I bought my blue Jetta GLX about 5 months agof from my local VW dealer. At the time it had 77,000 miles on it and I purchased it for $8300. They were asking $9800 for the car. The price for the GLX is much much much higher then the GL, GLS or Trek because of the 6 cylinder engine and the GLX also comes with every option available on the car. These options would include leather, heated seats, sunroof and all the other goodies you would expect from the high model car. At the time of purchase I was thrilled with my car. Even with the VR6 engine I could get about 29mpg highway, which to me was great because I commute to school everyday.

About a month or two ago I was starting to get visits from the Volkswagen gremilens. First off, let me say that these cars are problematic for the following things no matter what trim you get the car in unless you opt for no power(with the exception of the failed water pump). First of all the passenger side window stopped working while down. This of coarse was a theft and rain issue which had to be fixed immediately. After getting the new part from VW, which was the whole window regulator assembly(regulator, tracks and cables all are one piece and must be replaced together), I found myself $165 poorer even doing the job myself. I have stopped using my windows for anything unless necessary for they stop working often on these cars. My friend has a '96 GLX and all 4 of his windows do not work. He is not planning on getting them fixed for the repair bill would be over $800. The next problem I ran into was another common one with the Jetta's. The sunroof stopped working. As with my friends car, his also stopped working. The motor is bad and is extremely expensive to fix. The replacement job time is 5 hours and the part is $300. My next problem came with the water pump. Yes, around 80-90,000 miles everything starts breaking on these cars. The water pump cost $92 from the dealer and it took 4 hours to replace. Oh yeah, and you have to use special VW antifreeze in these cars....$18 a gallon. Continuing with the madness, the number 1 cylinder missfired giving me a check engine light. This lead me to do a tune up which is normal for the milage. The plugs cost $4 a piece at autozone and I had to go back to the dealer for the wires, $105. The car was fine for a week and then I started to lose masses of antifreeze. We are talking about 1 1/2 gallons a day. Thats half the capacity of the cooling system. Did I mention that the antifreeze you must use cost $18 a gallon. At this point in time I am so sick of the car that it is for sale. I'm asking $6500 obo which is $1800 less then i paid for it 5 months ago and I have spend a ton of money on it. Right now I am currently looking for a Honda or Toyota because I just need something that is reliable. Oh yeah, and to all of you who are going to still go out and buy one of these cars let me leave you with this last thought. If you do buy the VR6 model, the timing chain goes bad at 130,000 miles at the latest. When this needs to be replaced you might at well apply for a 2nd mortgage. You need to pull the motor and trans out to replace the timing chain. Everything is harder and more expensive with Volkswagen.
Amount Paid (US$): 8300
Condition: Used
Model Year: 1996
Model and Options: Jetta GLX, loaded with everything