2005 Volkswagen Jetta from North America - Comments

I love my Jetta, in 5 months I have put 11000 miles on my car. Last week the O2 sensor went out and caused the engine light to come on. I called North Scottsdale VW they had me bring it in right away. They gave me a Ford Taurus for a loaner...yuk... they called me back the next day and informed me there was a recall on the fuel sensor as well and wanted to know since they already had the car could they go ahead and replace it...

I said sure if you trade me out of the Ford and into a VW loaner and they did.

Very hard to go from a TDI to a standard car.

This is my first VW, but it won't be my last.

I'm a VW enthusiast and owner too, but to give it a "10"

in reliability when you've already had one incident of equipment failure and a recall to boot??? I think either of those alone should drop it down a couple of notches.

I think those "10"s will change over time to more realistic numbers.

I agree. Who in their right mind rates a car a perfect 10 when it has already had a recall and a bad sensor within the first 5 months of ownership? VW sure knows how to put out junk from the start.

My son recently purchased a new VW Jetta, and is having problems with the transmission. To make matters even worst he is unable to get it checked even after making an appointment, arriving 30 minutes ahead of time, and being told he would have to leave it there overnight, without a loaner. He lives out of town, college professor and is very unhappy. I had given serious thought to a Passaat, but now, I THINK NOT.

10? Yea...right. I want to know what they think at 3 years/50k! (If they still have it)

When I read reports like this I feel that instead of buying a new car, I should buy two old clunkers and do all my own maintenance.

That way, there should always be at least one servicable car available.

Two 10 year old Mercury Grand Marquis or Crown Vics would be nice.

I have read many reviews on here, and I keep getting the impression, that VW has an Internet Reviews troubleshooting division? Some of these comments go out of their way to stress how great the VW car is, when many of us know different?

I wonder if all these people are going to be so chipper, after 30k miles???

My 2005 air bag sensor appeared 2 times now in a year. All they do is reset the computer. Can they fix this before the warranty ran out.

Nothing at all wrong with giving the '05 TDI a '10'. I've put over 50K on mine and absolutely love it! A defective fuse that prevented the dome lights from coming on was replaced shortly after I purchased the car. So this would constitute a lemon?! Get real!! I have several friends who've put WELL over 200K on their TDIs.

TDI engines do well over 200K. I had a 93 Golf with over 300K miles, and gave it to my son. Unfortunately, he crashed the car so that was the end of it.

Now I've been driving a 2001 New Beetle with 1.9 TDI engine and manual transmission since 2005. The car had 110K when I bought it; it now has 250K, and nothing makes me think it won't go to 300K.

I do 45K per year, mostly on highways. Never had a motor rebuilt, head gasket replaced, clutch repaired, turbo, nor engine radiator replaced. So maybe I've been lucky, but I believe basic mechanics on these cars is unbeatable.

I haven't tried Japanese cars though. I did drive a 1993 Ford Escort up to 100K, but had to sell it because the car was failing apart. That's when I bought my 93 VW Golf with 150K on the speedometer.

I think if you drive over 40K per year on highways, VW diesel engines are the best option on the market. My Beetle gives 50mpg average May through September (winter is extremely tough up north in Canada, and I lose 10% to 15%).

If anyone has a better option, just let me know.