Is a Jetta TDI a good car?

Great. Glad you know to take everyone's opinion with a grain of salt. Good luck with your TDI. If you do get a TDI with upward of 50,000 miles on it. It will need a timing belt put on it ASAP. Estimate 500 , dealer . The price varies . This is another of my VW pet peeves. Dealers sell used TDIs to people ,that then break a timing belt with no warranty. Then charge them to rebuild the heads or engines for thousands. And they don't say any thing ,or offer to put one in before the sale. I do my own and have the tools. Its insurance on your "new" used car investment, that cost what you estimated at

13-16k. When the timing belt breaks on a TDI some or all valves get smashed. Always. The pistons get holes, sometimes. You cant wait for it to break and tow it to get fixed. Head repair or piston repairs would be mandatory. Depending on how fast the engine was running and luck. TdIs have interference heads. The valves and pistons occupy the same airspace in the cylinders. Just not at the same time. The timing belt keeps them in separated. Saying that , premature belt failure is not likely, but still running at more then 1% of new car sales. My opinion , its QC issues from the belt manufacturer, combined with the high fuel pressures , twice of the original fuel pumps. TDI fuel pumps are pushed to the limit because of the emission requirements, and run upward of 2700 psi of fuel pressure. The failure rate of belts is unacceptable to me, but not everyone. The Canadian TDIs fare better because they have different injectors which unload the pump pressures some. My brothers 97 Passat TDI gets a belt every 50,000 miles or if I retime his pump. VW recommends 80,000 with a manual transmission, 60,000 with the auto. Primarily to get the belt through the warranty period. Which is exactly where your used trade in is at , huh..... I decided

I save as much on gas as I spend in maintance.

2000 TDI, Engine actually fell out of car at 5 mph some years ago. Check engine light always on, indicating problems with glow plugs, but no problems ever found. Dealers are the worst I have ever encountered Drives fine other then that, although I'm always worried something else is going to break!

Hey Jeff. I hope you buy a VW diesel and run Bio Diesel with it and give the car to your wife. Please make lots of videos and let us watch the results. Who wants a boring reliable Toyota anyway? Put some spice into your family life and let it all hang out.

:)

Jeff. Dude-man. As long as your wife can fit in the VW, you are good to go. Just like the Taco bell commercial, "Good to go". LOL!!!!

Remember, lots of vids for us to see the results!!!

The Dudesons ROCK!!!!!

Domestic OEM dealers don't want you to keep a car over 50K miles. Go into a Buick dealer and ask the saleman how many miles the Buick will last and if you have any customers with over 100K miles on their Buick. They know that Buicks are made for the less than 50K crowd. AT least we don't have to worry about Oldsmobile anymore.

Hey, what about the other asian OEM cars? Lots of them on the road now with that 10year warranty. It must be the warranty. :)

Lots of complaining about vehicle issues. Those folks with small successful businesses buy 6000lbs+ SUVs for that tax writeoff. I would get the Toyota

4Runner. Best 6000lbs+ 17-18 MPG V8 SUV out there to get that huge write-off. Like someone wrote previously. I would rather have a reliable gas guzzler than a high maintenance economy vehicle.

Why is America so upset about the fuel prices? Europe has always been double. If you want cheap gas, just pack your bags and move to a Saudi country where the gas costs 5 cents a gallon. The place where your expensive Benz breaks down and they just leave for dead on the side of the road.

That's not even broken in yet? Front wheel bearing noise that early? Hmmmm

Honda transmissions have really gone down hill. The only automatic that is still reliable is the Toyota. Manual trannys are the way to go for long term reliability. The CVT tranny seems to be a good newcomer.

Keith- Sounds like you have an A3 TDI. That's what I would get if I can find one. Hard to find not beaten up. The rest of your post is quite to the point. Agree. VW has been getting heavier and heavier with the same part design basically since the A1 came out. The heavier the VW the more issues in the long run. Those parts just don't hold up. Heavy is what kills lots of OEMs except my Jeep YJ. I have over

211K miles >My Jetta has been mostly reliable for 9 years and 180k miles and I have no

Yeah.... GREAT idea! :-) At this point I'd have to say that I have been pretty thoroughly discouraged from the idea of buying a Jetta TDi with 50k miles on it. It just sounds like too much of a nightmare to be worth the fuel savings. Bummer.

-jeff

Yep. 50K miles and I wonder if the timing belt is due? You have to wonder why would someone sell at 50K when a diesel will last over 200K. I have two and they are both over 200K. One has 270K on the clock. My gas VWs also have 210K and the other has 138K. My reliable Jeep YJ has 211K miles and still going strong. The secret is that they are all manual transmission cars. Now the newer TDI automatics are pretty strong too so I don't know too much about them. My VWs are quite old and I am sure they cost lots to keep going.

Let's not start dis-ing Oldsmobile - my 1990 88 has over 163K miles and that 3.8 is still tight, plenty of power, and still a nice car to drive when you want a nice, comfy, lazy drive. Its like me - not much to look at, but keeps on going.

Eric