21st Feb 2005, 17:22

I have a 1.8T automatic GTI and initially my mileage was HORRIBLE! I had one tank as low as 15.5mpg, my avg for the first 5000 miles was probably around 18-19mpg. Currently, even in winter I am averaging about 22-22.5mpg, in summer I average about 23-24mpg. This is about 50% city 50% highway.

I have 30000miles on the car, I began to see real improvements after 1 year/12000 miles.

2nd Mar 2005, 13:06

I have 2000 Jetta GLS VR6, automatic and I get on average 25 mpg city driving, and around 28 highway on average. I know it's possible to get better mpg with a manual, but I seriously doubt that the reason you're getting poor mpg is solely due to the automatic engine. But that's just my opinion. Try taking it to another VW dealer. There are about 5 or 6 VW dealers around my metro area and only 1 has competent mechanics and service personnel.

27th Mar 2005, 22:01

Just to defend the little jetta ;). we have had ours for 30K right now, and seeing as we bought it summer of '04, you can tell we don't drive this thing lightly. two things went wrong with it: 1. rear right seatbelt got stuck, so we had that replaced under warranty, and 2. some sort of a hose got loose and was hanging under our car or something? we still aren't too sure what that was, but the dealer fixed it under warranty, and we discovered that hose in the middle of a 700 mile road trip. nothing bad happened from it :).

Oh yea, the car is a 2004 Jetta Wagon TDI with an auto (yea yea, I'm sorry, too lazy for a manual in our traffic), so since this thing is a wagon, it was built in Germany. This is one thing you have to look our for, Jetta sedans were built in Mexico, wagons were built in Wolfsburg, Germany. Now tell me, which do you think will really end up being the better car? ;)

1st Jul 2009, 01:44

Well I traded in my 2007 Chevy Colorado (which by the way started to give completely out at 40k mile) for a 2004 Jetta. All I have been hearing is horror stories about since I got it. However, I have yet to notice any issues. Except for the fact that my armrest is a little busted it runs smoothly. I get about 29 miles to the gallon and I commute between Anaheim, CA and Ontario, CA. I am kind of a reckless driver and speed up to get by things, but yet to notice a dramatic change in gas mileage and it has 65K miles. I hope it makes it until I can get another car. Lets pray for the next 5 yrs or so... I really love this car though.

4th Jul 2009, 14:18

I have a 2004 Volkswagen Jetta Sedan 1.8T. I purchased this car in Germany and had it shipped to the United States. The car was purchased through an American retailer and now has 107000 miles on it. I average 800 miles a week on the car mostly highway miles.

It has been a fairly dependable car with minor issues. The major issues that I have had with the car is that the front right passenger side shaft, leaked at its boot and caused a big vibration in the car. I also noticed that sometimes when I am accelerating, the car will speed up and then drive normally without any added pressure on the gas pedal.

You must check the alignment monthly, and although the manual wants you to rotate your tires every 10k, you should in fact rotate every 5K. I also recommend fully synthetic oil.

My car still runs like new. I am averaging 27K Hwy and 22K city. It's funny because the more I drive the car, the better my highway miles get.

It was 103,000 miles before I even had to change the front brake pads and rotors, and 80,000 before I had to change the rear. I am an aggressive driver who speeds most of the time unintentionally.