<p>My dad is in charge of car shopping for S1, and he’s found a 2002 VW Jetta with 67K miles on it. Seems it’s be in a fender bender and has a little bit of a scrape but otherwise is in good shape. Anyone have any experience with a Jetta?</p>
<p>[Consumer</a> complaints about Volkswagen Jetta](<a href=“http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/vw_jetta.html]Consumer”>Top 488 Volkswagen Jetta Reviews From Car Owners | ConsumerAffairs)</p>
<p>Here are some problems people have had with the jetta. Subaru or Honda for reliability. But Honda paint has been problematic.</p>
<p>I will stay away from any VW products. Guys that own VW are always fixing them. </p>
<p>There is a reason for this stupidity.</p>
<p>The VW designers always go for cutesy innovations in reality it is cutting corners. I have owned 4 VW’s in my younger years owing to the romanticism of a “vw”. All of them broke down terribly and I was a careful owner. </p>
<p>The VW philopsphy goes something like this: if you need to hold’em down with 3 bolts, cutesy vw german engineering will try to do with 2 bolts or no bolts at all, witness the strapped on vacuum hoses in my vw bus. They worked out of the factory but after 1 year of engine vibration, the hoses come off and got frayed. No amt of finagling will get it back in place.</p>
<p>The GM and Japanese makes says if you need 3 bolts to hold’em down, lets put on 4, to ensure it will not come loose.</p>
<p>We have a 2007 VW Jetta and never had a problem. It rides great. Only drawback is the gas mileage isn’t great for its size but that’s because it’s a 6 cycl. (chose power over better gas mileage). We bought it to replace a crappy Honda Civic. The Honda was bought new and we kept it for only 2 years because it was junk. One day, the front door actually fell off when the driver openned it in our driveway. The civic rode like your bottom was dragging on the road—felt every bump.</p>
<p>A friend of mine’s wife had a Jetta and swore he’d never buy another VW and couldn’t wait to get rid of theirs. It had lots of reliability issues. I’m not sure what year it was but it was probably pretty close to 2002. I think the Jetta and VWs in general have typically not been high on reliability ratings.</p>
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But wait, its a 2007 and this is only 2008. Give a little more time. Check out Consumer Report Car Guide and see where VW ranks.</p>
<p>We’ve had it for 2 years (2009’s are out)–only thing we’ve had to do is routine maintenance. No problems. Honda Civics are supposed to be reliable—ours stunk. Husband has an older Dodge Ram truck that’s has terrible reviews yet he’s never had a problem with it and is used both as his everyday vehicle and as our business’s vehicle for deliveries. Some vehicles stink despite good reviews. Some vehicles are great contrary to crappy reviews.</p>
<p>We bought a Dell xps1330 based on Consumer Reports great reviews and it stunk–made cheaply, had to have motherboard replaced within 8 weeks, usb port so cheap that I had to use a screw driver to push into the slot and align the pins so usb wire could be plugged in. Bought a highly rated washing machine based on consumer reports and it stunk too. I don’t put much faith in Consumer Reports.</p>
<p>I was given a 1997 Jetta. Its the biggest piece of junk I’ve ever owned.</p>
<p>My husband drives a 1997 Jetta and is quite happy with its reliability and gas mileage. He would have no problem buying a Jetta again. However, I think the routine repair costs are higher than average.</p>
<p>In our larger family group we have had several VW Rabbits in the 1980s, and since 2001 I can think of 4 VWs including a Jetta, no one has had any issues, except one had a battery that seemed to need jumping, not sure if that was a driver error issue or not!</p>
<p>Every one in our family who has one would buy one again, they are all very happy with them, that doesn’t mean you could not get a lemon, but 4 different people are happy.</p>
<p>Also, the family in this area all get service at the same dealership and they are amazing in giving great service.</p>
<p>My dad drove a Jetta for 17 years and didn’t replace it until very recently. (It was his first new car and he got emotionally attached to it…) Never heard complaints about maintenance costs, but we do have a car mechanic in the family and get routine repairs for free.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of an older,grown man driving a piece of crap college kids run around in unless he’s on a bad streak or glutten for punishment. Let’s face it, there’s more horror stories about Jettas and VWs than happy ones.</p>
<p>Rabbits were good in 1st couple of years, then the cutesy (read: cut corners) *“german **engineering” *revealed its fatal flaws when things fell apart one by one. VWs and Fiats are the worst cars in the world, but at least Fiats don’t pretend to be reliable and have Italian Flair.</p>
<p>We own a 2000 VW Jetta and it’s our second one. My mother has a 2003 Jetta. Both are low maintenance and are fun to drive. My daughter has the Jetta now but my husband and I have both driven it in the past and did not realize that we were supposed to feel like losers for doing so.</p>
<p>Not a Jetta but a 2002 Passat - since there’s widespread talk of how unreliable VWs are, I can report that mine IS reliable. Very nice to drive, have kept up maintenance and repairs but have NEVER been stranded by this car. I love it. No glutton for punishment here. </p>
<p>Passat does recommend premium fuel; don’t know if that’s the case for Jetta.</p>
<p>I owned 3 Jettas, loved them all. My husband hates VWs because of all of the maintenance issues. Our good friend works for an import car repair business and concurs with my husband about the quality…however he loves them because he sells a lot of parts to various clients , due to the heavier that usual repairs.
My Jettas were 1985, 87 and 1990.</p>
<p>I read the link and agree about that odd melted crayon smell…sister had a beetle and daighter has a cabrio…both have that smell</p>
<p>We have a 2003 Jetta in the family and it has been quite reliable–more so than my Audi Quattro, which I got rid of after two years in the early 2000s. The Jetta takes regular, not premium fuel, and handles very nicely. It has side curtain airbags, a safety feature that was not available on most Japanese cars at that price level at that time as I recall, which is why we bought the Jetta. Those airbags are much more widely available now. If the 2002 Jetta does not have that feature I would not get it, or any other car that lacks that safety feature. We have found VW dealer service to be quite good, and the few recalls were handled promptly.</p>
<p>If I had a mid-life crisis car, it would be a bug convertible , standard transmission.</p>
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<p>…or unless he’s spending every last available penny putting his kids through college.</p>
<p>Mary13 has it right. My H hates his second-hand 1999 VW Passat (okay, a bit better than a Jetta) but will drive it into the ground, as he did his 1969 Toyota Whatever, which he drove until it was sold in 1987 to a young man for a few hundred bucks for demolition-derbying or pizza delivery, can’t remember. Frugal to the max, and thank goodness, as we have 7 more years of college to pay for. We aren’t buying our kids cars, and neither are they. Walking is not a bad thing (or getting your mom to drive you in exchange for a daily sermon).</p>