We bought a Golf, its build quality was in a different league and at the time the price new was about the same. We had it from 1996 to 2006 and other than tyres, front brake pads and a back box nothing was spent other than servicing. Brilliant car.

Carina build quality would have been better where it mattered. That's why they were used as taxis here instead of Golfs. Legendary reliability with the Carina E, nicer looking than the Golf from that time too, but just about every car was better looking than a Golf MK3, not a difficult achievement. Little love now for those.

Just had a look on the interweb to check facts. There is probably little love for either since the Carina E and Golf Mk 3 both ceased production in 1997, the newest of either will be 23 years.

Looked on "how many left", no idea how to use the site but the Carina E was fairly simple, only one page of derivatives and the total left in Jan this year was approx 1300.

More difficult with the Golf since they are not in year order and there are 19 pages. So I selected the variants that I remember being a Mk 3 and only including those that peaked in 1997 i.e. the year the model was deleted. After 3 of those 19 pages I already had 1649 cars on the road. But if you look at the Mk 3 VR6 they seem to have done particularly well considering they did not sell that many, 653 left but in truth they are probably loved. That brings the total to over 2300 and more if I could be bothered to look

No point in counting further, more Mk 3 Golfs left.

Edited by thunderbird on 11/07/2020 at 15:39

<< We bought a Golf, its build quality was in a different league >>

There are two sides to 'build quality' - how well it is put together, and how long it lasts before corrosion undoes all the good work. I suppose new buyers are more interested in the first, used buyers the second. Not many marques meet both criteria ?

Just checked the MOT history of that Golf, it was a February 1996 GL TDi. and we PX's it early in 2006 with just over 110,000 miles on the clock and virtually no MOT.

It passed its last MOT in June 2012 with 182,331 miles on the clock without failing and with no advisories. If it carried on until June 2013 it would have been over 17 years old and approaching 200,000 miles.

In 2011 it failed for a sharp edge on the NSF wing due to corrosion, that wing was replaced in 1999 approx (by the VW dealer) when the wife hit or own front wall. As always they do not protect replacement parts as well as factory originals.

Before we sold it in early 2006 up to then no MOT failures and from memory no advisories (did they exist 14 years ago?). After that (other than the wing noted above) the only corrosion mentioned in MOT's was failing on brake pipes 3 times and rather worryingly one advisory for corrosion in a rear seat belt mount. Never mentioned again so it was either fixed or just a try on by the garage.

So it seems to me that corrosion was unlikely to be the reason for the death of that car. Since it was not presented in 2013 for an MOT either the engine (or other major mechanical component) had failed or an accident had caused it premature demise.

You cannot get much better that IMHO.