Having owned older VW's and newer Honda's, I can appreciate this comment. My last VW was one of the worst vehicles I've owned. Our new one is right up there with the best.

Meanwhile, my Dad is far less than satisfied with his 2017 CR-V. Mostly just because the infotainment system is beyond worst in class, but also it's just not a great vehicle. Granted...it's a CR-V and that whole class of vehicles sucks IMO. Still, the infotainment system is seriously a POS compared to my Ford and VW.

 

I've owned a few VWs. They are fun and handle great. German cars are designed for daily driving on high-speed roads, so the engineers do a good job there.

But VWs require a lot of maintenance which gets expensive and time consuming IME. It is very irritating. There is a major difference in reliability between Honda and VW, although some VWs have some excellent seats and interior materials, fit and finish. With the ongoing emissions scandal at VW, we expect R&D and QC won't be increasing as this money will be put into government fines and legal expenses, so I will steer away from VW for the time being.

 

85k miles on our Golf and no expensive maintenance or repairs yet. So far, only the enjoyment of driving a better vehicle.

Put new front brakes on it a couple of weeks ago. New Raybestos rotors and pads were under $80 with shipping for everything. I'd hardly call that "expensive" maintenance. Oil and filters are the same price as for a Honda as well.

That being said, if you're the kind of person that takes your vehicles to the dealership for service, VW dealers seem to charge more than Honda dealers.

I look at the scandal and past reliability issues differently. To me it seems that VW is trying harder than ever to put out a good product. The '99 Jetta I owned was not near as good of a car as our '17 Golf.

In a perfect world, we'd have VW's interior quality and driving dynamics paired with Toyota reliability at a Honda price.

 

My '99 New Jetta VR6 the plastic coolant pipes all turned to chalk. Something blew out once a month for like 2 years. We sold it for $500 and heard it died a month later.

 

Such a cool car with way too many faults. What's even sadder is that was during a time when you could buy a v6 Accord or Maxima and those would last darn near forever. A good friend put just under 300k miles on their 1998 Maxima before selling it to a co-worker a few years ago. Co-worker has now taken it past 300k miles and it's still going strong.

Sadly, they replaced that Maxima with a new Maxima and it was a steaming pile of cr@p that they had to unload for cheap.

My point? There are cars that were good and now bad and the opposite is true as well. I'm not near as impressed with current Honda's as I was the older ones. I feel the opposite is true with VW. Our '99 didn't make it to 85k miles without multiple issues and repairs. Our '17 has done it with zero effort and still drives great. Now I just need to hope it doesn't fall apart as we rack more miles on it. Our Fit is at almost 200k and doing great, so the Golf has a lot to live up to!

 

Yes, quite probably. But it costs more does it not? Does it have as much room for cargo? It drives great when its new but how soon do things start breaking. And if you think Honda is secretive and expensive about their service information, VW-Audi is even worse. Try hooking up a moderately prices obd scan tool to the golf and see what information it will give you withou your having to use ther very expensive proprietary scan tool. Having worked on a 2002 VW beetle, I can see it steers and handles very nicely. Is nicely powered. Rear seatbacks take along the seat bottoms and fold down low and flat, much like in the Fit. They just don't have the fold-up position.But try and change the cabin air filter. A royal pain in aks. Slide over a dash panel, take out 12 screws, pull out some plastic, take out 12 more screw, some of right under the front of the windshield so you can't reach them with a straight-handled screwdrive, pull out the cage that hold the filter. put the new filter in the cage, try and get the cage back where it belongs – it's almost impossible. Then there is the location of box in the engine compartment that has fuses and relays. Just to change a fuse or a relay, you can't reach it without taking out other stuff.first.

Great driving experience though, when it's new.and after you've spent a fortune to keep it working. Steering is better, cornering is better, than with the Fit. Braking is better. Air conditoning is better. Blows real cold real fast. Basicly its a golf with a different body. Really great transmission. Clutch works great but the dual-mass flywheel effs up and replacing the clutch disk is made more expensive. You can't just replace the disk you generally have to replace the flywheel and the clutch pressure plate with an aftermarket one that is actually reliable.

 

Most of the negative things said about the VW have been changed in current generation. That one was 18 year old.

Pollen filter is exactly the same as the Fit. Behind glovebox and zero tools. Vag-com and VCDS both support scanning and even ability to modify a ton of stuff and are affordable.

What is still true is that they like specialty tools and LOTS of fasteners. I think it's a German thing.

There are positives and negatives with this next statement, but I think it shows where the Golf and the Fit are very different...the Golf ways roughly 500 lbs more despite being ever so slightly smaller. That is a TON heavier, but it's why the doors go thunk, it glides over bumps in the road, and it feels so much more solid. Every single part, be it the brake rotors, control arms, floor pan thickness, sway bars, springs, etc are beefier than the Fit's.

Not hating on Fit's. We love ours. The Fit and Golf are just quite different from each other despite being similar in shape and size.

 

OBD11 is all you need as a scan tool and it does so much more then a regular scan tool (under $100 new). Borrow one if you need too. I have sent mine to forum members, just pay for a flat rate box.

Yes they require a lot more tools. I never owned Torx bits until I bought a VW. Silly stuff like the air filter require a Torx bit but how often are you really doing this. Oil changes are easy. Battery, fuel filter, spark plugs and coil packs are all easy. An OEM coil pack is like $22, oil filter $10. Yes there are special tools and more then with a Honda. Oh and torque to yield bolts, lot's of bolts get replaced.

