1996 Volkswagen Jetta GL from North America - Comments

Oh boy, you might want to get comfortable!

Approximately one year after purchasing this car, I have had nothing but problems.

My spark plugs had to be replaced around 15,000 miles. The mechanic told me spark plugs lasted around 30,000 miles.

Around 45,000 miles, the timing belts had to be replaced due to partial tears. New one's were put in the car during the 40,000 mile service.

Around 50,000 miles, I started to notice that I was having difficulties with the brakes. When I use them, the car does not stop quickly. There have been numerous times when I literally had the brake pedal to the floor and hoped I would not rear-end the car in front of me. I have taken my car to numerous mechanics, including the dealer's, and no one can find a problem with them.

All of the hoses and seals to the coolant system had to be replaced at around 55,000 miles.

Since purchasing this car, I have put 20,000 miles on it and had two oil leaks. All the seals had to be replaced twice.

I left for work one morning and the first thing I noticed about my car was the trim on the front driver-side door and the trim on the passenger-side door were on the ground. They literally fell off the car overnight.

Around 60,000 miles, one of the struts literally broke in half. I took the car to a mechanic only to find out that the struts and bolts were completely stripped. He couldn't believe the shape they were in considering the mileage.

Overall, when the car is working, everything is fine. There is a lot of power when you need it and the car handles bumpy surfaces very well.

However, those are the only two good things about this car. When one thing goes wrong, many problems will be soon to follow.

I could understand these problems if I mistreated the car, but I don't. Braking is usually a nightmare and the longest span of time my car was not at the dealer's or a shop has been three months.

This car does not seem to like car parts because it goes through them extremely fast.

I really thought I did a lot of research on the Jetta, but I have learned the hard way that I was very wrong.

I would recommend purchasing this type of car if you like visiting the service department of the dealership or your local Volkswagen mechanic plus you like spending money on your car.

As for my car, I will be purchasing another one soon. It will not be a Jetta. The problems with this type of car are extremely frequent and most honest mechanics will tell you this is not a very reliable car. Of course, I found this out later.

The comment about the side trim falling off is spot-on. My Jetta has both fall off after about 4 years of driving the car. The replacements for each part of the trim are really pricey, so I just decided to let it go for now.

OK, consider yourself fortunate if you had one of these and got rid of it before you had any problems. I echo the originators comments as I have determined what the "S" in "GLS" stands for... here we go with my problems...

OK, first of all- both the little cutesy electronic locks broke, so I can't lock my car. I wouldn't be able to use that cool window roll down feature either, but I've been used to that... The front and rear passenger windows have been broken for months. Infact, the rear one went first... now how often do you use that window... I mean really...

Well, to go one, someone broke into my car, well, they didn't have to break in since I can't lock it anymore... But anyway, they left the door open so my battery went dead- put on the jumper cables and the alarm goes off... so now I have a Jetta, with an alarm that won't stop thieves, but stops me- the owner. Oh, about the windows, if you see thin lines of grease on the inside of the windows- dump it! Your about to loose your power windows. Yeah, my trim fell off too... All of this before 65,000 miles...

Okay, so I bought my 96 Jetta about 9 months ago.. then lost my license and just got it back less than a week ago. After driving the car for two days, stopped at a stop sign, car wouldn't start, so I replaced the starter (no big deal, it was 7 years old) which cost me $300..drove the car for 1 more day, parked it, went out to start it the next day and the alarm went off continuously, angering my neighbors. Also, the driver side window closed, but the moonroof refused to either open or close (it was open 1/2 way. As soon as I closed the driver side door, the alarm went off for 5+ minutes, finally shut itself off. Had the mechanic stop by my house, and today it has to be towed to the shop because when the alarm went off, apparently something else was triggered which caused the car not to start. So now I have appointments like crazy and NO reliable car to get me anywhere, which does not make me very happy. I feel like I'm without a license once again. Bought the car used (1 previous owner) and now I'm wondering if he sold it because it started to have problems. Also, the car tends to stutter in 1st gear, until I shift into 2nd, but maybe that is because I'm new at driving stick, I'm not sure. After reading all these reviews, I'm a bit scared at what else may happen. I don't want to be afraid to take long trips because I'm afraid something will go wrong, but this is now fun. Also, both driver and passenger side moldings fell off overnight, but I could care less about that as it is cosmetic. I'm a bit frustrated though.. Any ideas?

Ahhh...the 1996 Jetta Trek Limited. Fortunately we have been able to get about 126K on this GEM, but has been quite the journey getting it there! Door trim, yes - off. Drivers window stuck 3/4 open, doesn't like the rain - sputters & dies, auto-locks vacuum nightmare finally resolved... for now, squeaking rear brake linkage can't seem to permanently fix. Won't pass emissions cause engine light has been on for months from several sensor issues. Transmission still slipping and shifting hard, even after we spent $2,100 repairing it 2 yrs. ago! I've pretty much had it with this wreck which seems to be falling apart before my eyes, alarm - that's another story...but it does still look good.

My door locks broke too and my car was broken into or should I say intruded in to... They had my hood opened, so the cop asked me to start it, to make sure they didn't take any parts. To the cop I replied, "Well it doesn't really run all that great to begin with, I would have been happy if they just took the whole car." Which really was the truth, it would have been one less headache and then I wouldn't have had to drive home from college with no radio.

So on top of all the electrical and mechanical problems, the Jetta will find another way to fail you. =)

I owned a Jetta for about a year. That's how long it took me to realize it was not going to be reliable no matter how much money I pored into it.

A JETTA IS A MONEY PIT. GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN!!!

Sell it NOW before something else breaks!!