Volkswagen
is a Germen car company that was started in 1937. In the circles that I hang
out in, it is accepted that Germen engineering is quite good. This seems to
reflect on the 2002 Golf. Not only is this car functional it seems to
be ahead of its time in its design. Throughout the years Volkswagen
switched between the Rabbit and the Golf model of a car. These two cars are
mainly the same.
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| Mehta, Sajeev. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/. 9/14/09 |
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| Unknown. http://encarsglobe.com/. April 2002. |
The Golf that
I own is equipped with a 2.0 liter AVG engine. This year has three
different 2.0-liter engines. The AZG has a interference head on it. I
do not know the difference between the AVG and the AEG engine, my intuition
tells me that it is the difference between being American sold or European
sold. They could just be backwards of each other (i.e. driving from the left or
the right). The 2.0-liter engine gets 25-city mpg. On the highway the mileage
bumps up a bit to 33 mpg. These numbers are real life tested numbers on an
engine that has over 100,000 miles on it. The sticker mpg on a new car is
tested on a machine, with no air passing the vehicle, with a brand new engine.
The next question is, is the engine reliable? Yes, yes it is. I have owned
my car for five years and it is worthy to not that the engine has not failed me
yet.
The performance of
the engine in geared towards economics. As I written before the car
gets 30 miles per gallon. But this is at a snails pace. The torque output is a
mere 122 ft-lb and the hoarse power being 115 hp. It is somewhat
equivalent when compared to an equivalent 2003 GM 2.2 liter with
150 ft-lb and 140 hp.
The Golf
comes with an option of a manual transmission, as do most cars. It seems number
of manual transmissions sold in European cars is larger than that of the
American counterpart. This transmission has a radical design where
the reverse gear is in the same place as the first gear, but it is
under it. Yeah I said under it. The shifter drops down into the floor and the
stick can then be pushed into what is normally first but now is reverse. The
shift linkages are quit confusing, which causes trouble if you need to
disconnect them for repairs. Also the design needs for the vehicle to be at a
complete stop for a grind-free shift into R. Now moving forward into gears 1-5.
To be blunt ... they are slow. Its good for torque around town, but it feels
like the engine is going to yerck itself out of the car when you
are cruising down the highway. I am not even kidding, I have changed my driving just because of this. Everyone knows it takes me an extra 30-60 min. to get from Fargo to Minneapolis.
The last feature that makes this a technical piece of shizzle wizzle (for the time) is the interior design. The interior is clean and crisp. The dash is black, with blue and red gauges. In my opinion, the American car designs did not reach this elegance until just recently (07-08).
I have always loved German cars and the engineering behind them. I have owned a C5 Audi A6 and currently own a C6 A6. As for the interior, I can attest that Americans are slow to catch up with the German designs. The reverse gear seems like a pretty crazy idea, I had never heard of anything like that before.
ReplyDeleteI found this to be a very informative blog about a car and car brand I knew very little about! From your description and picture, this car sounds like it could be a great luxury car for me to own when I hit my retirement age(If that ever happens..). Great details!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a senior in high school I rescued a 1972 super beetle that had been downgraded to a regular beetle. The reverse was the same way push down and unsynchronized. Top speed was about 60 and it drank oil but the chicks loved it. It's true you need to alter your driving to cater to underpowered cars. I've found they don't get the advertised mpg when you keep them floored the whole time.
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