2000 Volkswagen Jetta GLS review from North America

Rear brakes needed replacing at 40,000 miles. No indicator light came on, so I scored the rotors. Cost $450.

Replaced the oil pan at 27,000 miles because it had a crack in it. Had it done at an independent repair shop, so it was "only" $250.

Brake lights don't work. I'm going to try to fix this myself because I'm terrified to go to the dealer. I know it will be expensive, no matter what.

Yellow goo pours out the bottoms of the doors. The dealer says that's normal. I just scoop it off. Some day, it has to stop leaking, right?

CD changer skips. Keeping the back seat folded down so that cabin air can circulate into the trunk area seems to help. Also bringing the CD cartridge into the house at night helps.

Buttons on the front console stick, presumably because the last owner spilled something onto them from the cup holder location. I fixed this by cleaning between the buttons with an alcohol-soaked swab.

The dealer changed out my window regulators when I was having the brakes done, just as a precaution. I didn't notice anything wrong with them.

I had a valet key made and it was outrageously expensive. The key itself (a piece of plastic with a piece of metal sticking out of it) was $50. Then I had to bring it in to the dealer so they could match it to the anti-theft system. Another $50. So that's $100 for a spare key.

Although I really love the styling and the pep of this car, I probably wouldn't buy another one. It's just too expensive to maintain. Maybe I have very high expectations because of the experience with my Nissan pickup. I sold it at 90,000 miles and it still had original brakes, clutch, nothing had broken. I only replaced the tires at 50,000 miles. I sold it only because I was leaving the country for several years. When I came back to the US and was looking for a car, I chose the Jetta because I loved my friend's car. I also wanted something with ABS and airbags. I now think I could have bought a car that wasn't so expensive to repair, yet had all the wonderful features of the Jetta. I don't plan on getting rid of it, as nothing catastrophic has happened, but I am knocking on wood.