2001 Volkswagen Jetta GLS review from North America

When I bought the Jetta, it ran great. Well it had 128,500 miles on it when I bought it from a used car dealership.

Four days after I had it, my son and I were on our way home when we heard a whistling noise. The next thing I know is that we are broke down in a church parking lot, in the handicapped spaces, on a Sunday. I had it towed to my Ex's house and he looked at it because he is a mechanic and said that my timing belt had shredded. When this happened it broke the tension and the belt flew up into the valves. I called the guy I bought it from and he fixed it for me. He had to replace the engine. Bad for me, I already bought the timing belt and tension for it. The new engine had 78,000 miles on it when I got my car back.

I have put almost 20k miles on it in less than a year now. I have had the oil changed 3 times since I got it. The only problems I have had constantly is that my oil light doesn't come on when the oil is low, and my sensor on the brakes broke lose; don't worry, you get a new sensor when you replace the brakes, I got that fixed. I am still trying to figure out why the oil light doesn't come on, but I am getting ready to just give up.

I am however getting ready to have new tires put on my car and replace the timing belt, water pump, and the tension in about two months.

Handles great.

Not much rear seat space.