need WV jetta advice

jonnyB

jonnyB

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Location
rockwell, NC
i drove an 03 turbo the other day and i think thats what i want for my next DD. anyone have/had one and know any problems to look for or any advice on them? lookin at a 5speed gas turbo.
 
Lady at work has an 03 Jetta. She is always having problems with it, it is like a daily battle to get the engine light to go off. And parts are really expensive, too.

Literally, she is at my desk at least once a day complaining to me about all the problems with her car. She swears she'll never buy another VW.
 
well maybe i'll reconsider then haha. i dont know anything about them. i was lookin at civics around the same year/price range just for fuel mileage, but that jetta was fun to drive. i def dont need another money pit though
 
Hey Jonathan, my uncle has a 04 Jetta. It's a diesel and he's never had a prob. out of it. Not sure about the turbo gassers.
 
My girlfriend has a 2000 vr6 5spd its ok on the mpg but the parts to fix it are high it was like $150 for the idler pulley and belt and it was a pain to put it on. the only other thing is that it is very exposed in the front end she busted the oil pan, I put some jb weld on it and fixed it to save $200. With 150,000 miles it running strong and she is hard on a car. I know its not what your are look at but its kind of the same. Oh and the check engine light comes on when it wants to so to get it inspected we just do it when its off.
 
My wife worked at the VW place in Hickory before they went broke and I was spending 600-700 dollars about once a year on the POS. Cash for Clunkers got that POS and I got a new Kia.
 
Wife had a non-turbo '03 Jetta, and loved it. It will not win any races, but it was great on gas and just had normal wear and tear things replaced. A friend has a '01 TDI Jetta and he loves it as well. Finally another friend has an '02 gasser with the turbo and she HATES it, she says the same things that someone earlier said, it is in the shop ALL the time, and the turbo has been replaced twice.
 
Call German Imports over near irish potato rd, above Concord. He'll tell you what's good and bad, never take a VDub to the dealership.

Been driven my wifes Turbo Bug for 2 years to work over in Charlotte, no problems, just a small car for me. Big change from my old '95 Impala SS, but I swear it's just as fast.
 
I have a Passat turbo tdi listed on here for sale..........



The Jetta's feel more roomy! both are nice cars. you'll love the mpg and there fun to drive als0

Upkeep will be pricey, no parts simple or extreme are cheap to repair on these cars..
 
yeah i still got the runner, whats up man

thanks for all the advice everybody, i still dont know what to do, its between this and a civic, and everybody has civics. i wouldnt be building this car, although a loud blowoff valve would be cool. the one im lookin at has a 1.8L, and is a wolfburg edition, whatever that means. and it has less than 100K on it.
 
The wolksburg (or however you spell it) is a speacial edition with little upgrades, overall the nicest package VW offers
 
I've had a couple friends that have bought new VW's in the past couple years and had nothing but problems with them. It's always little things too. Neither had real engine problems, but a lot of what I would call assembly problems. The engines are assembled in Germany, but most of the cars are assembled in Mexico. Good engineering, but they seem to lack quality everywhere else.
 
Get the service history on the car. If you can't, I'd pass. The 1.8t is a pretty good motor, but BAAAAD for coking up turbos if you don't change the oil every 5k with VW recommended synthetic oil. Not any synth, what the dealer sells. They have the odd electrical problem, window regulators are bad to go out, and interior pieces start to rattle early. But most cars are crap these days. You just have to determine the crap you can live with. I like driving VWs, but their reliability went down considerably in the late 90s, and hasn't fully recovered. Look up some reviews online of the Jetta you're looking at.
 
RUN! The other direction!

We had a 92 GTi non turbo with no problems. 97 Jetta gas, non turbo, no problems. Then comes a 2001 Wolfsburg 1.8t and nothing but problems. It was a certified used VW, but it was in the shop more than it was on the road. Trying to diagnose and fix a VW is not cheap. Never did get it running quite right. All this before it turned 80k....
 
Well, first off, I need to know what a West Virginia Jetta is???

