1. How did you come to the decision of buying this car?
I had an E39 540i wagon that I had bought really cheap, which meant that I was doing a lot of work on it. My work schedule went up by 50% last summer, so I just didn't have the time to work on my old wagon anymore—and I needed reliable transportation! Then, I made the mistake of calculating how much I was spending on parts and maintenance per month (even doing all my own labor), and realized I could have a car payment with a warranty for less.
Our other car is a BMW i3 BEV (which has performed mostly flawlessly, thank you very much!), so we needed a car with more range for longer trips, and I like the versatility of a wagon; this Golf is my fifth wagon. I also wanted to go back to a stick shift, so that limited my options significantly—basically, to just a VW Golf Sportwagen or Alltrack or a Mini Cooper Clubman. Mini "reliability" scares me more than VW "reliability," so I focused on the Golf pretty quickly. I was looking primarily at Certified Pre-Owned 2018 models (post-midcycle facelift, with VW's now-discontinued 6-year/72,000-mile warranty), but they were really hard to find with a manual at any meaningful discount over new. At just the right moment, I discovered a dealer in Salem, Oregon offering $6,000 off MSRP on new Sportwagens and Alltracks, so we made the trip up from Oakland and bought our very first brand-new car.
I landed on the Alltrack over the Sportwagen mostly because I wanted the more powerful 1.8-liter turbo four and heated seats, which FWD Sportwagens don't have. I also really love the Marrakesh Brown leatherette interior, which is Alltrack-specific. I wish the exterior was a color, but I spend more time looking at the interior, so I'm okay with that trade-off. I specifically chose the base S trim level to avoid getting the panoramic sunroof. I like a sunroof, but I have a friend with an older Jetta Sportwagen that had massive leaking issues, and my research showed that somehow this is still a problem for Golf wagons. Didn't hurt that the price was lower, too!
2. What has your ownership experience been like?
I've only put about 3,500 miles on it so far since last November, so no problems yet—I'd be pretty angry if there had been any! For a base model car from a mainstream brand, there are still lots of bells and whistles (and beeps—why do new cars have to beep so much?), the interior materials are very nice, and it drives pretty well. It's not at E39 levels of balance or handling for sure, but it's quick and has a good compromise between ride and handling. I also like the space efficiency; it's basically comparable to my old 5-series in every interior and cargo dimension, but noticeably smaller and wieldier to drive.
Only hiccup in our experience so far is that we went to one of our local dealers a couple of months ago to ask about installing an accessory auto-dimming rearview mirror. They took our information and said they'd order the right part, but we never heard back from them. Also, the selling dealer left a lot of residue from the shipping wrap, which made my white car look like it had been keyed and which was very hard to get off.
3. What is your fondest memory with this car?
We got to give it a pretty immediate shakedown run driving it home from Oregon, and we took the coastal route for a prettier and more engaging drive (plus cheese sampling at the Tillamook visitor center). The funniest moment of the trip came before we even left Salem. In a grocery store parking lot, the VW's rearview camera—it's hidden behind the VW roundel on the tailgate, which pops up when you put the car in reverse—really startled the woman loading her groceries into the car next to us! We could see her in the display, staring and pointing at the camera to her friend. Adds a little novelty to what is otherwise a pretty superfluous feature.
4. Why do you love cars?
I wish I knew! I think it's in my blood; my great-great grandfather sold Hudsons in rural Iowa from 1915 to 1952, and my grandfather (his grandson) was a lifelong enthusiast, too, at one point serving as president of the Society of Automotive Historians. I've loved cars since I was pre-verbal, and could tell apart badge-engineered malaise-era Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Pontiacs when I was still in a car seat. So it's always been there, whether I liked it or not, but it has opened up a lot of interesting opportunities and helped me meet a lot of great people!
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If you would like to participate, just answer the above four questions and submit one to three photos of your daily driver to milhousevanh at geemail. Thanks and have fun!
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