I bought my Tornado Red Golf TDI on July 29, 2003, for use as a courier vehicle. I was living in San Diego and most of the deliveries were real estate documents. I did that for five years and put about 285k miles on it. Added bigger nozzles, a bigger turbo, and a tune (a Kerma tune, I think).
From summer 2008 to summer 2011 I worked at other jobs, then returned to the courier business in Minnesota. At that time the Golf had about 325k miles on it. I added a Dieselgeek Panzer skid plate shortly after, and because of the bad road conditions I've made frequent repairs to the suspension and steering components. I finally replaced the upgraded turbo with another one, with a Malone tune.
I was driving about 50k miles a year, but in early 2017 switched jobs to one where I now drive about 60k miles a year. Sometimes some light loads, but more often it is deliveries of parts to construction sites: electrical, plumbing, HVAC stuff. If the load is more than my Golf can handle, then most of the other drivers have pickups or vans.
But you'd be surprised how much I can fit inside, or sticking slightly out the back with the hatch held down with a bungee cord. No front passenger seat, so the seat belt warning light is on the dash, but that's the only warning light at this time. 5/8" plywood on the floor to support heavy loads like iron flanges, big breaker panels, bundles of 1" galvanized conduit, PVC conduit, cartons of miscellaneous parts, etc.
I try not to haul more than about 600 pounds, but have carried up to 800 pounds a couple times, for short distances. With HD Jetta wagon springs in the back and a big rear antisway bar it handles pretty well even with a big load.
About five years ago I thought it it might be a good idea to get another Golf with the ALH engine. It took about a year to find this one, a GLS with under 120k miles.
I'm always on the lookout for another Mk4 Golf -- so I have a spare in case anything happens to the red work car. I don't want to trash the blue one by using it as a work car.
The red one is now up to nearly 714k miles, with over 12k miles added just since June 1st. It gets fresh Delvac 1 ESM 5w40 every 10k miles -- I currently have 13 gallons in stock so am set for the next 18 or 20 months. I buy Wix oil filters by the dozen (same as NAPA Gold). The injection pump is original, which I credit to the Cat fuel filters (changed every 70k-80k miles). I buy the cheapest diesel I can find; up here it's B10 in the summer, B05 in the winter. I replaced the front crankshaft seal, oil pump, chain and tensioner during a timing belt change three years ago; the clutch and rear main seal a year ago; and the cylinder head this last winter; so if all goes well for the next five years this Golf should reach 1,000,000 miles in mid-2023.
For my purposes a Mk4 Golf is the perfect vehicle. An '02 or '03 Jetta TDI wagon might be slightly better, but good ones are hard to find for a reasonable price. A friend with an '04 wagon with the PD engine might want to part with hers, but I am just very fond of the ALH engines.
