First off my Jetta was made in Mexico. I wanted a quality German made auto, but I guess VW thinks cheap labor is more important than a quality product.
Here is the list of things that have gone wrong or broke:
Headliner has peeled off and it will never go back up; I've tried.
Entire exhaust rusted and rattled itself to pieces. The whole exhaust system was just garbage.
Shifter is stiff and sloppy. It was fine when I got it, but it just seems to slowly get worse.
Radiator is deteriorating.
Exterior door handles are junk. They are hard to open and are slowly coming off.
Something clunks in the suspension when I go over bumps. And the rear struts had to be replaced.
Steering wheel seems a little crooked.
Starting get a bit of a rough idle.
...and countless other annoying things. Replacing anything is expensive. I take very good care of this car (my Dad is a mechanic) and I baby it, yet it continues to break itself.
I do love the look and feel of my Jetta though. It handles great and gets excellent gas mileage, although the gas mileage seems to be going down a tad.
The trunk is HUGE!
Its comfortable.
The heater can turn the car into an oven!
Pretty easy to work on.
Worst seatbelt design ever! There are two separate belts, the shoulder and lap. The shoulder belt has to be buckled in or the car will not start, I by-passed mine because it was too much trouble just to start the dang car.
I love just about everything on this car. I bet if it was German made, instead of Mexican, the quality would be much greater and there would be nothing to complain about.
I have to say that everything that has gone wrong on your Jetta has also broken on mine. Even the headliner. I can't find a glue that will keep that thing up, but the staple gun worked! Even with those problems I have really enjoyed this car. It's just too fun to drive, handles too well & too gutsy for the measly 1.8 liter that it has to give it up. And yes, mine was also built in Mexico. I will avoid that in the future if I can...
I have the same seat belt design as yours which is rather rare in Canada. I've had more than five try to jump over the belt; only two slid into it and I believe one of them didn't notice it because it was dark out. I loved being able to slide into my car without concern of buckling up.
I've only had the same problem with the exterior handles in the back. The two front ones only are difficult when it's below freezing.
Love the oven comment. I've baked myself in it before.
Well I mean I have the same car, it was made in Germany and it's now 18 years old, the only problem I'm having with it is the trany seems to be slippin a little, not too serious, yet. But other than that, it's running great and everything else about the engine is going good.
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