kenmaro:
Every car is good irrespective of the brand so long its been export certified. All they need is maintenance. You can't factor Nigerian usage & environment when looking at the reliability of any car. Bad roads, very very few car specialist, poor maintenance culture, too many inferior replacement & service parts available in Nigerian markets, greedy car mechanics reaping car owners off with wrong service, etc. Guy! buy that car so long its mechanically not faulty from point of purchase. The durability of that car depends on your driving habit and maintenance. Moreover, its a product from a world top famous car maker. Naija! we can buy lavishly, criticize and still use it classically but we can't produce any. The little we will manage to produce will even become more expensive than the substandard imported ones.

I agreed with you brother. Chappie, in the film Chappie, was a man made robot and made himself immortal and he says, "all the information I need (to make myself immortal) is on the internet...Books, Mathematical Equations, Sematics, all the information human beings have ever had is on the internet.." I had one presently for 5 years now and it's still running on the road, courtesy of good maintenace. The way you treat your car is the way you treat yourself. Before I got mine, I took my time reviewing this car before buying it. I just love the car and I dont know why? Golf 4 is a big car for that matter, but most people out ignorance come online condeming what they dont know about or with no deep experience at all. I have read a lot of bad review about Golf 4, yet I was not convinced Golf of all cars would be bad as the way so many call it, from the engine to gear box and most especially it has electrical issues. Then I searched everywhere online to see what Volkswagen is saying about this Golf 4 electrical issues but nowhere the creator of the car say a thing. When I got to their website they only refer me to download the user manual and from the user maual, the car is said will only need general servicing after 2 years or 40,000 miles. All you need is to do a weekly maintenance routine on your oils and filters, wheels and ignition and you're good.

I downloaded the User manual and studied it thoroughly before buying the car itself. When I read the Electrical diagram of the car from the manual, in fact electrical issue is what a secondary school kid can fix if the window stopped working or rear lights goes off. It's just a matter of changing any of the burnt fuse responsible from the fuse box very close to the drivers side on the dash or look if you have current needed from your circuit or relay if your radio stop working. In fact the manual was so simple with labeling the fuse you need to change if your mirror stops.

But our problem here in Nigeria is lack of knowledge about a thing. And most of our road-side mechanics are still handling this mordern cars the way they handle Golf 1 manufactured 40 years ago. Some of them can not even troubleshoot an android phone to say of readind error codes on a car dashboard, all they do is trial & error and when they can't figure out the issue they tell you, "Oga, carry am go give rewire, na rewire go do am".

Golf car is 40 years plus in the production and Volkswagen has no plan of discontinuing the family lineage.

Golf 4 is a big car with computer Chips installed in it as every other cars for your comfortability. And the manual is so simple to follow to fix any problem you're facing and fix it yourself. And if you cannot fix it yourself, look for a qualified Volkswagen Mechanic who specialises on Volkswagen only and not roadside mechanics or fix any car mechanics.

Golf forever!