Evenin' posties. I'm new to this board and was looking for some advice on Jettas to buy if I may? I've got about $10K to spend on a used car and was considering a used Jetta. I figured you guys are the experts, so I thought I would ask you which year, model and engine would the best to look at in this price range?

I currently drive another German vehicle starting with the letter "B" and ending in "W" but it's a stick. My 16 year son is driving now and is not ready for a stick so we need something him and I can share. We are both 6'-5" and the Jetta offers plenty of head/leg room.

Some reviews don't speak highly of the Jettas, but I have always liked the look of them.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Bob

 

Well first of all save your time and money and dont even think about getting a 2.0....or a 2.slow, there not very fast. I have the 1.8 Turbo and and its a really good engine, and the turbo makes it great for passing cars ect..... The VR6 is also a very good engine. They both have plenty of power. Im getting roughly 31 MPG highway with mine with premium gas. The TDI Is also a nice car, my friend says he gettin 700 miles to a tank but he might blowin smoke up my ***. In my opinion i would buy a GLI, there pretty sharp looking, maybe a 2004? Yeah jettas dont have a alot of good reviews but most people are whining about the small things. I mean sure your gonna spend alot on repairs its a foreign car! but im sure you already knew that with your BMW.

 

Thanks for the reply oppcha, appreciate the feedback. As with many German cars, there are good model years and bad model years, good engines, bad engines. My plight is to try and find out which is which so I don't make a bad choice.

I am kinda partial to the VR6 myself, but they are hard to find in my price range. The 2.0 is a dog is it?

 

My ex girlfirned has the VR6 2004 and she recently let me drive it and i liked it alot, im pretty sure the VR6 has more horsepower. But yeah stay away from the 2.0, its the grandma car of volkswagen haha. O and i would stay away from an automatic if there is high miles, seems to have alot of problems i hear. When you buy one make sure you find out when the timing chain was replaced, Dealership told me if it doesnt get replaced when it needs to it can screw up alot of stuff. But take care of your jetta and it will take care you.

 

ya i currently drive an 03 gli its nice and quick but it looks exactly the same as every other jetta so i would recommend the 2004 gli same everything sept a few things, in the interior and the exterior

 

The 1.8T gets better mileage than the VR6, but the VR6 has much better low end torque. The 1.8T is a much more common car/motor, not so much stuff has the VR6 in it. I'd expect you to have a hard time finding a VR6 for under 10k w/o a million miles on it. The Kelly blue book is much lower than the prices you see when you do a search for cars for sale.

I've got a 2003 VR6 GLI, nice car. Great ride, nice interior. Smaller and not as much spunk as my T5 Volvo had, but nicer interior. I had a 1.8T Passat which was a grandma car in the power department in comparison, but got better mileage.

 

Thanks for all the feedback gang. Appreciate it. Like I said before, I'm kinda partial to the VR6, but may have to look at the 1.8T as second choice. My real concern is in the reliability of these automobiles. Some reviews say the early 2000 models are all junk and will require many trips to the mechanic shop. As you go through the reviews though, there is little middle ground. People seem to have all kinds of trouble, or no trouble at all.

My orginal line of question had to do with what model year and power plant would I find more positive reviews than negative?

 

Well i have had no problems with my 2001 besides a bad Co2 sensor. The owner before me had to replae the clutch but i think he rode it all the time. No matter what year you get your probably gonna see a starter problem, so pay close attention to that. I was just reading on Wikipedia thatthe 1.8T won best engine 2 years in a row.Most people you find on those reviews are a bunch of wine asses and will complain about anything and everything and never take care of there cars. And im bettin most of them have automatics. I have heard of a couple 99's and 00's having some problems with the window swith motor though. But far as reliability your set, never heard of a jetta just breaking down on the side of the road. Im not sure what years to stay away from though

 

Thanks again for all the feedback.

I'm currently looking at a 2001 GLX w/ VR6. It does have 98K on it AND it's an automatic. The whole reason I am looking for another car is because I need an automatic. I currently drive a 5-spd (BMW 3 series) and have ever since my '84 VW Scirocco, but my 16 year old son can't drive stick and my wife WON'T drive stick. So, either we get him his own car (which would be ridiculous to have 3 cars when 2 would be sitting in the driveway most of the time), or we get something we can share. We have an SUV that the wife drives and son drives. I work from home almost everyday, so my car sits in the driveway.

On weekends when the boy is our chasing tail he drives the SUV, which means I'm stuck driving the wife to get her mails done cause she won't drive my car. See where I'm coming from?

I like German and both my son and I are 6'-5" (he still growing, but I'm shrinking) and the Jetta has tons of head and leg room. Guess what I'm asking is, should I continue looing at the 2001 GLX? I'll check on timing belt, tranny & starter per everyones advice.

 

as far as reliability definitely dont do the 2.0 engine, heard of lots of problems, in the vr6 though i have only heard of one prob on more that one which was the dash lights going out, which would be a 600 or 700 dollar repair which is something i am going through right now, and the 2004 1.8t i have heard that they have a turbo problem where it blows the turbo idk how often or on specific cars, but i love my vr6 i just smoked a 98 camaro which i believe had a 6 cylinder, and a 1998 or 99 mitsubishi 3000gt the vr6 >2002 have 200 hp and i think 196lbft and the 1.8t have 180hp not sure about torque