I'll never own another water cooled VW. I *might* consider a TDI but certainly not a gasser.

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http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

You mean air-cooled VW? Most are water-cooled, including the newer ones.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

I have had the misfortune of owning a Jetta and driving more than I care to think about in late model ones.

I have not one good thing to say about any VW's. Crush em all.



I have never actualy driven or ridden in a Phaeton because VW made like three, but I hear they are actualy a decent car. Sadly a total failure because it didn't have the four rings on its hood.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

This is a feature?

Where's the personality?

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

Amen.

I owned half a dozen VWs over the past 10 years. The newer the car, the worse they were. Atrociously unreliable and expensive.

My e300d is more reliable, easier to work on and the parts a generally less expensive. I could never justify buying another hateful VW. They are a joke

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Jake
1999 e300d PlantDrive WVO/SVO conversion
**note to self: oil changed at 268k kms**
1990 Toyota 4Runner FrankenDiesel swap

I had a new Jetta drive by me at school, seems the professors like them. Anyway the you can really hear the turbo and its screaming from idle. Its a diesel no mistaking it.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Yep, I'll always remember driving my cousins brand new at the time 2004, with under 300 miles on it. I was like their is a dash rattle! That I tried to see what that 1.8T engine is all about, 5hp and a billion rpm, without any torque to be seen for miles is all I got.

Honesty I had a 10 year old Camry at the time, and the Toyota drove better, lacked the dash rattle, and cost $18k less. They were also both 4 banger dogs. Camry had more usable power down low, VW wanted to be a race car.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

What year was your Jetta? Was it a '95? I think I saw that in your signature some time ago. I don't know much about those, but I know they looked pretty crappy back then. The one I have is much nicer. I don't know if you know this but Audi & VW use the same engines, so if you like the 4 rings so much you should have some respect for VW as well.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

That probably wasn't the '09 model. Most likely an '06 if it looked the same.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

It had dealer plates, it was brandy new. NFW will a 3 year old New England car still have shiny clean exhaust, and no sand and dirt in the wheel wells.

VW turned me against Audi. I used to kind of want one until I saw the four rings on a bunch of my Jetta's parts. Now I have no desire. Same junk different badge.

Yeah it was a 1995, and it was crappy, about as crappy as every other VW I have ever driven.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Here's a fun read about Audis. What do you do when you have a small coolant hose that's leaking on your A6?
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?t=424526&highlight=audi+coolant+line




IMO, an Audi is just a VW with more leather and more blow fuses.

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Jake
1999 e300d PlantDrive WVO/SVO conversion
**note to self: oil changed at 268k kms**
1990 Toyota 4Runner FrankenDiesel swap

i agree with a lot of the comments. my business is parts and restoration for aircooled VW's. our shop has a decent reputation and we get many requests to work on newer VW's and i have to turn them all down because working on VW's from the 90's up is a nightmare to me. terrible engineering design and the cars are not mechanic friendly at all. working an MB car - now i have not worked on anything past mid-90's MB so i am not an expert - but working on MB is a dream in comparison. the engineers who design the MB cars understand what is needed to make the car easy to service and it is obvious they are thinking of service when you take things apart on an MB. when you take a late-model VW apart it is clear the thing is designed for assembly-line savings, similar to japanese vehicles. awful for the mechanic...

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punkinfair

Leaky MB evaporators come to mind as very unfriendly to service. But yes, generally I find MB's intuitive to work on. I haven't had to do anything major on my VW yet, but so far the routine maintenance is a breeze.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

All in all I have had very little personal experience with VW's, my friend's family had an early Jetta that was a nighmare (a '92 Jetta GL or something) had 146k on it and burned coolant terribly, the electrical system was a mess, interior rattled, suspension rattled, everything rattled! Trans didn't want to shift, burned coolant and oil, climate control didn't work AT ALL, exhaust was a mixture of black and blue, the headlights were rated about 5 candlepower.....the list goes on, it was a horrifying car. His brother had an even more decrepit 1988 VW Quantum wagon. That was horrifying-er. However, it did run more reliably than the Jetta, it'd always start and drive. Can't say that for the Jetta, it'd not start about 60% of the time, and spent months at the repair shop with them not being able to figure it out. They finally dumped it.

My dad drove a golf from the age of 18 till about 34, and he loves them. He's never driven one newer than a '86 though....thats the last one he had. Drove it 85k miles, only did routine maintenance and replaced the front wheel bearings. Then it got rear ended by a pickup with me and him in it, we were unhurt.

I still may go test drive the new tdi, I am interested to see how it drives. My wife likes VW's and wants a tdi wagon or sedan.....but I am pressuring her to go to the MB side, preferably a 240d or something. Safe, easy to fix, cheap to insure. Most of her drivng (85%) is in the city, and she drives slow, so a 240d would fit the bill. Only issue is that she thinks they're "sorta ugly"....but she has warmed up a bit to one in white, or blue...... We'll see. I'd love to wave goodbye to her disaster of a Rav4....its a POS.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

As far as I can tell, DSG stands for Damned Slippy Gears. I had the misfortune of driving a new Jetta for a week. I couldn't press on the pedal without it shifting at least one gear. Then I would instinctively let off a little, and it would shift up again. No matter how fast it changes the gears, it was an annoying pause before it did anything. And it mashes you back in the seat as soon as you tap the gas. All of the acceleration was in the first 1/2" of pedal travel. I hated that stupid thing. It handled nice, though.

My first car was a diesel Rabbit, but it wouldn't start when it got down to around 0. Then the battery would die after a week of not running. I wore myself out pushing that car up and down the street and jumping in to pop the clutch.

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1982 300CD Petrol/Black Leather