Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £13,750 to £18,845
Looks smart, in a conservative way; well-equipped and roomy.
Still expensive; not as sporty to drive as it looks; quality can be variable; noisy 2.0-litre engine.
An attractive car with a credible junior-executive image, but now dated.
The Bora is the saloon version of the Mk 4 Volkswagen Golf, and has always been largely overlooked in favour of the trendier hatchbacked model.
It's attractive, in a conservative sort of way, but it has also lost out to the closely-related but cheaper-priced Seat Toledo and Skoda Octavia models - the latter now built on the Golf Mk 5 platform.
The Bora is showing its age, with an uninspired chassis and stodgy handling, though it comes with a series of good engines, including the 1.8T turbo and the TDI PD diesels. Top-spec Highline models come with all the refinements expected of a compact executive saloon, and add a bit more value for money, though the Bora is still expensive.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Bora
wrote on 02 03 2009