Faults:

I have a 2001 GLX VR6 Jetta that I bought brand new. I have had this car serviced, as the manual suggests and have had more problems than I’ve ever had with any other car. The mass air flow sensor failed at 30k miles, the rear brake pads were gone at 35k, the main shaft on the transmission broke at 42k miles, the dealer, Westlake CA, (took 3 times in the shop to fix the transmission), another emissions problem at 60k that cost me almost $800 to fix and now at 69k the Emissions workshop light is on AGAIN.

General Comments:

I will never buy another Volkswagen again. This car cost almost 25k and has been the biggest lemon I’ve ever had!

Faults:

Driver side window regulator - 145 dollar repair

Passenger rear window regulator - 145 dollar repair

Bushings in intake manifold - 400 dollars (28 dollars in parts)

Clutch/Flywheel - 1800

Starter/water pump and belt tensioner - 600 dollars.

General Comments:

Find a good mechanic-not the dealership. This car is my daily driver and I have upgraded the clutch/flywheel/ecu/springs/shocks/brakes/air intake.

I like the responsiveness and to date have not had the myriad of problems that other have had with the same vehicle.

This car sees about 19 track days a year. Day to day I drive the crap out of this car -- would not buy anything else.

Faults:

Having read the other reviews, I began to experience a bit of angst. I have replaced the Mass Airflow sensor at 122k and I've replaced the motor for the driver window - it went down into the door and shattered. Additionally, I've replaced the wiring harness and the glow-plugs twice.

I really love my Jetta and like others, it gets great fuel economy, but I will have serious hesitation upon pursuing another.

General Comments:

It's really fun to drive. It gets great fuel economy and has great handling for a sedan of that type.

Faults:

No Crayon smell.

Some of the other comments are accurate for my car:

- lubrication oozes onto door sill (presumably from hot weather)

- some of the rubberized material on the interior plastic is peeling off.

- upgraded cloth seats are difficult to remove dog hair from.

- front passenger side window broke in the down position -dealer indicated that the palstic clips were a design flaw and readily switched out the plastic clips for metal. irritatingly, they would only switch out those which failed.

- the brake light has been on since the sensor wire on the right front tire became detached, I live with the light and will change it out when I get to 60K miles.

General Comments:

While these are a fair number of small irritating problems, I still feel that the performance of my 5 spd VR6 combined with the quality of the interior trim, are vastly superior to any other small relatively inexpensive car in this class.

I looked at a number of other similar cars and the ones that had the same performance and trim level were $5000 more expensive.

Everyone else's entry level was either underpowered or felt like an economy car.

On balance I like my Jetta despite the problems (it is 5 years old) and recently did some research into switching it out for a 2001 TT. I decided against it based in large part on the comments at this site.

Faults:

I have had nothing, but problems with the dealership I purchased my car from. They were less than truthful when selling me the car and since then have continued to do so. I no longer will take my car there for service of any kind. There is currently a safety recall on my car and yet the dealership says no there isn't. now my car drains the battery and I have replaced it twice now and same problem and yet can't seem to get proper service. Small trim items in my car have broken several times and I have had to have them fixed only to have them break again. the biggest issues is that my car won't start and once it does it's not for very long and the battery is dead again. when it is working my radio cuts in and out and the windows are slow to roll up or down. for the amount I paid for the car and with with being CPO on top of it you would expect it to run and stay working for longer for 18 months. I have always had my car serviced by the dealer, but am thinking that was a bad choice as they tend to treat you like and idiot and have no knowledge of what's going on with your car.

General Comments:

The car looks great, but can't keep it up and running as of late.