Safety recalls are always free … that’s the law
So if it’s safety related ( 99% of recalls are ) then it’s free no matter what age the vehicle or how many owners
However any upgrade recalls may well be at your own expense should you wish to have it ( I cannot think of any upgrade a manufacturer has ever made apart from safety ones ) things like your satnav maps ungraded every few years etc
I believe all the latest technology is mainly to impress the youngsters. Years ago when we bought a car we asked how fast it went, manual or automatic and the price. These days, so long as they can connect their smart phone, they are happy.
I also find it strange that despite all the publicity about not using a phone when driving, all the dash features now appear to be touch screen - not a great idea when you are driving.
When I had the opportunity of buying a new car 4 yrs ago (it’s actually in it’s 5th year now), I deliberately chose a ‘city car’ type with no bells or whistles, no gizmos - so less things to go wrong. No central locking, no computer stuff, no sat nav. Nowt.
Just electric windows. And, no road tax 
Thanks for that, worth knowing and I will check with VW Customer Services about other upgrades.
Proof if required
And only just now JLR are recalling cars on safety tonight
Jaguar Land Rover recalls 44,000 cars
Jaguar Land Rover recalls 44,000 cars over excessive CO2 emissions | Daily Mail Online
Quite agree with what you write about impressing the youngsters.
I had been driving over 52 years when I bought the VW Golf and I have to admit had it not been for ‘driving’ being almost automatic I would have struggled with all the ‘gimmicks’, useful as some of them are. The handbook needs a degree to understand and it has around 500 pages. It took me several visits to the main dealers to find out how the Adaptive Cruise Control worked as the handbook did not correspond with the controls on the car, not exactly much of a help when not familiar with these kinds of features.
The same was said when they shot the horse and put the engine inside the carriage but I do take your point
Five years’ ago when I bought the Golf the ‘extras’ were sat. nav., fog lamps, and parking assist. Everything else was included. Today’s Golf has all that included in the price, that’s the way cars are now being sold it seems.
I get the feeling it would be difficult nowadays to buy a car without all the ‘gimmicks’. Take the Vauxhall Corsa Griffin, it’s advertised as having all the extras.
Something I believe is no longer available nowadays is ‘zero’ road tax. Like your’s mine is free of road tax. I was advised the minimum road tax now is £140 no matter which make or model. Not sure about electric or hybrid cars in this regard though. 
My handbook is also a tome and \i don’t do instructions any more. I’m sure I will never use half the things the Radio/satnav does. I certainly will never connect my phone using bluetooth.
One thing I find slightly annoying with our Golf is that I cannot get my phone to interact with the ‘Nav’ feature (which we paid extra for).
The Nav system works quite well up to a point. The map is large and clear to see and can provide good directions to an entered end location. Unfortunately, I cannot access the traffic-flow facility, although I have correctly connect my phone - with data connection and location turned on - via both USB and Bluetooth.
Consequently, I make use of Google Maps on my phone which can be viewed on the same Nav screen by selecting the ‘App’ button rather than the ‘Nav’ button.
It is, at least, quick and simple to switch between the Nav map and the Google map (with traffic flow).
Do you have access to an 8 or 9 year old, grandchild perhaps, they’ll sort it out for you:lol:
Timing belts deteriorate with age, as do tyres, if your tyres are 35 years old, they may not be safe,
Primus – apologies for my post in which the wording was was obviously misleading. It is the 2014 VW Golf that has not yet had a new tyre at 17,000 miles. The other car I have in the garage has covered 163,000 miles, it has had quite a few sets of tyres during 35 years. As an ex-motorcycist the last things I ever compromise on are tyres, they are all that keeps a vehicle on the road! At that mileage, it’s the timing belt on this 1984 car that is the original. Maybe that one is made of a stronger, non-perishable material so has lasted without the need for replacement.
I will have to check out about a new timing belt being required on the VW Golf as 17,000 miles does seem to me to be low mileage for such an expensive replacement. No way do I wish to chance the engine being damaged though. At the cost of £459 it will not be going into the VW main dealer, that is something a local garage can do for around £150 less, so a vast difference.
No worries baz…does your car have a belt or is it chain driven
As for cost, it will also need a water pump, and tensioner/ guides, silly not to do it whilst it’s in bits ( assuming that the belt also drives the waterpump) as with anything in today’s modern engines, stuff is buried under more stuff, and a lot of the labour is gaining access to things…
I had a look on Toyota’s website for the cost of replacement battery packs. For the hybrid models, it’s around £12-1500 and for the plug-in Prius, which I assume is full electric it’s around £6000.
The six-cylinder engine is made by Ford, it’s the Cologne engine. I’ve had its predecessors, the Essex engine, in other cars too but know what has been replaced on this one as I’ve owned it since new.
The 2014 VW Golf I know nothing about, as you say everything on the modern car is buried under something else. When first purchased I did lift the bonnet, and shut it rather quickly when I saw there was probably nothing I could ever do myself, there’s just no space! With labour at the main dealer being more than £90 an hour it’s financially more beneficial to use the local garage at £50 an hour. They do exactly the same job and a neighbour has used this local garage for servicing on a VW Golf and is very pleased with them.
Both cars have a timing belt, also known as a cam belt. The Ford engine being an older one is easy to work on as were most cars of 1980s vintage. The modern VW engines are just so compact that I am sure some access is gained from beneath the car, without the necessary equipment that is not easy so best left to the garage, unfortunately.
On the hybrids, Toyota guarantee the battery packs for 10 years / 100,000 miles.
However, I’ve seen many reports of owners doing over 250,000 on the original battery packs.
There was a guy on a US forum who had a Lexus RX400h, and he did over 400k before he sold the car and was still on the original pack.
Early failures are pretty rare / unlucky.
The Toyota website says 5 years / 100,000 miles.
They must have changed it then.
A good friend has had 2 RX400’s now and he had a 10 year warranty on both.
Anyway, they are far more reliable than you’d think.
The Prius hybrid is often used in the US for taxi’s and 300k without an issue is fairly common.
In any event, never use a main dealer for repairs.
There are a number of companies who will refurb the hybrid packs. Sometimes it’s just a matter of two or three cells that have failed.
