Volkswagen Jetta 2005 and earlier

vocus

You would have to go to the dealer to get the code, if even they can retrieve it for you.

anonymous02

When you go to test drive your own car, make sure to keep the keys to the loaner in your pocket. Park it at the far end of the lot, so they don't make the connection that you even HAVE the loaner when you come to "pick up" yours. Don't even mention it. They probably won't know unless you tell them until they look at the slip. That way, if it is still not satisfactory, just give your keys back to them, tell them what is still wrong, and say you'll be back for it the next day and walk out. Don't cut any slack.

vocus

I don't plan to be shady about it, I am going to be very direct. I will go into the dealership, tell them to bring my car around, and take it for a ride. If it's not right, I will take it back and give them the keys. I am really tired of this. And this time when I turn the keys in, they are not getting their loaner back from me until they send the rep to check out my car again. They wanna play games, I will show them how to do it.

steven39

well folks after reading the
posts here about the jetta and
its numerouse problems and
reading the consumer rievews
about the jetta in edmunds
consumer review i will not even
consider one. to many horror
stories, from rattles, to oil
consumption problems to windows
falling into doors absolutley no way. this is absolutley dispicable for a car company. thank you for your posts though for i would have never known

the_big_h

from the love-hate relationship that is the Volkswagen Jetta :-D

anonymous02

Nothing shady, I just said that you want to keep the ball in your court. You don't have to lie or do anything wrong, just don't hand them the loaner keys or even remind them you have a loaner signed out until you are COMPLETELY satisfied with your own car.

mpyne

Didnt read all the post but have you checked for a lemon law attorney in your state? you should have no problems located one on the internet.i am another person who first considered a jetta but after reading all these posts there would be Nooooooooooooo way i would ever consider one and i let everyone know who is considering one of how many people actually hate owning them.

vocus

Glad I could save two people from making the same dumb mistake I did. Good luck in your car shopping.

Mpyne: I don't know about the lemon law, because it's only a rattle. I brought this up to the VW rep though, but he said he wanted to put the car in the shop one more time. So this time, if it's not right when I get it back, I will just drive their loaner Millenia until I feel my car is fixed right, or replaced. Because they will not be getting their car back until they learn to fix mine right, or replace it.

vocus

The relationship is love behind the wheel, until you hit a bump in the road. After awhile, it feels like you are driving Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or something. VERY annoying in a car that costs ~$25,000 (I know mine did).

mpyne

Vocus by your profile it appears you are located in MD.

This is the definition of what applies as a lemon:

Generally a defect covered by the Lemon Law must be a defect, which substantially impairs the use, value or safety of your vehicle.

Now im no lawyer but it could fall under the category of value. You should check out http://www.attorneypages.com and get an attorneys opinion (it appears you can get it for free). From the sounds of it the dealer is jerking you around so i wouldn’t hesitate one more second. at least you know where you would stand.

good luck

vocus

Thanks for your help, very much appreciated. I will check tomorrow on the page link.

venus537

for those who are afraid to get a jetta, just remember this car is still recommended by consumer reports, consumer guide and me.

mseals

Hey guys, I finally road in a 2.0 GLS this weekend. My girlfriends best friend has one, that is totally loaded. Moonroof, leather, the works, she just had the regular radio though. It really wasn't that slow, well, no slower than my girlfriends cavalier. Sure I could blow the doors off of it with my Civic, but she lives in Chicago, literally, so there is not racing to be done with all that traffic. It road great, no rattles or strange noises. Hey Vocus, I have a question, does your car have leather? I was looking at the dash build fit and finish and it is very tight. The gap tolerances are very small in the Jetta I drove in. I have totally fallen in love with the car all over again. This makes me even more anxious to test drive the 1.8t and the TDI both in a stick of course. I am still hung up on that 700 miles on a tank of gas. That is about 2 1/2 weeks of driving for me and diesel is much cheaper than the premium that I am paying now. I do want to see how the sport suspensions ride though. I have a feeling that it will be softer than what I have now, but to be honest, I am tired of my bouncy ride, I don't like feeling every pebble and imperfection in the road any more.

vocus

The sport suspension rides a LOT harder than the standard suspension. I have driven both.

justin

mseals: contrary to the 4 or 5 complainers here, literally tens of thousands of jettas are built and purchased by happy owners everywhere. as most people will tell you, one of the TOP three things about VW is that their build quality is far above cars that cost literally twice as much. Caddy, Corvette, Lincoln, etc all wish they could build their top of the line cars as well as VW's cheap cars. i can't wait to see the $70k Phaeton, though i don't know how they can improve build quality over the Passat/Jetta.

my point is, a few people here have rattles. it speaks volumes about people that are "in love" with a car, but don't buy it because a few bitter people scare them. every car is a crap-shoot.

do what YOU want. only decision that YOU can live with as a grown up my logic - buy it. chances are, it will be great. if not, get rid of it. also, think about the alternatives. VW Jetta or, what else?? scary thought, huh?

