How is the reliability on VW's?

[Pastore]

Particularly, I have been eyeing a Jetta VR6. How is the reliability on these, especially the engine. I have found a few 'My Jetta VR6 Lemon" sites and am just wondering if this is widespread, or just rare occurences.

/me pages NFS4 to the front desk for customer assistance.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Rule of Thumb with VW's
The newer, the better long term reliability is supposed to be. Engines are very, very good, but the electricals in older ones are a bit quirky. Sure other folks can add to this.

 

[roncarter]

i hear they are pretty good..

 

[Scootin159]

I had a 1981 VW Rabbit w/ 450k+ miles on it when I sold it. Still ran pretty good, no real problems to speak of, but it did need some help in the snow.

The VR6 is a great engine, probably my favorite engine. If you keep up with the maitinance you should be able to drive it for several hundred thousand miles. But of all the VW's I know, I only know of one "lemon" (you tell me, she changes her oil @ ~12k miles).

 

[m2kewl]

for the price of the jetta vr6, you can get a passat w/v6. roomier and better bang for the buck.

 

[FSUpaintball]

My family had a Rabbit manual transmission from around 1980. That thing was a POS. Bought brand new, had many problems over the years, and my father always took good care of it.

Most VWs are not too reliable. It's suprising - they seem to be built well, but reliability leaves a bit to be desired.

Note: The Passat is actually a very good, reliable car. It seems to be the exception.

 

[SOSTrooper]

The 2K3 Passats are out, they price at around $22K. I got a 2K2 model and it is great, you'll love the dashlights. I'd recommend skipping the Jetta and go for the Passat (thats what I did actually).

 

[Pastore]

Well I would go for a Passat in a second... But, I need something that is less than 15k used, with relatively low miles. The Jetta VR6 is the only thing I can find with a nice engine, relatively luxurious, and sexy design... There is one around where I am being sold by owner, it's a 99 with 41k miles... With a quick look under the body and engine, everything looks to be in good condition... He is asking for $14k for it... Any other thoughts?

 

You want reliability ?
Buy a T.D.I.

 

[Pastore]

Originally posted by: Roger
You want reliability ?
Buy a T.D.I.

arent they diesel? no thanks

 

[MrBond]

What I have heard is the quality problems usually come from the ones built in Mexico. There's only a couple still built in Germany (the jettas), but they're the special editions (like the Wolfsburg) and usually pretty expensive.

I'm not sure when they moved to the Mexico factory though. My boss has a 94/95 Jetta GLI with well over 300,000 miles on it, it still ran pretty well.

 

arent they diesel? no thanks

Fast quiet diesels

(Last forever too)

 

[cherrytwist]

Check out the forums over at www.vwvortex.com. Tons of info on all makes of VW.

 

[MrBond]

As much as I like the TDI's, my boss's jetta was a diesel, and I wouldn't want to deal with the cold weather starting issue. Getting fuel isn't really a problem, but the cold weather starting issue drives me away from it.

 

[DougK62]

The VR6 is a great engine. My neighbor has a manny tranny 98 VR6 Jetta and it hauls. My only concern is the expense of parts. My neighbor said that the oil filter costs quite a bit because of it's design, and he was throwing a really big hissy fit when he saw the expense to buy new spark plug wires. Overall he's been happy with it, though. He's put about 10k miles on it so far and only needed to do plug wires and an alternator.

 

[yakko]

Originally posted by: FSUpaintball
My family had a Rabbit manual transmission from around 1980. That thing was a POS. Bought brand new, had many problems over the years, and my father always took good care of it.

Most VWs are not too reliable. It's suprising - they seem to be built well, but reliability leaves a bit to be desired.

Note: The Passat is actually a very good, reliable car. It seems to be the exception.

The ones from the early 80s did have a few more reliability issues but those are the ones from the American plant. When they moved to Mexico the reliability improved greatly. My 92 Jetta weas made and Mexico and the reason it has a few more problems than normal is because I drive the hell out of it. The are very reliable cars. The reason the newer ones have some more electrical problems than the older ones is because there are a hell of a lot more electrical compnents in them. OBD II added a ton of sh!t to most modern cars which is why they all have more electrical problems.

The VR6 is one of the most bulletproof engines VW/Audi makes. Only the inline 5 was better. One of the tuning shops here does a lot of VR6 swaps into older MK II VWs and they also do a lot of supercharger/turbo kits on those engines.