VW Golf 4

Thinking of getting a VW Golf 4 as my first car.
Is this the right way to go?

Get a Twingo

depends on where you live.
if repaired and maintained they're really GREAT first cars, especially with all the rust prevention from factory. I've never seen a 4 with bad rust yet.

If you live in Burgerland tho, I guess you better get something Japanese or Burger made.
Mexican Golfs are known to have all kinds of problems.

I hope you like sticky interior plastics that peel

I really hope you are kidding me.
I live in Europe. It is an extremly loved car here. That's why I am confident about buying one.
My auntie has one in case her Passat has a problem. 180k km, from 1998 and the interior looks amazing till today, without making changes in it.

>I really hope you are kidding me.
no. Veeky Forums heavily recommends first gen Twingos to our European posters.
They're endlessly reliable, practical, fuel efficient, cheap to buy/own/maintain/insure, you CAN make them fast (a Renault 5 1.4L Turbo bolts right in), and to top it all off, they WILL get you chicks, because it's fucking adorable. Hell, there are plush toys of it.

>I live in Europe.
Then you can't go wrong with one if it is in good shape. It's pretty much babbies first car for a metric fuckton of people.

The recommendation of a Twingo isn't a joke either. They're good cars for when you have only sub €1000 but as you seem like someone who can afford more, the Golf would be the better choice in this case.

I do not plan om having something fast. Just to get me to point B with decent speed.
I want a car that is also safe.
I am not hating, but the Twingo doesn't look any safe to me.
Also, Renault has a bad history when it comes to crash tests and what not.

>I am not hating, but the Twingo doesn't look any safe to me.
2001-2006 models had improvements to the structure to make them safer

2000€-3000€ budget
I want a car that is safe, is not a fuel eater, is safe in case of a crash, and is pretty ok on off-road.

They're safe for being in the Fiesta class. The Fiesta MK3, the same era of the Twingo1 was actually a fucking deathtrap compared to the MK1 Twingo (facelift 2001 model).

But you're right that the MK4 Golf would be a huge jump in safety.
MK1 Twingos are just fine for what they are and many people underestimate them.

2500 would get you are really well maintained MK4 Golf.
I'd say go for it. Also, try to get the manual transmission one since back then autotragic sipped 1 liter more /100km EASILY.

>Also, Renault has a bad history when it comes to crash tests and what not.
Around 2000, Renault made a HUGE commitment to crash test safety with all their cars redesigned and getting 5 star ratings from Euro NCAP. Everything from the Twingo to the Laguna was near the top of its class safety-wise.

get one with 1.9 TDI they are immortal and you can get 5.5-6l per 100km

That's true but I guess he's looking for a bigger car.
Twingos are roomy inside but you can't deny that Golfs are quite a bit bigger and are also safer.

Some beginners want as car as possible around them while being able to afford it to feel safe.

Thanks for the advice.
Also, is a german car better then other (european) cars, or is it just a meme?
It's also one of the reasons I chose the Golf 4.
>My dad had a huge head to head crash with a Ford Van.
>I was with him in the car.
>The van got totally fucked up but the passat just had a wheel slightly bent.

Forgot to mention that MK4 Golfs are safer.

MK3 Golfs were fucking horrible in terms of safety and I'd say they're even a lot worse than Twingos in that regard.

It's just a meme.

>Also, is a german car better then other (european) cars, or is it just a meme?

It's hit and miss.
Before the mid 90's it was actually true.

MK4 Golfs also had a fuckton of problems but they kinda got sorted out over the time.

In general, German made cars are pretty average now I'd say.

Euro NCAP is also French. There are lots of speculations of the tests being made up. I don't say this is the case, but is something to know in the future. That's what I am looking after. Also should I expand my budget to get one with the less km possible, or is it just a meme?
This would make me really happy. Yes, looking for a bigger car then Twingo.

It's shit. Anything VAG is shit lately.

Definitely go for one with less kms on it as possible.

But if you're going for a 1.9tdi (which you should if you're looking for durability) then a really well maintained one with 200k km on the clock COULD be in better shape than a 40k km city traffic tdi.

Diesel cars don't fucking like short distance driving.

The absolute best bet would be a Golf MK4 1.9tdi that had only one or two former owners and was MOSTLY used for longer distance commuting instead of getting one from some student that used it to travel 5km to uni every day.

and the mandatory memers arrived
>lately
we're talking about a car that was made before 2004. MK4s are OK.

I drive the variant one with 101hp TDI and i love it.
Look for well maintained one not rly one with less km (its mostly faked tho)

VAG has been shit since the mid 90s. Fucking bus rider.

the projection is strong in this one.

also, you might be talking about mexican VW, then it would make more sense.

I've got an 2002 1.6 (~130k km) as daily since 2005, the engine never had one single problem so far, but we had some issues with other parts (for example, we've had the driver's window disappearing into the door because the window suspension was broken), but apart from one new exhaust, nothing expensive. Overall I would really recommend it.