I’m looking for a car and came across a sweet Jetta with 131, 000 miles on it. I know this is high for an American car, but what about a VW? Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.
In my experience VWs tend to have a lot of electrical problems (flashing back to memories of an old Corrado that wouldn’t start when it rained heavily). Mechanically, however, VWs are generally pretty solid. 131k miles is pushing it for any car of uncertain provenance, but if the price is sweet take it to a mechanic for a lookover.
Stranger
And to add to my car questions, how far can you lowball and still be reasonable? I’ve got a limited budget, but it’s in cold hard cash, so I’m thinking I can get the seller to come down quite a bit just because of that fact. Of course, that depends on how badly he needs to sell the car.
I’m not sure I’d use this as a data point but I once new a guy (late 90’s) he had over 200k on his Jetta.
I wasn’t close with this guy so I couldn’t tell you the amount of maintenance he put into it.
I do vaguely remember electrical problems tho’.
When I traded my Golf, it had 186,000 on it and still had the original clutch. We had a Rabbit that did have lots of electrical problems. The Golf didn’t.
What year is the Jetta? Are you planning to take it to a mechanic and have him/her check it out?
Gas or Diesel?
I wouldn’t get a VW diesel with that mileage. North American Diesel fuel is dirty by European standards and that reduces engine life.
In fact I don’t think I’d get any VW that’s very old. Once things start needing repairs, VWs get very expensive.
It should be understood that I’m excluding aircooleds. '74 westfalias are not expensive to maintain and is they are it’s worth it. Unfortunately, that went by the boards when they got posh.
I would stay away. Far, far away. My VW (99 Passat) has had nothing but problems, and I got it with about 150k miles. It has the aforementioned electrical gremlins (off the top of my head: moonroof originally would be spastic, then stopped working, driver’s side window is flakey, the radio doesn’t get reception, the cruise control doesn’t work, ) as well as many other things (the heat is sub-par, struts, CV joints, and tie rods all needed replacing, I had a major oil leak that cost over $1000 to fix, timing belt, exhaust, and the check engine light will not go off ever.)
I’ve known more than a couple other people who also have lots of VW complaints. Volkswagons suck ass, and no one should ever buy them. :mad:
[quote=“74westy, post:6, topic:486487”]
Gas or Diesel?
I wouldn’t get a VW diesel with that mileage. QUOTE]
You got to be kidding. My 1990 golf diesel had 480k (300,000 miles) before i redid the motor cause my belt went and took the motor with it. Daily driver and gets 55 mpg city. been a great car.
Or spell them.
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Indy**, is the car under $2k? General rule of thumb: don’t spend more than $3,000 on any car with more than 100,000 miles on it unless it’s something really really nice.
Gotta agree with old_joe… Had a diesel Jetta that lasted close to 250,000 miles… Of course, the floors had rusted away, and the sunroof leaked consantly… and it finally died on the SF Bay Bridge at rush-hour when an axle broke in half…
But motor-wise, it was a great car… If the car you’re looking at is diesel, I’d go for it… Gas, I’d skip it
The 'ole “this is high for an American car” theme died in the 80’s, and is largly untrue today for modern US cars. Any car with high miles, and your expectations of it being a good car will be determined by the previous owners maintenance habits. If the habits were good, the car is likey good. If bad, well you know…
-1994 Caprice, ~202500 miles, runs great, and I feel is about half broken in. It should last to 300,000 without major engine problems, which is fairly common for police and taxi’s of the same make.
Nowadays I woudn’t consider 130K miles scarily high on any modern car. I don’t think that general durability (e.g., fear of engine or transmission failure) is an issue so much as the cost of keeping it on the road. In general, here in the U.S. European cars are significantly more expensive to maintain and repair than American and Asian cars. Normal wear and tear items (alternator, wheel bearing, water pump, etc.) that one expects to take in stride with a ~10 year old/100+K mile car can sometimes present jaw-droppingly large repair bills.
My concern with European cars isn’t whether you can afford to buy it, it’s whether you can afford to own it.
The guy wants $4950. I’m prepared to offer no more than $3500.
It’s a 2000, so I don’t know. I will go check it out at noon and let you guys know what happened. Also, this isn’t the only car I’m looking at, so I’m not desperate to buy.
Also, does it make a difference whether the miles are “highway” miles? I’m guessing he’s a travelling salesman or something and probably used this car for that.
Which engine does it have, the VR5 or the 1.8T?
Not sure, it doesn’t say in the ad. Which is better?
I’m also looking at an '02 Grand Am that only has 70K miles on it. And from the pics, it looks beautiful. I’m much more familiar with Pontiacs, so that’s probably what I’ll go for.
The VR5 will last longer. Turbos generally tend to have major issues after the 100k mark.
Could also be a VR6. That would be best.
Highway miles are less stressful on the engine and transmission than city miles. One key factor in the difference between “normal service” and “severe service” maintenance intervals is using the car for typical city driving - short trips, stop and go traffic, etc. - which requires more frequent oil changes.
Since when did a VW Jetta become an American car?
Did I miss a memo?