Used car question VW Jetta

[Ken Werner]

I'm thinking about buying a 2003 Jetta with a 4 cyl gas engine, and 5 spd manual transmission. 70K miles.

Anybody have experience with this or similar vehicle for positive or negative recommendations?

[Dar Lounsbury]

Have a 2002 Jetta, 4 cyl, auto trans and I really like it. I have the wagon and get about 24 mpg. 75K and the trans is starting to go. About 2K to fix. First of any trouble.

Dar

[Robert Maloney]

I had a 2003 Jetta with the 1.8L turbo. the car was great with no major problems. The only problem I had was a bad coil pack, but they were only $25 from volkswagen so I just replaced all 4. I traded it in on a '09 jetta, it had 189,000 on it when I traded it in. I've also heard good things about the 2.0L engine. I was getting 28 mpg and I'm not easy on the gas. Good luck, they are good solid cars.

[Ken Werner]

Hlepful info, thanks very much.

[Scott T Smith]

A fellow that works with me has an '02 diesel Jetta. He bought it in '06 with 140,000 miles on it, today it has about 240,000. NO major problems to speak of, but he does a very good job of keeping the engine and transmission oil changed. It may have had a transmission overhaul before he bought it.

He has had to replace some minor things such as the AC compressor, radiator fan, etc, but all in all the car has provided great service.

He averages about 45 mpg.

[Howard Garner]

Good move. The auto transmissions from this period have problems. The manual is great.
A TDI diesel would be better

Howard Garner 2005 Golf TDI owner

[Joe Dowling Jr]

03 golf tdi here. It's been a good car, 125,000 so far. VW wants the timing belt done at 80,000. That will run about 1,000. If I had to complain, it's a basic 2 door and the interior is starting to look a little threadbare.

[Tom Godley]

The Jetta is a nice car - Just don't expect it to be as trouble free as a Toyota or Nissan product if you are moving from a Japanese brand.

[Pat Germain]

I drive a 2003 Jetta with a 1.8 Turbo motor. I bought in new. It now has just over 80,000 miles. FYI, for the gasoline engines, VW recommends changing the timing belt and water pump as well as flushing the cooling system, at 100,000 miles.

My Jetta has been a very good car. I especially like the turbo, although I don't know if the car you're looking at is a turbo model, Ken. My car is a five speed and I'm still on the original clutch and brake pads. Outside of normal maintenance, I have replaced a fuel injector and that was under warranty. A few months ago I replaced the coolant temperature sensor, which isn't unusual for a modern car.

No kidding, my Jetta will get 35mpg on the highway. That turbo really helps with mileage as well as power. I personally know people who installed a performance chip in their 1.8T Jetta and the mileage was even better. (The chip allows the turbo to work a little harder.)

[Brian Elfert]

The one knock on the gasoline Jetta/Golf is the lack of fuel mileage. The MPG can be pretty low compared to similiar cars. Now, the TDI engine can get some pretty good MPG although less so since USLD came out.

[Kurt Bernat]

I had a '98 Jetta TDI, loved it. But I got rear ended and it was totalled, replaced it with a 03 passat with the 1.8t. The 1.8t takes premium unleaded, and for that reason I wouldn't recommed it. VW fixed that with the 2.0t that uses regular unleaded.

[David Weaver]

My wife has an '04 1.8T. AT 50k miles, it's had the water pump done and three coils replaced (I replaced the coils, it's easier than anything else you'll ever do on a car).

The non-turbo 4 is probably the most reliable of VWs engines, but the comment above about not expecting old-school japanese reliability is accurate. It's one of the least powerful engines of that displacement, makes the car a little bit of a pig, but if you're not a heavy footed driver, it shouldn't be a problem.

I had a 2000 jetta VR6 myself that was a basket case. I sold it once it got to 50k miles. Back then, VW had a 2&24 bumper to bumper warranty, and the car at 4 years old and 50k miles had already had about 6 grand of non-routine work. 3k before the warranty expired, and 3k out of my pocket after it expired. The hassle of it was just as big of an issue as the money.

I would get as plain jane of a jetta as possible. The fewer things on it, the fewer things to break.

We keep the wife's car because it's been OK and because it only gets driven about 2k miles per year, so if it becomes trouble like mine did, it won't be on the road all the time, anyway.

Mileage out of our 1.8T is only about 21 or 22, but we live in the burbs with a lot of lights and a LOT of hills. Hills and lights are a bad combination for mileage, it does better on longer trips, more like 28.

Both VWs I had got mileage a little worse than the slightly larger and more powerful japanese cars we have / had, and both VWs burned premium (the japanese cars burned regular). I think the base 4 you're looking at is probably the only regular fuel engine they offered those years. I tried regular in my vr6 jetta a couple of times and it gave me bad attitude every time, which was kind of surprising. I haven't done so in the car with a turbo, there's no good reason to try it.

[Ken Werner]

Thanks to all for your info.