I have owned a few cars in my short 25 years of age but by far, the worst car I have owned was a 1996 VW Jetta. After my 1994 Integra was stolen, I bought a 1996 VW Jetta TREK as a replacement car from a used car dealer. Granted, it had over 100k miles on it, but the body and interior was in perfect condition, and it ran pretty good. A few weeks later, the transmission's performance deteriorated dramatically. After morning starts, it would take ages to shift into any gear and once it was on the road, it would shift extremely hard under moderate acceleration. A few days later, I was on the highway commuting to work and the car started decelerating on its own and wouldn't respond to any throttle inputs. I coasted to the emergency lane. I shut off the car and tried to start it up. No dice. I should have known there was something up with these cars when the tow truck driver laughed and said, "I tow a lot of these!" I towed my VW to the local dealership and learned that the cause of the problem was a bad ignition coil. They also recommended that I have my timing belt and fuel filter replaced. I was also quoted for a transmission repair in the neighborhood of $2000. Well, I decided to sell my Jetta, because I can't afford to make all of these different repairs to a car that in my opinion was poorly designed (Who makes a transmission that can only be serviced by the dealer, not the owner?). I decided to play it safe and recently bought a 2000 Honda Accord Coupe. I doubt that I'll have any drama with that car.
Amount Paid (US$): 4000
Condition: Used
Model Year: 1996
Model and Options: TREK Edition