1997 Volkswagen Jetta Trek from North America - Comments

- Whole exhaust system required replacing.

- Timing belt at 100000 Km.

- Rust has started to appear... even though the overall paint looked really nice. It appears like little pimples all over the car.

- Normal tear and wear: Disk Brakes, Handbrake wire, etc.

Before bying my Jetta, I had a Saturn Sl1 1994. The Jetta is better in almost all aspects.

Engine:

The performance of this car is simply surprising! Even though it has a 115 hp engine, it really pulls. Beside the Jetta, I have a Honda accord EX-R 1995 and it has 150 hp. I actually beat it on a corner with the Jetta (friend was driving oviously). I must say the accord has a automatic transmission. The torque is incredible!!! When you get to 2500rpm, it pulls really good right up to about 5800. The transmission has a bit of a loose feeling (not like japanese cars) But this car is probably the easiest in terms of shifting to drive. This is a very fun car to drive, it's looks are deceving.

Handling:

The suspension is a bit buickish but when you start taking corners, it still manages to keep the car well glued to the road. The steering is reasonably responsive, you get maybe 7 or 8 degrees of deadzone and then it responds very well, perfect for relaxed drving and fun for taking some corners hard. Has a bit to much body roll but that can be fixed by a good suspension upgrade and anti-sway bars if you want to invest in it. One word of advice, don't run on overused tires, I made that mistake only once...

Interiour:

My jetta is a Trek edition and it comes with ricaro seats. They arevery confortable and have good lateral support. In my Saturn, I used to get a sore back after more than 2 hours of driving, not with the Jetta. The Factory soundsystem came with 8 speakers, four tweeters and four 6 1/2 drivers. The sound in this car is extremely good and has a suprising amount of bass and very good overall sound quality. The CD Changer is not very good though, it jams and skips, but that could be a specific problem with my unit. I have had no rpoblems like the other Jetta owners such as windows falling into the door and Sunroof malfunctioning; maybe I'm just lucky. The interiour hasn't worn like the others, I guess I am just careful.

Running costs:

Here comes the only bad aspect of the car, it doesn't break often but when it does, it will cost you a lot! But still, my experience is that even though the dealers are expensive, they get the job done in one shot unlike independent repair shops were you have to go back to get the service that was done, redone.

I have a 1997 Volkswagen Jetta Trek edition and I love it. This car has a very sporty feel. With the white dials and the bolster seats the car feels just like a sports car. The five speed transmission is really the way to go. being able to downshift and hold the gears up at the higher RPM range really makes the car feel much quicker. I bought the car with 35,000 miles on it and now have 47,000 miles on it and still have had to do nothing but change the oil. The only complaint with the car is the cup holders. The cup holders in the front are worthless. I always use the rear fold out cup holder. Other than that I love the seats the dials the moon/sun roof the air conditioning is so cold you can see your breath and the car really feels like a rally inspired much more expensive sports car.

I bought my 1997 Trek new and was a must have after the test drive. The things I like are, handling, speed, fun factor, great mpg 37 (highway with 4 cyl) and lock open trunk.

What I don't care for would be the front cup holders, location of fuse for the cruise control, and the glue on body side moldings. These cars will easily go beyond 200,000 miles and are definitely a drivers car.