Volkswagen Golf Problems

Despite VW's plan to include the Golf GTE in its line-up, the variant is no longer available. The company anticipates that rather than introduce a PHEV, it will go directly to EVs in Australia. But it's possible that its sister brand, Skoda will get the eventual production version of the Vision RS PHEV that was shown here a while ago. We're told that wouldn't be before 2021.

The big problem with the Golf related to the DSG transmission. Avoid cars with that transmission before 2013/2014. If you want to buy a Golf you could buy one with a manual gearbox, or buy a later model.

The VW dual-clutch automatic was troublesome in the period you are considering, so it’s probably best to avoid it, or buy one with a manual gearbox. Rather than a wagon perhaps consider a compact SUV.

We haven’t had any previous reports of the problem that has affected your car. On the surface, it appears that VW has done the right thing by you in offering to repair your car at half the original quoted price.

No, it isn’t. Get it checked by your dealer.

It’s quite possibly caused by the clutches in the gearbox; they may need to be replaced.

While there are ways to make your Mazda 3 quite fast it is not cheap or easy, and will require extensive involvement from experts. You would be far better served to look for a second-hand factory turbocharged high-performance Mazda MPS model, or buying a Subaru WRX, or Volkswagen Golf GTI, to get your high-performance kicks.

Your car is now nine years old, which makes it difficult to claim on VW, but it has only done 70,000 km, so that’s in your favour. If a VW dealer had been servicing it I would attempt to convince VW to cover at least part of the cost of the replacement. Otherwise I think you will find it hard to get VW to cough up.

It’s probably best to get out of the car rather than continue to try and rectify the problems. You could try and negotiate a better deal as a trade-in, but if you did that you would be left driving another VW and that’s probably not what you want. You could seek advice on your legal options from the Queensland consumer affairs department. But the best option might be to trade the car in on something from a rival brand.

Your best option would be the 1.4-litre turbo manual in the Mk 6. It’s more fuel-efficient than the base 1.6-litre engine in the Mark 5, and being the newer model there are less likely to be any issues with getting spares for it.