Need VW Jetta Advice or Opinions

[BttleFedC10]

Yupp! Volkswagon are a PITA to work on. Never again!! lol. My sisters tdi jetta and her passat always had to go in for recalls and shit. Every other week she'd be in a rental or her bosses millions of cars she has. lol

[YALE]

If you get one, and the timing belt hasn't been changed, change it. Ask my brother about his Passat, if you don't believe me.

[Stephen]

Get a Civic Si.

those get stolen all the time.. Look on CL.. anyone that looks like a good deal is either hacked up or is a "theft recovery title"

[gonzoss]

long read so bare with me

I will have to agree that the tiptronic on the 1.8t are junk. They are just not built to hold up on the torque on those little suckers...I'd recommend the 5spd. or a GLi with the 6spd. The last year of the 1.8t came with the better topend, the oil sludge was mainly on the passats motors. Like previously stated make damn sure the timing belt it done and the waterpump is replaced with a pump with a metal impeller not the VW/Audi OEM version(plastic shit). TDi are always recommended for mileage and reliability reasons.
The DFW area has a lot of VW/Audi guys and there are three peeps I can recommend taking it too. bshaer(sp?) is one of them. He was around the Canada site, don't know if he made it over.

Overall IMO its not a bad car. Just be sure you are a aware buyer. What year exactly are you looking at? Oh and if its at VDUBs Only off of 75! FUCK THEM!!! I'll pm you contact info for so you can take the car to both dealer and non-dealer.

Here is vw/audi site that has a lot of info that have some good reads on the sludge issue. VWoA to this day still hasnt fully admit the sludge issue to be a recall. They resolved it a on a case by case issue.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5187132-MK4Forum-Essentials-DIY-FAQ-amp-Resources-Guide

[ram57ta]

I haven't owned one personally but I have several close friends who have owned the Jetta and Beetle 1.8T and all have had LOTS of problems with them. Electrical problems are fairly common on both cars (switches, window motors, lock modules). Auto trannies are trouble spots and are expensive to rebuild, motor mounts....hell one buddy even had the THROTTLE BODY go out on his 1.8T Jetta (and that was one HELLA expensive part). If it were my 5 grand...I would RUN.....you can get a few year old Civic Si or Acura RSX that is FAR more reliable for about the same coin.

[dvups1]

Stay away from the auto trans. The 1.8T has been known to have a sludge build up due to lack of synthetic oil being used (a real nightmare).

Go for the 5 speed TDIs. 40mpg in the city and they run forever. I have 285K on mine and going strong.

[A_A_G]

Get a Civic Si.

With a wife and kid? Not unless its an FA5 Civic Si and those are far from $5k. OP, get a 98-02 v6 Accord within your budget.

[Reefer Rae]

Get a Civic Si.

This

[GT Fanatic]

you guys are pissing on my wet dream glad I asked first before buying

[UserX]

Get a Civic Si.

[Slowhand]

I just sold my 1.8t MK4 Golf (same platform)....bought it at the start of the year, did quite a bit of research before I bought it. As mentioned above the big things are the timing belt, water pump, front motor mount, clutch (at around those miles), and as I understand they can be prone for some electrical issues.

All that said, I bought mine in January with 100K miles for $5500 (with quite a few tasteful mods), included records for the timing belt and clutch that had recently been done, and it also had new tires.....it was my daily commuter until just a few weeks ago, didn't have a single issue out of it, put a little over 8k miles on it, and it consistently got 28-30mpg with an economy tune on it. I sold it for $5500 literally in a few hours after it went on the market (should have asked more). I was amazed at how cold the AC was in that thing this summer.

Only thing I didn't care for was the ride...way too firm out where I live, but it also had Koni coilovers on it, so I'd imagine stock would be a lot better.

You can get some better information in the forums at www.vwvortex.com

EDIT: I see you said you are looking at an auto...my research said to stay away from those anywhere above 50-60K miles.

This, this, and more of this. Perfectly good cars, just pick up a well maintained example and get the fuck away from the autos.

[Rreemo]

I just sold my 1.8t MK4 Golf (same platform)....bought it at the start of the year, did quite a bit of research before I bought it. As mentioned above the big things are the timing belt, water pump, front motor mount, clutch (at around those miles), and as I understand they can be prone for some electrical issues.

All that said, I bought mine in January with 100K miles for $5500 (with quite a few tasteful mods), included records for the timing belt and clutch that had recently been done, and it also had new tires.....it was my daily commuter until just a few weeks ago, didn't have a single issue out of it, put a little over 8k miles on it, and it consistently got 28-30mpg with an economy tune on it. I sold it for $5500 literally in a few hours after it went on the market (should have asked more). I was amazed at how cold the AC was in that thing this summer.

Only thing I didn't care for was the ride...way too firm out where I live, but it also had Koni coilovers on it, so I'd imagine stock would be a lot better.

You can get some better information in the forums at www.vwvortex.com

EDIT: I see you said you are looking at an auto...my research said to stay away from those anywhere above 50-60K miles.

[Z06killinsbf]

Pm GonzoSS, I know he has had a few of them

[RCITNet]

Don't do it. Diesel I would say maybe but not the one you're considering.

Sent from my DROID RAZR

[89FivePointOh]

Transmission in the car will go out soon....repair will cost you $4100. Timing belt and Water Pump will cost you $1200 at dealer. Oil Change will cost you $65 at dealer....

I got rid of all three of mine! Way to fucking expensive!