Should I change to a four-cylinder VW Golf?

Hi,

Should I change my 2024 VW Golf (three-cylinder 1.0-litre mild-hybrid) next year for a new 1.5-litre four-cylinder Golf or perhaps a 1.8 Toyota Corolla?

I want a car to keep indefinitely. I love my current Golf and would be happy to hold onto it but I have doubts about the long-term reliability of a three-cylinder 1.0-litre engine.

What do you think? Our annual milage is about 17,000km mainly town driving with a few mixed road journeys of 40-80km weekly plus the odd few longer road trips annually.

Thanks.

Teresa (Co. Clare)

Jun 2025 Filed under: choosing new car

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Expert answer

Hi Teresa,

There's no definitive answer to that, but let's talk through some of it.

First up, while three-cylinder engines might be less balanced and more susceptible to stress when pushed than their four-cylinder counterparts, that's entirely unimportant if you generally pootle around and don't extend the engine to its fullest. And you service it properly.

If you like your car and you don't have to change it, why bother? The more you change your car, the more it costs you in the long run after all.

Nonetheless, if you've got it in your head that you don't trust the three-cylinder engine for some reason, then both the 1.5 Golf and the Corolla are good options.

If all that matters to you is reliability, then it's hard to ignore the Toyota as it has such a strong reputation on that front. We wouldn't expect the Golf to be unreliable as such, but the Corolla is bombproof.

But there's a lot more to a car than dependability and if you already like the Golf, you may well prefer another one over the Corolla. The drive very differently and feel very different, too.

Our advice would be to go and test drive the cars for yourself to see which you prefer, but don't hurry into a decision if there's nothing wrong with your current car.

Shane O' Donoghue - Complete Car Advisor