Volkswagen Golf 1-Year Inspection

Our Volkswagen Golf 7, used by my husband for commuting and as a family car (a limited final special edition of 300 units from the early Golf 7 series, equipped with a 1.2-liter turbo engine and 7-speed DSG), has now been with us for two years, and the mileage has reached 22,751 km.

フォルクスワーゲンゴルフの性能はすごい−パナメーラは要らないかも！？

Since around June, every time my husband drove the Golf, a message saying “Please bring the car in for inspection” kept appearing on the meter. We kept thinking, “We should go soon, we should go soon,” but then our trip to the U.S. came up… and finally, we managed to bring it in just recently.

For this inspection, my husband dropped off the Golf at the dealer at 10 a.m., took a loaner of the previous generation POLO (free of charge) to go home, and was notified that all inspections were completed around 5 p.m. the same day. I guess the inspection was quite busy.

My husband was full of praise for the loaner POLO. I also took it for a spin to a nearby supermarket, and compared to domestic cars of the same class, it felt much more solidly built. I’d like to write a separate article about it later.

VW Professional Care

When we purchased the Golf new, it came with a free service called “Volkswagen Professional Care”, which covers the statutory 12-month periodic inspections, Volkswagen-specified service inspections, and labor costs for regular replacement parts (excluding parts costs) free of charge for three years after purchase.

Additionally, if you subscribe to New ServicePLUS (¥41,000 for the Golf), parts and consumables are also covered free of charge up to a specified number of times. When we bought the Golf, the dealer recommended New ServicePLUS, but my husband said “No thanks,” so we didn’t subscribe.

One reason was “The Golf is a well-built car, so parts breaking or heavy wear within three years after purchase is unlikely.” In fact, in these two years, the Golf hasn’t broken down once, and we haven’t even had to top up the oil. The second reason was “Volkswagen’s stance is that engine oil changes after the break-in period are optional and not included in the scheduled inspections.” So we decided to just pay for those as needed.

* Reference: Volkswagen Does Not Require Oil Changes After Break-In
Volkswagen has maximized engine performance and maintained extremely high basic performance for a long time, extending the oil change interval from the conventional 3,000–5,000 km or 3–6 months to up to 30,000 km or 2 years. This reduces the hassle and burden of oil changes and also contributes to environmental conservation and resource efficiency by reducing waste oil from changes.
*Source: Volkswagen Engine Oil

Inspection Details and Costs

So, here are the inspection details and costs. My husband said he agreed to everything the dealer suggested this time, so I was expecting a pretty high bill… but…

Wow… For the Panamera, oil is more expensive and the capacity is larger (9L), so just oil and filter changes cost nearly ¥50,000. Compared to that, this is definitely cheaper.

Are Domestic Cars Really the Best in the World?

After bringing the Golf in for inspection and driving the loaner POLO, my husband said this again:

“Many people still think ‘foreign cars break down,’ but the Golf has run over 20,000 km in two years without any repairs and drives perfectly fine. Even after asking for all the recommended services at the 1-year inspection, the total was just about ¥30,000. People say foreign cars break down and are expensive, but that’s just not true anymore. It’s no longer the era of ‘domestic cars being the best in the world.’

Indeed… by the way, the term ‘domestic car’ seems to be unique to Japan. Overseas, people simply refer to car brands like “Toyota” or “Porsche” and don’t categorize them as domestic or foreign. That concept probably exists because Japan is an island nation.

Times are definitely changing, and since this isn’t the Showa era anymore, I think it’s important to broaden our horizons when choosing cars these days.