Our cars: VW Golf 2.0 TDI 170 GTD 3dr - May - part 2

Shortly after we returned, the Golf developed a rattle. It seemed to emanate from the passenger-side door pillar and was worse over bumps. Inconvenient, given the state of the UK’s roads, so I decided to get it looked at during the car’s first service.

The car flagged up that it needed a service at 18,500 miles, so I booked it in to Mann Egerton in Swindon (0845 123 7529).

I picked up the car 24 hours later and had my wallet lightened by £254.47 (£10.32 of which was for the courtesy car). That seemed pretty decent value to me, and the rattle had been eradicated.

The more miles I did in the car, the more I came to appreciate the simple things it did well. The seats, for example, were great. They were comfortable on long trips and held my not-inconsiderable frame secure when I was ‘making progress’. The dashboard, too, was easy to use and clear, and there were plenty of storage cubbies.

However, as the mileage headed north of 21,000, so did the noise
in the cabin. All of a sudden it sounded like the rear wheel bearings were on their way out.

I took the car back to Mann Egerton and it was diagnosed with unevenly worn inside edges to the rear Bridgestone tyres.

I replaced the set with Dunlop Sport Maxx TTs and had the wheel alignment checked for £540. The engineer’s report said all four wheels were badly out of true, and had likely been so since day one.

VW strenuously disagreed with that assessment, denying all responsibility and saying: ‘All vehicles produced by VW have a comprehensive wheel-alignment check.’ That’ll be similar to the check that failed to pick up on the misaligned headlights, the filler cap and the non-functioning heated seats, presumably.

While it is possible for rear wheels to be misaligned by minor impacts with kerbs, I wasn’t aware of any such incidents beyond a colleague’s minor scuff of a front wheel while parallel parking.

VW said running incorrect tyre pressures or fast cornering could also have led to the uneven wear. I know the pressures were always checked weekly, and as for fast cornering – well, it’s a GTD!

More intrigue was added when I wrote about the issue: no fewer than 23 readers who run Golfs and other VW Group models that have the same underpinnings as my car got back to me with exactly the same problem.

Nonetheless, my car was transformed after the work was done. The ride was more comfortable and quieter, and the car felt more alert.

I got back to enjoying the car and its features. Park Assist was money well spent. All I had to do was activate the system, drive along slowly and the car would decide which space it could fit into. It would then steer itself into the space. It wasn’t foolproof, though. I used it next to a parking meter one day and the car looked like it had been abandoned in a hurry.

After 12 months and nearly 30,000 miles it was time to part ways with the Golf – and it was a genuine wrench. Thinking back, I remembered that on my very first day with the car I believed I had the best car on the fleet.

Despite the odd (and on occasion expensive) hiccup along the way, that feeling remained exactly the same on day 356.