2000 Volkswagen Jetta GLX review from North America

Nothing overwhelmingly serious. I got it used, and the sunroof motor didn't work; it was replaced under warranty. The rain sensor for the windshield wipers was dead too, and that was also replaced under the VW Certified warranty.

The battery went dead once and after that, the windows were I guess you could say "jittery" when you went to open them (they would go down, stop, go down, stop very quickly) and the passenger's side mirror, which angles down when you put it into reverse, would move around in circles instead of going down; I took it to the dealer and they did something to the ECU that fixed it in about five minutes, free of charge; no more issues from that.

Also had a little problem with the soft, rubberized stuff they put on the door handles rubbing off on the passenger side, but no big deal.

I absolutely love this car. I waited about six months to trade in my 2000 2.0 Jetta and picked this one as a lease return. It's one of the few GLX's with a manual transmission and the sport suspension by Eibach from the factory: it handles like an absolute dream! Seriously, you can take corners in this that would send other cars off the road. The sport suspension is still nice for cruising, but the regular GLX suspension is softer.

The interior is well laid out and the power seats are quite comfortable though they don't go as low as they did in my 2.0 (I'm a pretty tall guy). Everyone who rides in it remarks that it's really comfortable and girls tend to really like the "pretty" blue and red layout.

The 2.8l VR6 engine is REALLY gutsy; with the manual transmission you can take off REALLY quick and freak out BMW owners (it's quicker on takeoff than my friend's BMW 328i). It'll pull hard at any speed; if you're cruising at 75 on the freeway and give it a little bit of gas, it'll pull right ahead. Lots of torque for mountains and hills, and it gets GREAT highwy mileage because you can just drop it into 5th and cruise. I've driven the newer VR6's with the 24 valve heads and the 12 valve feels like it has more torque.