I thought it might be a good idea to share some personal views on what is a real little jem,V.W Golf mk111,yes i know ,you may well ask why,firstly

it has had a lot of crap written about it ,which is at best ,slightly anal ,secondly ,in the real world you cannot go far wrong with one of these .The one model i,m going to discuss is the 16v mk3,and it is a cracker,it may not handle as well as a mk1,or indeed go as fast as a R32,but it is without doubt a very good secondhand buy, i,ve owned a number of Golfs over the years,i,m no spring chicken,nor am i at the stage of using a zimmer!,it has been known for me to attend the odd track day,no not using the Golf,but a 2.8 Capri,cos i love rear wheel drive cars,i use my Golf everyday,for business,come rain or shine ,frost ,snow ,it has been totally reliable,returns average m.p.g of around 34/35,though this will increase up to 38/40 on longer runs,and will still give quite a few more "trendy" cars a jolly good spanking! Now i,m sounding kinky! So what to look for ,if your looking ,then try to buy one that has not been molested ,Golfs are like a bit like prostitute,s they just have to be tarted up,forget it ,an absolute must is a good service history,if its done a fair few miles then possibly specialist as well ,if there is no service book walk away,any car benefits from regular maintenance,Golfs are no exception,and when things do go wrong ,it can be expensive,but then so is a shopping trip to tesco,if the car has been maintained  well everything should work as it should when it left the factory,remember these cars are German built,and they don,t break often.Ok so lets get back to the Golf in question,this particular model has largely been overlooked,its  slightly bigger brother the vR 6 stole the show ,i have to say i think vr6 golfs are the dogs .......s,and rightly so,its sibling however still produces 150bhp,yet will give much better ecomomy,insurance grouping is 14,and don,t forget the same superb build quality,airbags,p.a.s.,a/c,sunroof,electric ,central locking,alloys,seats, wheels ,oh sorry ,!They come in 5dr and 3 dr.AND 16v mk3,s do handle ,compared to its smaller brother ,spring rates are lower ,stiffer,tyres are also bigger 205/50/15,my car has Continentls fitted ,not cheap ,but good allround for grip /durability. so what about the engine ,can it go wrong? will it go wrong? frankly it will if not looked after,but so will your lawnmower if you don,t look after it .This golf is a d.o.h.c ,belt driven,compared to the 8v a little more involved ,but not involved as the vr6,find a good one ,you,ll not regret it,they are fun,very reliable,and a joy to drive ,happy hunting.