I had a close friend (as close as a sister), who had a 2006 6 cyl 4Motion Passat purchased new. The amount of time and money she spent on that car, she could have gotten easily a AWD BMW 328, with a total overall lower cost. The worst of it all is the poor service, on top of how unreliable the car was. Maybe people had different experiences with FWD 4 cyls. Germans are always going to make more appealing cars imho, question is, at what cost. My relatives had a '99 Passat 4 cyl purchased at 2 y.o. It went 160k but needed tons of work, cousin was stubborn, but uncle who is a mechanic from Munich said junk this car, and they did.....this isn't about holding grudges, it's about sensibility. My advice would be work a little harder, and save up for a A4 or 328. Or, buy a Corolla used.

p.s. sis in law had a Passat TDI, and when the radiator exploded at 700 mi,, they were told it wasn't covered. My brother read them the riot act, and miraculously, the next day, it was covered. Then, the entire headlamp went out on one side, and once again, told not covered. VW got slapped with a class action and it was, you guessed it, covered. Bad corp policies

 

THE most arrogant auto salesman I ever met sold VWs at the VW/Subaru shop I bought my old Outback from in 2005. He spewed out contempt for other competing products, never smiled, acted like he (and the brand) were God's special gift to the human race, and, IMO, simply made an a** of himself. I don't know how he lasted as long at that shop as he did....but, from what we know about VW as a company, his personality may have not been that far off.

 

Can you imagine, under a full warranty, my brother was told he had to pay to have his headlight replaced, it's not covered. Then this happens. So this is one of those things, regardless of the duration of the warranty (I think VW bumped it up since their image got damaged), it is useless if at the dealer end, they reject claims. My sis in-law's Passat had 700 miles, and the dealer gave her a hard time about the radiator exploding.

https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2...adlights.shtml

 

I know someone that currently works for VW they are almost exactly as you describe. They spew lies about Toyota in particular constantly. At this dealership VW actually has training sessions where they brainwash the sales people on how cheaply made Toyota cars are. I'm not kidding.

 

VW is even dumber than I ever imagined if most of their dealers are like this..... they need to be outstanding in every way after the diesel scandal.

 

I find it hard to believe that I will never own a GTI, I had liked that car since being a little kid. But why would I do that to myself, spend hard earned money on one lol I did have the pleasure of having one on business for 4 days in 2015, and I loved it. But one has to acknowledge getting slammed for service and it costing almost the same as BMW out of warranty (how's Passat front brakes at the dealer for $680 grab you? My friend went to an indie and was able to get it down to $590 lol). I will acknowledge that even DIY, my OE BMW front rotors were $135 each, and the pads were over $120. Do the math, that's already $390 online discount, add a $15 sensor and it's $405 DIY...just that this is BMW, not VW....

Anyway, back to this Jetta, I think it looks great. But I wouldn't bet 26k on it....and I wouldn't bet on the car co. Save up and get an Audi A4...

 

I used to hold a BIG grudge against VW for many reasons, though the scandal was the biggest one. However, I said to myself that I should not reserve a judgment against something I never even tried before. So, I went to test drive one and I came home with one. I think my lesson here is to be more open-minded and I may just be surprised by what does happen in reality. I'm currently having an anti-American automaker mindset due to various reasons (service being one of them, and the other is personal dislikes on design aspects), but I may change my mind down the road. I hope I get to be surprised like this again with American cars.


I suppose I should not generalize categorically, but those trips to the dealerships did not leave me with good impression. I'll try again in a few years...


I have not looked into Diesel vehicles, actually, because their starting pricing points were/are high and there wasn't too much of a room for negotiation to my preferred pricing point (moving volume/inventory availability). The extra MPG margin did not justify the higher prices if I have my discount applied to both, so I opted out of it. For now, I'll stick with gasoline until diesel/electric models meet the economic factor.

 

A beefed up Jetta......I like the interior design. No tacky ipad display

 

No one is holding a grudge against VW except those who actually had the diesels yanked from them. The rest of the populous does not care about car scandals and has a short-term memory. I've already done the study. Only auto enthusiasts remember and talk about things like car scandals. The average Joe could care less when buying a car five years later after the incident. Now, those who have owned past VW's and seen how unreliable they are, that is something that sticks in one's mind. And just from this thread alone, it appears there are still serious problems with the company and reliability. That makes a big impact on brand loyalty. Although, VW sales are setting records lately, so perhaps people don't even care about reliable cars anymore. One thing with VW's is they sell to very low aged, hipster people. These people are trying to spread their wings with some unique wheels, something with chic German DNA (VW commercials pick right up on this), and don't care about reliability until a few years into ownership when repairs and dealership visits start getting old.

Since it was brought up, I too have a crazy VW dealership memory. My 1999 Passat was in for service and warranty work many times, and I got to know the service writers quite well. One of the guys had been there since the dealership opened (VW of Van Nuys, since the 1960's), and really put on a show and theatrics. Whenever I had a problem, he immediately directed the reason to something that I may have done to the car. And of course, I drive like a grandpa on a stock car, so there was no way I could have done anything to cause things to break. He basically ended every lecture to me by saying, "remember... help the care to help you..." lol I always got a kick out of him... he was super arrogant, aristocracy, and had a heavy Euro accent even though he was Asian. Quite the character. They nicknamed him "The Dutchman." He looked just like the actor guy who tried stabbing himself while sitting next to Robert Hayes in the movie AIRPLANE.

 

I don't mind boring--but when it passes you on the road, you are going to need to look twice to confirm it's a Jetta. There's just nothing distinctive about the design at all. VW can produce boring without just completely blending in.

 

I've only purchased 3 new cars in my lifetime, and so I thought, dang BMW service (free for 4 yrs on my 2007) sure is arrogant, like it's my privilege to bring my car to them. But now that I look back? They are the best, when compared to Nissan, Lexus, and GMC. If you think BMW is arrogant, think about what you get from them. A bill for $0. A loaner car for as long as you want (I've had one for 3 days for an oil change, and 4 1/2 mos. for the airbag recall). And very likely, they actually performed the work by the book.

Last December? They did my PA state inspection for $40.XX, OUT THE DOOR. That is the cheapest I've had in 16 years across 4 vehicles. The 2nd cheapest was with a coupon at a Exxon station, where the $34.95 coupon was $46 out the door. Toyota dealer was $76 out the door. Why was it so cheap, I asked the service advisor if he could discount it, and he said we'll work something out. Car was ready in 1.5 hours, got a text bill is $40.xx, and I brought the loaner back at 17:30 EST. Sometimes we don't realize how good or bad something is until we have had a chance to see others...and from what my brother and former friend and cousin has said about VW, it's terrible....hard to envision that's changed in 2 years....

edit p.s. I was really young, so as a young boy, I got a thrill when Julie Haggerty went in the cockpit to inflate the pilot, and he had a smile on his face when she was done...

 

Post-1998 VW Beetles (especially convertibles) and other small VW Cabrios, like the Eos, have traditionally appealed to not only young "hipsters" (as you describe them) but females in general, young or old. While I don't actually have hard sales-numbers on me, from my own observations (and I see a fair amount of traffic each day), it's almost a given that these cars will have a female driving....often older ones as well, perhaps in a mid-life crisis LOL. Same, BTW, goes for the non-Abarth Fiat 500 and lower-line (non-S) versions of the Mini Cooper (my brother's girl friend also has a Mini). The Miata also has a reputation for mostly female buyers, but I have to disagree on that one.....I've seen too many guys driving them.

 

 

 

The interior is not my cup of tea, but the exterior isn't bad. Plain but inoffensive. Wonder if future Golf fronts will have a similar grill.