Any tips or suggestions on buying a strictly commuter car. I am considering 01 Jetta
 

After being on the road for the past 5yrs and having a company vehicle all the time to commute, I now moved up the ladder and am also now at home every night. My problem is though my new job is all office work so I dont require a company vehicle any more and now have a 75km each way commute to work and the jacked up 6.0 is starting to really chip away on my funds.

I need to get a commuter car and was thinking of going with a Jetta Diesel. I just want something cheaper to buy nothing really over $7000 (keeping in mind we pay more for vehicles up here).

Anyway I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions on certain years I would be better off with, or if I should even look at something else. The vehicle will be used pretty much strictly driving to and from work.

Any help would be muchly appreciated.

sounds like a good plan to me

i seen a guy get a early 90's jetta or rabbit or something like that, and he ran that thing for years on cooking oil, and used oil from his wifes car. when he did oil changes he just dumped the used oil in the VW and that was that. he never had any problems and "claimed" to get almost 40 mpg. good luck with it, i don't like to work on them cars a whole lot but they do run good most of the time.

i bought a 91 jetta ......great milage ....no power ,germans build things to last .....a buddy of mine has one close to 400k on it .....mine has a mere 155k on it
marcel
btw mine started great all winter up here in vt

Up here they dont like to start to well in Jan and Feb, but a guy at work told me he just bought an in line coolant heater he installed himself and cost $100 bucks now he has no issues at all.

And I hope its a little better than the Sham-WOW!

hey what wrong with the sham wow. i never bought one but that guy that does the promo, he could sell ice to an eskimo and get change back.

I heard a guy say that he was so excited to get it when he ordered it that he nearly peed when it finally showed up in the mail. When it came time to use it he said and I quote " I would have had more success soaking up water with a garbage bag"

ha ha. wouldn't suprise me. i just like the guy thats selling it. Hey you know what they say, if its on tv and the internet it must be true.:tttt:

Maybe you should check out an old ford pinto - saw one the other day for the first time in years - some old man drivin it about 40 mph down the hiway - prolly gettin 35 mpg out of 'er - just kiddin - jettas seem to be pretty good cars - good luck on the purchase

How many miles ? I think they call for a timing belt change around 100.000.
Everyone says stay away from auto. mine is 98 tdi standard. 182.000.

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.:choochoo:

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.:argh: