I dont have one lined up yet just wondering about any gliches with certain years.

I dont care if I have to do the timing belt cause I went from barely spending $150/month on diesel to now having to commute every day and its costing me $700/month plus I just started seeing a girl in the city too who lives 60km away from home so I can only imagine that 700 will start to go up.

 

I can't speak for the Jetta, but I had an 04 VW Beetle TDI with a 5-speed manual. I drove from North Carolina to Mobile, AL roundtrip twice a month. Best was 10 hours, cruise set at 80mph for 80% of the time and I still managed 42 mpg. Wish I never sold it. The manual will spin the tires. Great engine in those cars.

 

Well I went into a used car dealership I used to work for and told the owner I was looking for a 00-03 VW diesel, and he said he just took a little car on trade and I could have it for 1k. So went and looked and it was a mint '96 Ford Aspire. 90 000km, no oil leaks and passed the safety with flying colors. Than I went to go fill it up from about and 1/8 of a tank and it only took 23L. Now to see how many km I get out of it, according to the gov't site it gets 54mpg on the hwy so I'll definately be saving some good money.

 

good luck let us know how it goes

 

Well I've almost put a tank of gas through it and not overly impressed so far. I've only gone about 350km (218mi) and Im already down to a 1/4 of a tank which is about 8.6USgal. So I"m only gettin about 32USmpg 28 Imp.mpg. The guy I got it from only used to put around in the city. So I'm thinking an oil change, new plugs, check tire press., clean out the carb, check out my distr. cap and rotor, and check the timing, o and I need a bearing badly on one of the front wheels too which i'm sure will boost things for the better too. Hopefully I can get it up to the at least 45mpg every one says they are getting with thiers. I was even reading one guy said he was getting 60mpg which I think is a bit of a stretch. But I'll drive it the next month and make some changes and post up an end result.

Any more suggestions on the tune up would be appreciated too.

 

those aspires will run seems like forever but problem around here is they rust out and fall apart.bearings you will be replacing almost every year as they are common problem.that car should get around 35 mpg tops.as far as i know that car is noisy and i personaly wouldnt ride that far with it every day but hey it is bargain at 1k.
if you decide to get jetta i would recoment 5 sp manual.my wife has auto 4 speed and it sucks on mpg.she averages around 24 mpg on city and highway combined and i belive we had 28 tops at highway.