2004 Volkswagen Jetta GLS 1.8 turbo from North America

Summary:

The best car I have ever owned!

Faults:

Absolutely Nothing!

General Comments:

This car handles marvelously.

The steering is quick and precise.

The brakes are the smoothest I have ever felt.

The safety features included in this car are outstanding, I have never felt safer.

The car is too cute for words!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 19th November, 2004

7th Dec 2004, 09:25

Well I would hope nothing has gone wrong with your Jetta with all of 48 miles on it.

Good luck, they are great cars!

2004 Volkswagen Jetta GL 2.0 from North America

Summary:

Great car, but bad assembly

Faults:

The AC shut off halfway when I turned it on the second time after I bought the car. Called the dealer and he said as long as it came back on, its OK.

After the car sat out one chilly night a month ago, I went to move the car down the driveway so my wife could get out, and the fan turned on and stayed on for 25 minutes. The car didn't run for more than 15 seconds and the engine was cold. Called dealer and they said it,"Could come on any time and its fine as long as it turned off."

Two lines on the rear defrost never worked. Dealer fixed lines free and said it was a manufacturing problem. It looks sloppy now though.

General Comments:

I have always liked the Jetta and the 1995 Jetta I had before was great and never had any problems with it. It's a pity that the new Jetta's are built so terribly. The actual engineering is near perfect, but Mexico just doesn't assemble them as well as they're engineered. I like the car, but VW should take the assembly line more seriously.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 14th November, 2004

2004 Volkswagen Jetta GLS 2.0 from North America

Summary:

Fun, but reliability is a maybe

Faults:

The dashboard display has continually to go out randomly while driving in the warmer weather of Florida. The dealership said that the crystals in the screen would fade out, but they had run a diagnostic test with their computers and everyone checked out to be OK...OK...

The brake pedal on the car needs to be pushed in fairly far in order to get any response or pressure from it. The brakes also vibrate and shimmy when braking. I don't want the brake pedal to get too close to the floor or else I would be in danger of ruining the master cylinder.

When I accelerate and slow down, the driver seat makes a clicking noise or clink noise like it is loose and not secured or tight enough.

The transmission shifts very hard from first to second. When downshifting to get better acceleration while driving faster, the car acts like I am asking so much from it and jerks around.

General Comments:

This Jetta handles pretty well considering it is a 2.0 Litre engine with only 115 horsepower! The automatic does hold back better power potential.

A lot of my friends tell me, after they have driven it, that it drives like a fat old lady. I still really like the car though. It's plenty fast enough for me and I don't need any more speeding tickets.

I previously owned a 1996 Jetta GLX-VR6 and it had over 200,000 miles on it. I think that the older style Jettas were built much better than these newer ones. I never really had anything wrong with that car besides the annoying check engine light that just stayed on, but nothing was ever really wrong with it. This car, the check engine light has not come on.

I have not had the problems that other people have had with their Jettas, like the window things, knock on wood, and etc. Hopefully I won't ever. I also think that after 3 or 4 years of building cars that fell apart, Volkswagen tried a little better to revive their genuine quality products that they used to manufacture, now with this 2004 model. It seems very well built and secure, except for some rattles and brake issues. Oh well, its German and it is a Volkswagen now, it's supposed to be this way.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 22nd September, 2004

30th Dec 2004, 10:22

Doyou know if the car you have is made in Mexico or is it made in Germany?

9th May 2005, 14:32

I just bought a used 1998 Jetta GLS and when I first bought it just the passenger side window didn't work, but now the driver side doesn't either! I see that this is kind of common, but has anyone figured out how to fix it? Also the two front left speakers are'nt working either. I was thinking it was a fuse, but I checked them and they were all good so any help would be awesome.