With that said, I've got an 04 VW Passat TDI. Its been a fantastic car, over 50k miles in the past 3 years. Its got 125k miles on it. I bought it at 75k miles and I've had very few problems with it, but the little stuff is a bit annoying.
Here's a list:
80k miles, headlight bulb
Around 100k miles, driver rear window will raise up, but won't pull itself down (still haven't replaced)
108k miles, drivers CV majorly clicking (replaced with aftermarket unit which lasted 15k miles, was recently replaced under warranty)
120k miles, backlight for climate control knobs not working (haven't bothered to fix it)
125k miles, mass air flow sensor failure (yesterday actually)

With that said, I wouldn't trade the car for anything that I could afford. It is comfortable, quick, handles great, well appointed, and everything is ergonomically in the right place. Parts are reasonably priced if you don't buy from the dealer, and there are some really good forums to draw information from.
 
my buddy had a GTI....owned it for a few weeks, and then everything went to crap. he had a lot of seperate wiring issues...and an axle issue. he took it back one day to drop it off for service, and saw a brand new 337 show up for initial delivery...so he bought it and traded his in. The 337 SEEMED better...for a few months. The drivers window stopped working, and one day just fell into the door frame and shattered! IT JUST FELL! Then he had some exhaust issues, and another axle issue. He traded it in on a v6 frontier and let the dealer have the issues. This was back a few years ago, but after seeing 2 seperate, brand new cars, have issues...i backed off of every wanting one.
 
Blaze said:
Lady at work has an 03 Jetta. She is always having problems with it, it is like a daily battle to get the engine light to go off. And parts are really expensive, too.
Literally, she is at my desk at least once a day complaining to me about all the problems with her car. She swears she'll never buy another VW.
Click to expand...
The soon to be wife has the same problem, well I guess we have the same problem:confused:
 
jonny b ill get you intouch with my vw man down in charlotte thats about all he deals with the shop is euro wise the owner is mike no. he can tell you anything you need to know!!!
 
I was VERY close to pulling the trigger on a Jetta TDI so I'll forward what I have found:

1st, VWs are usually pretty good but there is like, 1 out of every 20 that JUST SUCKS. Nothing but problems and the other 19 are fine :lol:.

2nd, really haven't heard anything good about the 1.8T. I'd go with the stock 2.0 gasser or the diesel.

If you do go with the diesel, be prepared to deal with busted up cars with A LOT of miles on them, and then the god damn owner thinks it is made out of gold.

Oh, and around 100k, the diesels need their intake and some sort of valve cleaned. It won't cost you any money but it will require a day's worth of elbow grease.

3rd, the 1999-2003 jettas had problems with their headed seats. Heard stories of guys getting holes burnt in their britches. So check to see if they've been replaced (under warranty).

Around 120k, they start showing the normal car wear problems.

AVOID THE AUTO TRANS CARS. VW hasn't figured out automatic transmissions yet. I've heard nothing but terrible things about the auto trans.

Suspension is stout, so are brakes.

CVs go out around 120k. Apparently these are fairly easy to replace.

There are two trim levels: GL and GLS. GL = no arm rest and steel wheels with plastic covers. GLS = arm rest and alloy rims.

I've heard bad things about window regulators as well. I recommend you buy a trim piece tool and handle it.

VWs, like most German cars, they always want some sort of fancy oil. Keep an eye out for what has been in the car and keep using whatever it needs.

Fuel pump and filter...replace it. Fin. Do not argue this.

Lastly, it comes down to the previous owner. Like I said, I couldn't find a diesel that hadn't had the shit beaten out of it and the owner didn't want a crap ton of money. Some guy wanted me to pay $3k over KBB for a car with a salvage title :lol:. I would say most 2.0 jettas were driven by girls so, be prepared for that.

The newer body style Jettas have REALLY come down in price. I saw a 2005 TDI with a 5 speed for like, $12k. Only had 60k on it. That is a deal. I'd rather pay an extra 4k for a car with 1/3 the miles and hadn't hadn't been destroyed. I looked at the non-diesel ones and they are sub $10k. The newer body style isn't as compact as the older body style but MAN they are nice.
 
I have owned a bunch of vw's in my life. Currently have 4 and would not own another car for a daily driver.

The 1.8t is a problem unless you are going to mod it. The stock turbo sucks. There is also a air bypass valve that plugs and causes the hose to melt around it. There are plenty of aftermarket fixes for both, but they all make more power. More power always leads to other upgrades.

If its a dd car and you want something fun to drive, buy a VR6. The power and torque is awsome and if you keep your foot out of the skinny pedal they good pretty good milage. I have a 97 and it gets 26 - 27 when my wife drives it. It gets 22 - 24 when I am in it. Great car.

The heated seat problems is only on the cloth seat cars. The leather seats never had that problem that I know of.

They do have some common problems. Window regulators is one of them. Mostly on the 3rd gens (93-98) though. They do require special fluids which are expensive. Most of them are long life fluids though so it balances out.

I know euro wise was mentioned earlier in this thread. They are by far the best euro shop in the area. I highly recommend them. I would take any VW to them for a pre buy inspection if its used.
 
Back
Top