Faults:

Cruise control worked once.

Valve cover gasket.

General Comments:

These cars are great cars; all of those having problems, don't expect not to have problems with another make of vehicle. You have a lemon, every make has them. Get it checked before you buy.

Volkswagen's are the fun to drive and nice to look at. To Ford fans, anything new made by Ford SUCKS. The only good thing Ford made was not even made by them, hence Mustang Cobra.

Faults:

To start off with, the cruise control didn't work whatsoever since the car was purchased.

The check engine light is always on.

The trunk button tries, but fails to unlatch.

Thermostat (6.00), fan (75.00 from junk yard and from a '97; was quoted 300.00 for OEM replacement), clutch (350.00), spark plug wires (100.00), distributor cap (16.00), ignition coil (100.00), water pump (100.00? don't remember, may be thinking of another part), housing (80.00) and transmission (I really want to say it was around 1000.00 with labor and all) have been replaced.

Sometimes it feels like it tries to die when idling. It has died when idling... especially with the A/C on.

Recently the passenger side outside door lock stopped working.

General Comments:

It sounds really bad from above, but I absolutely love this car.

The trunk can still be unlocked and opened manually, and though there were a lot of things replaced, not all are my fault or the car's fault. We all know you have to maintain a car and replace belts hoses and the like, and it's not certain that it wasn't the previous owner's contributing as well as my own.

I can tend to be a little hard on cars, where I'm an aggressive driver... but that's another reason I love this car :) This car lets me be aggressive with nice torque in 1st 2nd and 3rd gears. If you ever need to downshift to beat something in traffic, you can by all means do it.

Maybe a lot of people buy these Jettas because they look nice or run well, but I love this model in particular for its base performance, for the price, year, and style. If you really want to make a tuner car, check out Bahnbrenner.com and Neuspeed.com (though sometimes expensive) and also remember the white car from the first Fast and the Furious: 2.0 VW Jetta.

Sure, it's not a VR6, but with modifications for a serious tuner enthusiast, you can knock the socks off of any VR6 by changing it to a 16v and adding a supercharger. Even a Turbo VR6 may find it hard to keep up.

I love this car, I've named it, and I will never part with it. It may not look quite as good as the 99-05 models, but it still is a hot car with a lot of muscle for its size.

Faults:

All four glow plugs blown when I bought it.

Brakes acted funny.

REFUSES to start in the cold unless the block heater is plugged in beforehand.

Both wheel cylinders were blown when I bought it.

Radiator leaked.

Warped/cracked head? It's been overheated before (not by me).

For the last week or so I drove the car, the idle started acting weird whenever the timing advance was pushed in. Engine would hiccup.

A short in the dash would randomly make the wiper motor turn on and smoke would come from behind the steering wheel.

Shifter bushings were shot.

Rear axle bushings had to be replaced.

General Comments:

Now please let me explain before you go on thinking that these are horrible cars. This thing had the crap beaten out of it by it's last owner. I was told the clutch was new, the turbo was new, and the tires were new. That alone says something. Yet this car still runs. The speedometer was broken when I bought it, so it's true mileage is a mystery.

The things I've found that tend to go wrong on a lot of VW's are the shifter bushings and the seats becoming wobbly on their tracks. However, when treated right, Volkswagen's last forever. Everyone I've met who owns a VW says they would never go back to anything else. When I was car shopping for one, I came across more than one person who not only had a VW for sale, but a couple more in the driveway that were for everyday use.

The diesels, especially, are amazing. The fuel mileage is out of this world. My Jetta did great for that. The Jetta's in particular tend to be very front heavy, they nose-dive when you throw them into a corner, but they handle insanely well. The trunk space is unbelievable, all in all if it's one thing VW always has and always will have down pat, it's the use of space.

The Jetta's are fun to drive, comfortable, easy to work on, and they're one of the most solid cars out there. Mine had so much wrong with it, but I would still never go back to anything but a Volkswagen.