I'm looking at purchasing a 2000 Jetta GLS with 49k on it for my daughter. Car is at a VW dealer, is certified and comes with the 2 year warranty etc. It seems pretty well loaded but does not have a CD player. It's a 2.0L and an automatic.
I am asking advice on the reliability of this model and in particular the ease of servicing. In particular the availablity of a factory service manual which I consider a must have with any car I buy. I have always serviced my own cars after they fell out of warranty and tend to run cars well up into the 200,000 mile range before I either donate or give them away. Currently I have a 92 Caprice with 307k miles on it and it runs like a clock.
Any tips from previous owners would be appreciated. Google doesn't seem to reveal any major troubles, but I am sure there are weak spots as with any car.
FWIW I owned the original VW GTI when it was released in 1983 and to this day I am sorry I ever sold it. Just saw the 20th aniversary edition at the dealer and it brought back the great memories I had with my original "bunny". Now if I could only talk my wife into it :)
I can't comment on the service manual, but I would consider this car as very reliable(*). I have a 10-year old Golf with the 2.0l engine, and it has been my most reliable car to date. It has had absolutely nothing wrong with it the past 5-6 years. I just now replaced the timing belt, waterpump and valve cover gasket at 125,000 miles, and I am having the A/C fixed - that's it.
I think the 2.0l engine is pretty bullet proof, it has been around for a long time. My car still gets close to 30mpg average and 35mpg on the highway. The only known problem is that some of them use quite a bit of oil. It is not rare to hear about owners requiring a quart or two every
3000 miles, or so (some need even more). Often it helps using higher grade oil - mine stopped consuming oil after I switched to 20-50 (it also helps avoiding the oil light warning go off). Can you trust the dealer or prior owner if you ask them about the car's oil consumption? Then again, many people don't mind it because they do their own oil changes and don't get bothered about adding a quart here and there.
- D.
(*) If it has electric windows, have the parts that commonly fail replaced with the revised ones under warranty.
Most of the common problem areas were covered by the previous posts (MAF sensor, 2.0 oil consumption, window regulators). Only other problem I had was with the cruise control cutting out, had to go to out of town shop to get that fixed. Also, there are a few recalls, one involving oxygen sensor (campaign WA). There was a recall to inspect subframe on Golfs of that era, but I don't think it affected Jetta, since Jettas are made in Mexico vs Brazil for North American market. I also had problem with blown fuel pump fuse (and my fuel pump no longer seems to "prime" when I open the driver's door, maybe another issue I need to work on).
As for servicing, you can get a Bentley manual (hardcopy or CD), but I'm not sure if you can get the factory manuals... So far I haven't had to do much (just off bumper/bumper warranty)...but I've acquired 3 new tools that I didn't have for my GTI to work on the car:
1) Torx bits- LOTS of Torx fasteners, there weren't any on my '86, you may already have them for your other car, but I had to get some.
2) Scan tool - The "check engine" light seems to come on a lot on these new cars, good to have to scan out codes and find out what is going on. I have the popular Ross-Tech tool, and it works fine for me. So far it has been useful to help diagnose problem with the MAF sensor (which I replaced just after it went off the 2 year bumper/bumper) and also a weird problem with passenger side seat airbag causing light to go off (it was problem with connection under seat).
3)ETKA - (optional) useful for getting part numbers and blown up drawings for parts. It runs off of CDROM. BTW...easy to add the CD changer in the back...I bought aftermarket Panasonic, just had to buy OEM brackets (or make some).
I'm not sure about reliability issues, mine has been fine except for the problems I mentioned...I don't pay too much attention to CR ratings, but they downgraded the Golf/Jetta/NB to worse than average (was average before). That doesn't worry me much, hopefully the A4s have reasonable durability, even if they have some issues to contend with when they are newer. --------- Tom Flynn '78 Scirocco (sold 1988) '86 GTI 8v (sold 2000) '00 Golf 8v 2.0 I speak only for myself
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Thank you to Pete, Transfixed and Tom for the great advice. I appreciate the assistance! The only problems I had on my 84 GTI was the strut tops which kept on separating and causing a clunk in the front suspension, most likely due to the fact that they couldn't handle the extra rate springs and tight struts that the GTI had compared to the regular Rabbit. I think some aftermarket company finally released better built heavy duty ones as replacements to solve the problem. I had a sunroof leak as well. Other than that, the beast ran like a clock.
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