VOCUS -

good luck with everything. don't let them screw you. a mazda millenia isn't a bad ride, as long as it doesn't have the "gold" package....;)

vocus

Nope, no gold package. It's a pretty nice ride though. The materials inside just about equal the Jetta though, which is scary since the Millenia is a ~$30,000 car and the Jetta is half as much.

As much as I am hating my Jetta right now, I do have to compliment the interior materials. The nicest small car interior out there, and it does rival some larger cars. As far as durability, it leaves something to be desired. If they could have a nice interior like that without the rattles, it would be perfect. As it stands, it sucks.

fish8

I am still waiting for an update from my dealer. I am afraid I will pick up my car and still hear the rattle.

Eventhough I have a severe rattle, I do think the Jetta is a great car. I agree with everyone that the fit and finish is great!!!

I want my car back!

mdaffron

Paul, I thought you said you paid $25,000 for your Jetta. But now you're saying it was only $15,000? You're paying $500 a month for a $15,000 car?

Just trying to be accurate. Your stories change so much, you know.

Meade

Kirstie_H

Kinda odd, since I got the top o' the line everything, and I didn't hit $25K for my Jetta. Also test drove a Millenia, and tho it was nice, it's a totally different kind of car, so it's hard to compare.

kirstie_h
Roving Host
Edmunds.com

vocus

No, I meant these features (like auto locks and express windows) come in almost all Jettas. The cheapest, being the GLS model which goes for like $17,000 maybe. So I was a little off. But my Jetta MSRPed for $24,675 with every option.

mdaffron

The Millenias start in the mid-$26s.

Meade

vocus

The Millenias start at like $23K now, because they are not selling and Mazda is having to let them go at really good deals to get rid of them.

protege_fan

Don't you think you're seeing where most of that 24K went? Engine, interior, and "features"...it seems other areas have been "sacrificed." You get what you pay for.

mseals

I am sure it is harder than the regular suspension, but you have to remember, right now my suspension is consider sporty. My car pulls .82 g's in stock form. It has low profile tires OEM 195/55/15 that are now lower 205/50/15 but the ride is harsh. Even when the road looks smooth, my car is bouncing, I took it in to look at the shocks and they said it was all ok so that is just how it rides except on the smoothest of pavement.

mseals

Unless the Jetta is a complete let down when I finally test drive them, which I highly doubt. Or the new Accord Coupe comes in a 240 Hp v6 with 6 sp for about $22-24k, which I really highly doubt, then I am getting a Jetta.

vocus

The sad thing is, I am beginning to think you are right. What good is the best interior in its class if it's full of rattles?

The VW rep said something interesting the other day. He said in a production environment, it's really hard to mess up putting a car together, because the parts fit together one specific way and that's it. He also said build quality would not matter between Germany and New Mexico either. When I asked him how my car got broken dashboard clips from the factory because it was not assembled correctly, he really didn't have an answer for me, other than the "accidents happen" thing. My reponse: I am tired of having "accidents" with a ~25K car.

vocus

Good luck. Hope you get a good one, unlike me. Test drive the car you are going to buy over bumpy roads first though. That's the mistake I made.

blueguydotcom

My rattles took a few weeks to appear. Then they disappeared. No matter where he drives it, the car may immediately reveals rattles, eventually do so, or never have any weird noises. It's a crapshoot.

justin

...the Millenia has the image attached to it. purple millenia with gold package riding down the beltway.....no thanks.

mdaffron

... but only 100 miles away down in Richmond, my friend, it's the opposite. The Millenias are sitting in classy West-End driveways and garages, and the Jettas are right in there with the Civics and Sentras with lowered suspensions, Maxwell House exhaust tips and 800-watt subwoofers sitting in banks where the back seat used to be.

Sorry, just letting you know what goes in one part of the country doesn't mean the whole country's that way.

