1998 Volkswagen Jetta Wolfsburg review from North America

First off, many of you are posting Wolfsburg as 1998 cars when in fact they are technically 1999 cars with the 1998 Jetta III body style. This is important when it comes to window clip and window regulator problems which are covered for 1999 cars, but not 1998 cars (see earlier post by someone else).

My Issues:

Front speakers blew at 15K miles (VW covered)

Tape player broke at 15K miles (VW covered)

CD player had also had loading issues, but eventually loads correctly and works - never had VW look at this.

Continuous leak into front floorboard - VW never adequately corrected the problem and I gave up having to pay the "diagnostic" costs that do not fix the problem.

Right front (passenger) window has had regulator problems since around 10K miles (when I automatically put it up it comes halfway back down by itself) but it never replicates the problem when I bring it to the dealer so I have never had it fixed.

Rear muffler rusted apart at 30K miles - $360 job.

Left rear window clips broke at 61K miles (VW covered per Nov 2002 notice that was on their website for ONLY one week).

Right rear window clips broke at 64K miles (VW covered).

VW service told me my rear broke rotors needed to be replaced for $250 during a maintenance inspection. Brought to my trusted garage who said the rotors were fine (ie greater than minimum thickness)...

Car is currently in shop for recall notice to install new right rear wheel well liner.

While in shop they are examining muffler rattling issue - they say it needs to be replaced and I have them talking to VW about the fact that I replaced it 30K miles ago...

While in shop, they are examining AC issue (periodically stops blowing cold air) - charging me $85 to do the diagnostic, repair will be much more.

Great style and performance for the money.

Horrible electrical problems.

Muffler rusting issues.

Will not buy VW again.