My wife's 1997 Jetta Trek has been great other than an initial hiccup. We bought it cheap at auction and shortly afterwards, the tranny failed. Bought a reman'd tranny and with that cost tacked on to the purchase price, we came out about even in terms of general market prices.
That was about 5 years ago. Since then, it has been excellent other than some minor gripes common to this model. Both rear windows have failed and I had to disable the factory alarm (it would go off all the time). The heavy rubber side moulding falls off occasionally despite my best epoxy efforts.
Other than that, it has been a very reliable and cheap car to maintain. It has about 150,000 Km on the clock. Engine runs perfectly.
My sister-in-law had some issues with a new Jetta VR6, 2003(?) I think. Electrical problems right out of the gate, which were covered by warranty. Car has been fine since.