Classic Commuting Car

Car	1986 VW Golf GTi
Miles this month	316
Latest costs	Nil (pending parts)

Even though the Mk2 Golf won the most traveled prize of the classics this month - it's hard to pinpoint any exciting episodes.

Most of the miles were in the runs to work - Witham to be exact. It stood up well to stop/start and full stop motoring with minimum fuss - a slight overheating when stuck in traffic for long periods but nothing to be worried about. OK it still drips from a leak somewhere but it survived its short stint as my commute car.

Is it still the giant killer it was ? It goes well, there is a nice noise from the exhaust and nippy responsive steering. I’m not sure it goes round corners on rails though. The lights are good for dark nights and the thin A pillars giver good forward visibility. The bad points as a commute car are the seats are a bit small for me and lack back support - but that is vs the SAAB which are orthopedic armchairs. There is a bit of wind noise, the de-mist is weak and the rear screen gets dirty so quickly it’s like someone is just spraying dirt on it every trip - just like the MK7 though which also seems to get filthy very quickly at the rear.

Looking back the Golf has hardly had a pampered life in the last 4 years. It started out 'as advertised' with a full service history - which evaporated when we went to look at it - although it was the best of many we'd looked at. We bought it knowing it was going to be a car that would need constant tinkering but then that’s not such a bad thing.

Subsequent investigation when looking for parts confirmed it as a Wolfsburg car - which in my mind makes it a truer Golf - the fact that the windscreen wipers go the wrong way points to the early production run - as if the VW management were not sure that it was worth tooling long up for the lacklustre UK market at the time. With more than three million unemployed the mid-80’s UK economy did not look a good prospect especially with the spectre of global recession in the wings for everyone.

Off the production line in 1986 it sold quickly into the second term of Thatcher's Britain while the red paint matched the colour of the braces worn by the aspiring young things working in the newly deregulated financial markets. I wondered if it ever did a circuit of the newly completed M25. It arrived in turbulent times in the car market too, with Nissan starting production in Sunderland, Austin Rover betting its survival on a joint venture with Honda and Peugeot dropping the old Talbot brand but hanging on at the old Rootes factory a few more years.

It’s been bumped and bashed, rusted and repaired in equal measure but still has the makings of a sound car. Treating it to a full wash and wax, detailing the bumpers and a quick vacuum just showed up all the bits that needed doing. It looked the part though and even my crude welding is holding up.

So it's now on SORN, on the battery charger and put away for six weeks until James comes back - although I think it deserves being used in early December - as long as the snow and salt hold off - to keep it fresh.

Like all old cars, it appreciates being used.