HELP!
My wife’s car, a 1993 Mk.3 VW Golf Ryder 1.4, has an intermittent problem with the gears. It started about 2 years ago with 60,000 miles on the clock. Normally gear changing is smooth and easy but every so often changing gear up or down becomes difficult/impossible. After repeated attempts to move the gear lever the fault would right itself and normal operation would resume for an indeterminate preiod, perhaps only a day or perhaps 6 or 8 months. Lengthy periods of faultless operation interspersed with shorter unsatisfactory periods is the norm. This makes the car very unreliable.
With the engine running, when the fault is present, attempts to move the car into gear does not result in scrunching of the gears, as might be expected.
I have been told that this car is probably fitted with an automatic clutch which could be causing the problem. The clutch cable,however, appears to be operating normally. I am not familiar with the mechanism of an automatic clutch.

Can anyone advise me please as to what is the likely cause of this recurring problem?

The fault comes and goes and when gone faultless operation resumes. It is very baffling.

Thank You