Jetta Advice Equested for first time VW purchase

A gas VW engine will run fine at 300,000 if it was raised in Georgia or other similar not harsh climate. Diesels are supposed to last even longer. I have not lived up north in years so I do not know how long VW engines last in harsh cold winters. It seems that in Ohio the cars rust out before people get that many miles. At least the people I grew up with that do not drive the crazy miles I drive down here. My 2003 Jetta diesel is running fine at 155,000 miles. My 87 Toyota pickup at

260,000 miles runs fine. Well not really as I need to do valve stem seals and an air flow meter but what do you expect after 20 years?

AC could be just some freon or worse. If it has window cranks then it should be easy enough to fix. Power windows can be more of a challenge. Fan switch might be a blown fuse. Wipers always running could be a bad switch, a stuck relay or crossed wires.

You did not state where you live but $ sign suggests US or Canada.

mmmkay...

You're gonna die of heat stroke in that car! :)

Fan switch and A/C might be related (could be same problem causing both).

Why don't the windows roll up or down? Are they electric or manual? And it's both of them that don't work?

Electrical issue there, could be the wiper stalk is broken and in the on position all the time, maybe something is wrong with the intermittent wiper relay, or something is stuck feeding them 12V+ all the time.

For a diesel VW that's reasonable.

*Anything* that is more or less running and in legal/registerable shape and isn't rusted or smashed to hell is worth $1000K in my humble opinion.

Hopefully, yes.

It depends on what's wrong with it. Is it a seized compressor or a leak or...? You'd have to find out.

A well maintained diesel should be fine. If you get a year's worth out of the car w/o putting any money into it, it will have paid for itself by then.

OK... at present prices, $1000 will buy you about 300 gallons of gas which will take you 3600 miles in reasonable safety. And if your present vehicle is relatively trouble-free, has working windows and working AC, the first repair will make that equation 500 gallons and

6000 miles. Then fixing the windows...

Unless all you want is a beater-car to drive until it drops, have no "state inspection" system such as Pennsylvania that requires at least basic safety stuff to be checked once a year, the math just doesn't make sense for a 20 year old vehicle that has no other virtue than decent mileage at the immediate moment.

Peter Wieck Wyncote, PA

Well if he drives 36,000 miles a year at 3,000 gallons x $3.00 gallon vs a car that would use 1,000 gallons or less. Not everyone drives

3,600 or 6,000 miles a year. But yes, buying an economy car to save money sometimes does not work out. Yes fixing the car will cost something.

My father in law has one car they bought new 4 years ago that has

6,000 miles on it. A toy car (Boxster), another grocery getter and an airplane. It has three wheels so does it count as a vehicle?

Now if he sold the 12 mpg truck and bought a newer TDI then maybe you could have even more fun justifying or discounting.

My wife says "Why don't you get a motorcycle?" Can't carry work stuff on a motorcycle. The mileage woudl be less than the car. No time to exercise if I was riding a motorcyle on the weekends.

Jim:

Cars, like appliances, water heaters, furnaces, boilers and many similar large-ticekt items should be measured in life-time cost vs. First and Operating cost in a vacuum. But you know this. So, if I spend $1000 on a .80 Energy Factor gas-fired instant water heater vs. $200 for one that is rated at .61 (typical tank-type), and gas is running at (around here) at $1.09/100 c.f., that $800 difference will buy me 33% more hot water for each dollar I spend in fuel, not to mention that I will not pay for a standing pilot or storage. For an average family of four, the pay-back is well within the service life of the unit (arbitrary 10 years).

If I purchase a Brandy-New Prius vs. a Golf/Jetta TDI at about the same initial cost, do scrupulous maintenance on both, it will be a close-run thing as to total cost-to-operate *until* (if ever) I need to replace the storage battery system (and dispose of the old one).

If I buy a 20 year old car and drive the average 12,000 miles per year, and assuming NO other issues, that = 300 gallons of fuel. Make, for round figures, operating costs at $1000 including oil changes.

The truck, OTOH, will require 1000 gallons of fuel. Add the same $100 for oil changes, comes to $3100 during the year. Assume that the Truck is NEVER driven. So it appears to be a no-brainer. Until the State Safety Inspection requires $1000 worth of work and/or the truck still gets used 40% of the time because of need.

It's a balance. And one that should be analyzed carefully before sinking into a committment. Look at it another way. Take $3000 as a budget number. Take the value of the truck as a base-line. Take the first-costs & repair costs to the 20YO car and add them to the base- line. Will the base-line + 1/12th of $3000 purchase a much newer fuel- efficient vehicle that will last a much longer time? Maybe even a Hyundai or Kia with a 10-year, 100,000 mile warranty (remember, this person was willing to accept a cheese-box with inoperable windows and no AC)? That would be the better choice.