Meade

vocus

Justin is right about the Millenia here though. Totally souped up with the loud radios and stuff like that. The Jettas are not though. I guess different regions have different things.

protege_fan

you're talking about this. People soup up ANY kind of car. I've seen Reliant K cars done up!! It's not a Millenia thing, it's not a Jetta thing. Some people have money to blow and they blow it on the car.

Haven't you seen the Fast and the Furious. Hello...Souped up White Jetta.

It seems like you're trying to make the Jetta sound like a lesser car because you've seen it souped up.

vocus

Actually, Meade was the one that said that about the Jetta. Justin said about the Millenia. They were the ones involved. No one else was.

People want their cars to look different or what not, so they soup them up. That's their personal preference, although some of us may not like that.

protege_fan

"...the Millenia has the image attached to it. purple millenia with gold package riding down the beltway.....no thanks.

And:
Justin is right about the Millenia here though. Totally souped up with the loud radios and stuff like that. The Jettas are not though. I guess different regions have different things.

justin

up here, Vocus and I are right. Many a late 90's Millenia, usually that awful purple color, are "modded".

It seems that here in DC area, VW's and BMW's are the "it" car for now, but they aren't really "modded". It is because they are considered works of art already. Can't make them look different without ruining the baked in beauty from the factory. Civics are blank canvases basically. they can actually look BETTER modded out. I saw a Civic that really looked like a brand new M3 Coupe....too tacky for me...but i appreciated that the Civic buyer couldn't afford the M3 probably....so he did the next best thing.

the Jetta in F&F was a Gen III. of course it was modded....;)

blueguydotcom

>>It is because they [jettas and bimmers] are considered works of art already. <<

Tell us when the spaceship lands.

Ubiquity and art are rarely, if ever, synonymous.

fish8

Got a call from my dealer and they said they could not reproduce rattle. I got in my loaner and headed over to the dealer. I drove w/ one tech and he said the rattle was road noise. I then drove with a second tech and he finally heard the rattle and confirmed that it was NOT road noise. He said he would work on my car. It was funny....the first Tech was old and probably couldn't hear the rattle with supersonic hearing aids!!! Never the less, I left without my car.

venus537

the hmmmmm is is not the sound of the fan, i know all about that. it happens when it's very hot out and the engine is hotter than normal. i think it's coming from the ac. it goes away after a few seconds.

boravr6

Got a chance to see a wide range of Jettas recently by a stroke of luck. Still think that mine is the best. Silver GLS with black leather. The GLX is similar, but mine is all black on the inside with only chrome being the "accent" color. Thus on the inside all you see is one field of matte black. Havent seen this happening in any other one; as there always are 3 colors.

Seems like the one I have is the one shown in the VW ads...with the le castelle (spelling?) alloys.

What say?

newcar31

pictures of the new wheels for the Jettas?

justin

are you saying that the car your purchased doesn't look good? again, i purchased the best looking car for my money. why didn't you?

you really made an interesting purchase decision, didn't you?

newcar31

The Jetta looks good, but I wouldn't exactly call it a work of art. When I think of an automotive work of art, I think of Ferraris and old Jags etc., not Jettas. That's just me though.

denright

Does anyone have any performance numbers (0-60, 1/4 miles, etc.) for the new 200 HP GLI?

blueguydotcom

The Jetta's a nice looking car but not art...

As I said before, art is not ubiquitous. If it's everywhere, it's common and thus not set aside as something special.

justin

i don't actually think the Jetta is a work of art. but, i will say, compared to anything else on the road in my price range, my Jetta is the Tom Cruise or J-Lo of cars...:)

protege_fan

I've heard most people reference J-Lo as having "ghetto booty". Guess I can't argue with you

vocus

Actually, the Dodge Neon is the J-Lo of cars. Loud, and with a big butt. Just kidding. Speaking of her, the movie "Enough" was great. Saw it last weekend, a definite good one.

justin

protege fan:

here in the Jetta board, we are not allowed to say "ghetto"...

fish8

Well............where do I start????

I received a call from the dealer yesterday asking if I give my permission for the tech to drive my car home to see if the car rattles more when it's cold (which I told them)in the morning. I said that was fine as long as the rattle was fixed. I called the dealer this morning and the tech said the rattle is still there and they would have to search further in the dash. So, this make my car out of service for 3 days and it is less than 3 weeks old. Though I am enjoying driving the 1.8t

vocus

Now you know how I feel.