2004 Volkswagen Jetta GLS review from North America

The dashboard display has continually to go out randomly while driving in the warmer weather of Florida. The dealership said that the crystals in the screen would fade out, but they had run a diagnostic test with their computers and everyone checked out to be OK...OK...

The brake pedal on the car needs to be pushed in fairly far in order to get any response or pressure from it. The brakes also vibrate and shimmy when braking. I don't want the brake pedal to get too close to the floor or else I would be in danger of ruining the master cylinder.

When I accelerate and slow down, the driver seat makes a clicking noise or clink noise like it is loose and not secured or tight enough.

The transmission shifts very hard from first to second. When downshifting to get better acceleration while driving faster, the car acts like I am asking so much from it and jerks around.

This Jetta handles pretty well considering it is a 2.0 Litre engine with only 115 horsepower! The automatic does hold back better power potential.

A lot of my friends tell me, after they have driven it, that it drives like a fat old lady. I still really like the car though. It's plenty fast enough for me and I don't need any more speeding tickets.

I previously owned a 1996 Jetta GLX-VR6 and it had over 200,000 miles on it. I think that the older style Jettas were built much better than these newer ones. I never really had anything wrong with that car besides the annoying check engine light that just stayed on, but nothing was ever really wrong with it. This car, the check engine light has not come on.

I have not had the problems that other people have had with their Jettas, like the window things, knock on wood, and etc. Hopefully I won't ever. I also think that after 3 or 4 years of building cars that fell apart, Volkswagen tried a little better to revive their genuine quality products that they used to manufacture, now with this 2004 model. It seems very well built and secure, except for some rattles and brake issues. Oh well, its German and it is a Volkswagen now, it's supposed to be this way.