We keep two VWs, and have had several in the past including five diesels. For a good 10 year period, they were our primary vehicles. Now, both our vehicles are campers (Westie & Winnie) and our primary vehicles are station-wagons (Volvo & Saab) based on our immediate daily requirements. They get reasonably good mileage (20s mixed, 30s highway) and are extremely safe, haul by the ton (and do), and we would put the grand-kids in them. If past performance is any indication, we expect to get 200K+ miles out of either/both of them without trouble. Put another way, we will be very tired of them far before they wear out. As they are both paid-for, replacement options for fuel economy only would be uneconomical at present fuel prices.

Peter Wieck Wyncote, PA

Sorry, I should have given better info. I am in Indiana, center of the state on the western border. This guy has settled on an asking price of $1,000.00. The windows are manual crank style, a quick look appears that the cables on the cranks are broken. From looking at some parts places online the window regulators appear to be an inexpensive fix. The radiator fan works fine, it's the heater/defroster fan that doesn't work, switch feels like it may be bad on the dash. I have to admit the wipers running constanly have me puzzeled. If we buy this car it'll get about 12,000 miles a year put on it between the wife, myself, and my son. Thanks everyone for all of your advice thus far. I'm learning a lot about these VW's and so far they sound like a fun project car. I may try this weekend to see how low I can get him down on the price and maybe buy it.

Thanks! Tim

"Jim Behning" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I can't remember if it was a vw or not , but , I one time fixed either a broken contact or switch inside the wiper motor asm.gearbox itself for the problem of not shutting off. IIRC it was looking to turn off but couldn't find the down/off position.

I want solar shingles. My wife says no. I say no because the payback is 40 years. That is crazy as I am on the grid. If I was off the grid it would make sense. I have a geothermal heat pump with no booster heat. It also has a waste heat hot water heater. I paid extra for the geothermal. I got some EMC subsidies. I think I save money every month. No one has lower HVAC bills than I have. Part of that could be better insulation than what all my friends have in their house. The geothermal is like the diesel VW. I save money every month in spite of the higher initial cost. I think I am past the break even on the geothermal. I know I am past the break even on the TDI.

I want to replace my 20 year old pickup. I don't drive but maybe 5,000 miles a year on the truck. I want a diesel pickup but all they make are big monster engines in the trucks. Also the diesels only come in

3/4 ton or larger. The specs of a 1/2 ton V8 equipped pickup meet my needs. I rarely want to carry more than a ton in the bed and a 1/2 ton will do that. At least my 1 Ton Toyota is properly labeled as to what it can do. Cost benefit says I should fix a few things on the Toyota and save $6-10,000. Forget the diesel as even a used one will never have a payback. Two batteries and other maintenance items may make a diesel pickup even less attractive.

Now that we have the rest of the story from the guy. His decision is not based just on less truck driving but also includes two other drivers. Based on the initial information you are totally correct except for one thing. Maybe geting the car fixed is just a few hours of work. Maybe not.

I want my cars to be correct. I bought the Toyota and the TDI new. They have been "properly" maintained. There would be no maintenance repairs found on the VW if we had a state inspection. Well I am due for new tires. The Toyota is due for some new rear wheel cylinders. It does have a small star in the windshield that might not pass. On the other hand the windshield is 20 years old and is about due for replacement due to pitting. I try not to drive roached out cars. They might look rough but nothing a squirt gun would not fix.

The last not new VW I bought was from a junk yard. No hood, no gas cap and most of the interior missing. I did brakes, clutch, struts, tires, hood, interior, fixed the ac, replace all engine seals, replaced all transmission seals, replaced drive shafts, new injectors, new windshield. I later did ball joints and steering rack. Wheel bearings front and rear. Paint. 2L Audi short block. I probably spent 3 times more fixing the car than I paid for it. I sold it road worthy and it would have passed your state's inspection. Of course if I were not a tinkerer and shade tree mechanic I would have paid 8 times more in repairs than the 3 times I paid. My labor is cheap sometimes at no dollars an hour. I do not make enought to consider my free time to be worth $30 an hour like some people do. No pro mechanic touched that car in the time I owned it unless you consider a tire jockey a pro. There is a reason why perfectly solid cars are crushed in the south. It costs a bit to maintain a vehicle. Sometimes a lot if you do not have good luck, mechanical skills or time.

I brought a 66 Beetle back to life in high school. It would not have passed a good state inspection as Cleveland Ohio is as rough on cars as most of Pa. The 67 Beetle I revived was a good bit better as it suffered only 2 years of Ohio winters. I did engines, clutches, brakes, brake lines, paint, transmission swap, carpet, seats and other stuff on that car. 1966 Squareback brought back to life after a rear end collision. That one was not such a great car but it was in the family for a few years. I guess all I am rambling about is some folks fix cars as a hobby and do not mind it. Replacing a car every 5 years or 10 years can be rather expensive. Replacing a vehicle every 30 years might not be so expensive. Even if it is not worn out yet. The joys of not living in a rust belt. On the other hand I have seen vehicles in Ohio that suffered a car wash every week that it was warm enough to wash it. Our school had 4 Dodge vans. The one that was washed looked so much better after three years than the never washed vans. End of ramblings. Yes there is a cost benefit to be considered. Owning cars is usually a losing proposition.

TCottom:

I'd offer him $600 cash and wave it under his nose.