Feeling a bit uneasy about my sister's 2011 Jetta.

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Originally Posted By: oilmaven
Hopefully the bad press the new Jetta has received (not including the up-level models) will result in some head-rolling for the people making these decisions.

Bad press? A handful of hard core VW fans may be disappointed, but in general, sales of the new Jetta (2011) have gone up quite a bit over the prior year model. If anything, some people got a hefty bonus over this, not head-rolling.

http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2011/01/volkswagen-jetta-sales-figures.html

This is one area where the US market in general is very different from Europe. Most people in the US don't care about upscale high quality stuff. Most people want an appliance and they want it to be cheap to buy.
 
Originally Posted By: jigen
Maybe I shouldn't have used the word "struggles". It doesn't feel noticeably slow, it just is constantly shifting over 4500rpms to get where it needs to be. I am just used to shifting at rpms much lower when it comes to riding around town.

Such is the nature of the beast. It needs to keep the RPMs fairly high to allow the car to get going at a reasonable pace. Many of us are not used to higher revving engines, but in many other parts of the world it's the norm. Despite being somewhat unrefined/trashy sounding, these engines have been around for decades and have proven that they can easily go the distance. Now, the auto trans is another story. On the older Jettas with this engine, the trans would typically die within the first 150K miles. I'm not sure if VW has made an effort to make this new trans last a bit longer. I guess it's too early to tell. That's also another reason why this engine would work better with a manual trans - you can then decide whether you want to putt putt around and shift at lower rpms or otherwise.
 
Originally Posted By: jigen
Nothing necessarily wrong with the vehicle but after using it for a bit yesterday I just feel a little concerned about long term reliability.

I am just opening up a discussion here, and I am not trying to knock the new Jetta. I just think my sis would have done better with the 2.5 engine.



It is just like my Dad always tried to teach me: "Never buy the small engine, son. You'll always be beating on it and then it won't last as long."

Dad was right. If she has to flog it to get moving it will just wear out sooner.
 
The 2.0 has been driven by pinning the throttle from a styop for years...they still run 300,000 miles. Non-issue. It's slow & thrashy, but bulletproof.
 
I personally think putting the 2.0 in the Jetta was a bonehead move, but sales figures may say otherwise. I have yet to see a split on engine configurations for sales, but either way they may not have made a mistake.

115hp out of 2.0L in this day and age... can you imagine what the press would be saying if GM or Ford put out a 2.0L pushrod engine with 115hp in the new Cruze or Focus?
 
When reports of the 'new' Jetta came out, THE BIGGEST point in pretty much ALL the reports was how much cheaper the interior has gotten.
If you/sister did even the most fleeting research for 10 min online, you would NOT have missed it.
 
I did research. And she agreed to test drive many cars, but she went with the Jetta. Her money, can't tell her what to buy, can only make recommendations. Like Quattro said, sales of the new Jetta in the US prove an upscale interior and fine attention to detail is less important than a lower base price tag.
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8


It is just like my Dad always tried to teach me: "Never buy the small engine, son. You'll always be beating on it and then it won't last as long."

So what was the large engine on the SRT8?
confused.gif
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I think you listened to your Dad quite well!

As for the small engines wearing out sooner? Probably very true back carb'd days, but I think now it doesn't matter too much. Knock sensors and electronic timing and FI can accomodate some good thrashing with no hiccups.

I was picking up a box blade with my 127hp 4cyl Tracker this weekend and had to tow about 200 miles into a 30-40 mph head wind, so with 130ft-lbs of torque at cruising rpm I had to use pretty much all of it all the time... Needed atleast half throttle for most of it but had no problems and not even a significant rise in water temps.
Who knows what the oil temps were, but that's why I have stout oil in there.
I think as long as they keep on top of the maintenance a regularly "exercised" 4 cyl should be fine.
 
The new redesigned BASE MODEL Jetta was created to bring in buyers and to compete against the Kia's, Honda's and Hyundia's when doing web searches and magazine comparisons, which has been lacking from VW's line up

This move did exactly what VW thought it would do. It jumped VW sales by big margins. Funny thing is, most Jetta sales are even or higher cost points now then with the last generation. In otherwords, the cheap base model Jetta brought buyers into the VW dealership, and buyers walked out with the higher model Jetta's (trims with the 2.5 or even into the GLI/2.0T)
Mission accomplished.

The OP's sister stuck to her guns, or her budget and got the base model. That 2.slow engine has been around forever. It is a tough little engine and with basic maintenace it will far outlast the rest of the vehicel (sheet metal and the electronics)
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: jigen
Nothing necessarily wrong with the vehicle but after using it for a bit yesterday I just feel a little concerned about long term reliability.

I am just opening up a discussion here, and I am not trying to knock the new Jetta. I just think my sis would have done better with the 2.5 engine.



It is just like my Dad always tried to teach me: "Never buy the small engine, son. You'll always be beating on it and then it won't last as long."

Dad was right. If she has to flog it to get moving it will just wear out sooner.


Sounds to me like your dad was just trying to justify WANTING the largest available engine!
 
Originally Posted By: jigen
I did research. And she agreed to test drive many cars, but she went with the Jetta. Her money, can't tell her what to buy, can only make recommendations. Like Quattro said, sales of the new Jetta in the US prove an upscale interior and fine attention to detail is less important than a lower base price tag


OK.
Yeah I guess I see your point(s).
You noticed the cheap interior and are slightly bothered by it. but I guess the sis isn't? if that's the case, I guess she's either fine with it, or it doesn't matter to her. In that case, I wouldn't worry - ALA she's not bothered by it.

I agree that most people in the US may not care about interior quality when deciding on a car, but I also think, that a lot of the same people will act horrified and bash the car once they start exhibiting the consequences of cheap build when the car reaches 50k miles and full of rattles, etc. That i find is unfair, because they should have taken a closer look when test driving. As long as someone / your sis knows what to expect and not be shocked by things like that down the line, i think one should/can justify her choice.
 
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The thing is she is fine with the car. But she's oblivious to most things like that. Just wants a car to take her places. The only thing she was against with interiors were ones that were too busy or "modern" looking for her tastes. That was the first thing noticed in the Honda, Ford, and Chevy she test drove.
 
^^^ True - I love the interior of my BMW (2005) too.

It seems most European cars still have dash/interior/consoles that still look "sane".
Everyone else is trying to make the consoles look like they came out of a space ship designed by a whacky artist
frown.gif
a shame, really. I like the way the new Focus hatch looks - but the interior is way too gimmicky...

Actually Subaru still seems to have sane looking dash/consoles.
 
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I agree on this. I came from an 8th gen Civic to a Subaru and while the Civic's dash and IP were functional, I appreciate the way a simple, more "traditional" IP and console fades from view and lets you just drive. I tend to like BMW interior styling for this reason (some more than others). Only thing I think I don't like about the new Jetta's base dash is the way the info screen is situated -- it looks like the IP was designed to accommodate twice as tall a screen as was there. Pretty sure this is actually the case, because IIRC the higher trim models do have a taller screen..
 
I rent the new jettas every once and a while. I like the driving experience, but I was amazed how hard the seats were. Recent past VW's interiors have felt/looked better, but peeled. Maybe the new one looks worse, but will hold up better.
 
Isnt the jetta made in Mexico? Cost cut for the "wants" of the US market?

At least our golf (Rabbit) was made in Germany. Have had no issues.

Mexico? US market? Nuff said.
 
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