing, but on the day to day it's real annoyance.
The only mechanical issue that I've had is about the amount of oil it drinks. I know doing high mileage that I'm to expect that it will use oil, but in nearly 30,000 miles I've had to put a bottle in 4 times plus also at the service at 20,000 miles. VW swear blind that's not out the ordinary - but I still think that it is far higher than I thought it would be.
Other than that I've had to replace the front tyres once - and the rears I'll probably have to do in about 10,000 miles. That's about fair. The service at 20,000 miles was as expected and nothing out of the ordinary came up.
So Overall...
Does it still get the 4.5*. Yes very much so. In fact would I say it's now about 4.7*. Yes!
It's a great car to drive, and yes I run it daily in Eco mode, and with everything turned on such as traction control etc... but that's because I don't want to be boy racer every day. But when you want it to be a bit naughty it can be and that's what I love about it.
Frankly if the Phone link thing worked with bluetooth and the apple car play and it didn't drink as much oil as an alcoholic on a night out in town I would have moved it to 5*. The phone thing is really a bug bear that I have to deal with daily and really does annoy me, but apart from that this really is an excellent car. Fast, fun, not as bad fuel efficiency as expected, with a real touch of class in the cabin from a brand you can really trust in.
Honestly if you want a small scale family hatch you really can't do much wrong by buying a Golf GTD