Dual mass flywheel is reliable and part of what makes the car so smooth. Yes they are expensive (I paid $400 for a new one). My upgraded clutch with all OEM parts was almost $1000 in parts but is really sweet for daily driving.

Honda's are certainly cheaper in the long run even from a DIY perspective but IMO the added cost of a Golf/GTI is worth it.

 

The VW Beetle I drove was definitely more fun to drive than my Fit, but the cabin filter was just ridiculous. I actually prefer torx fasteners to any other kind, so I didn't find that as a problem with the New Beetle that I worked on. I use torx tips that attach to 1/4 inch drive wrench handles, rather than use torx "screwdrivers" . Very inexpensive. In addition to male torx drivers that fit into torx-head screws, I also have 1/4 inch drive female torx sockets that fit over external torx bolt heads. But the placement of the torx fasteners for the cabin filter, right next to the windshield – there is no way I would have been able to use a torx "screwdriver." The windshield would have been in the way of the handle. Possibly the beetle is harder to work on that the Golf because of its size and shape, Things that easily fit into the Golf may perhaps be stuffed into odd corners in the beetle, And to get to them things in front of them have to be removed. Something was rather unusual about the radiator, Was it that there was no cap? I can't remember. To replace a cracked windshield wiper fluid tank you had to remove a lot of stuff first.I don't recall exactly but maybe it was was both a bumper cover and a fender. To replace a headlight bulb you first had to remove the whole headlight holder assembly which had a fancy-schmancy bracket whose operation wasn't really self-evident.. And how to remove the electrical connectors for headlights, and to the the coil-on-plugs coils, without breaking them? it wasn't exactly self evident

 

Yeah the Golf has no radiator cap either just the overflow tank with a cap.



The Beetle is a more difficult vehicle to work on. Maybe it's the shape. I do remember hearing about having to remove the bumper on a certain model in order to replace a bulb. I worked as a service writer briefly and a women was upset that we would not honor our free bulb installation*. I had to explain the asterisk and that only certain vehicles qualify, she went elsewhere.

The connectors that they use are a real PITA. At first I struggled with every clip on connector. Now that I know how they work and the tricks to get them off they are not so bad. It does not take much to break one tho. For the coil packs you want to press the connector in first and then push on the tab (the first time I struggled). I usually just use a pick now and pull the tab up. I have gotten used to the Torx bolts also and use a set of Torx sockets. With how cheap tools have gotten it was not that huge of an investment to buy some Torx, Allen sockets and triple squares.

 

FWIW, radiator caps have been gone for all automakers for quite some time. i can't remember my last Ford that had a cap on the radiator. Think you'd have to go back to the '90's.

Honda Fits are just super basic. Result is also basic, but that's what I like about ours.

I like the Golf because it's a better vehicle in every way...except in it's "basicness" I suppose. VW's are definitely more complicated.

 

To me the existence of electric motors to crank the windows open and closed makes the car way more complicated than it needs to be.

 

Have a Golf now that my brother is overseas. 28K on the odometer and the following has been replaced since new : two springs (they broke), secondary brake cylinder replaced, ABS module, inner headliner, both front headlamps, rear taillight , radio in dash unit. Never own another

 

Goodness gracious! What year? That sounds like the kind of stuff that happened with Mk6's. Or is it a rust issue? When I hear broken springs, I think of rust.

 

2015 with only 28K miles. VW dealer said that typically at least one spring breaks within 40-60K and they replace a fair number of them every month. The VW boards I've consulted agree - spring failure is too common. They're not rusting - they are poor quality.

 

The other issue is the mentality of short-term profits and mindset - Honda and other Companies are only making what sells and dropping plant capability to make small vehicles; people are buying large vehicles with large engines when gas is $1.97/gal for 87 octane (or sporty German cars that require 91 RON at $2.97/gal). When OPEC squeezes the last people/plant capabilities from the Exxon-Mobils of the world, they'll cut crude supply & refining to force gas back up to $3.50/gallon ($4.59 for high octane). That's when the smart Fit owners prevail with a vehicle that can carry stuff and get 40 mpg on the highway on ye olde 87 RON. We'll go back to pre-2008 conditions where people start complaining they're not making enough $$$ to commute to work in their Lincoln LandYachty and F-ThreeFitty trucks with the 6.3L LandStar V8. Then the car companies will complain they need loans to re-tool to make smaller, fuel efficient cars that they forgot how to make. The circle of life...

 

There was a recall notice about springs on some VW's within a certain range. Seems like you experienced this and VW fixed it. I'm not excusing it or trying to brush it off. Should have never of happened. But it is what it is. I'd be particularly impressed if the Fit, or any Honda, didn't have recalls but that's not the case. I am particularly interested in the fact that you had 3/4 of the cars primary exterior lighting replaced. That's a new one to me. What in the heck happened there?

Re: fuel economy. My GTI easily gets 40mpg highway. In fact it get's better overall mileage than our Fit. Doesn't require 91 either. Having an extra ~100 horses and ~140lb's of torque over the Fit isn't too shabby either. The Fit's power vs fuel economy is somewhat unimpressive. One of them can stand to be kicked up a notch without affecting the other.