Topic: First Drive: 2014 Volkswagen Jetta 1.8TFSI

[KD]

Nice to see vw at least try to reinject some semblance of driver enjoyment back to this line!  But that face!  And that body! Hard to believe but even the new corolla looks more driver oriented than this thing.  Bye bye 2.5!  Who ever met a 5 cylinder they could love?

I love my '10 Golf wagon with the 2.5 auto.  It's great on gas with highway consumption as low as 6.9 l/100km highway driving at 110 to 120 considering it weighs as much as many mid sized cars, so quick off the mark that it's difficult not to squeal the tires.  You just have to give it a little punch to get it past that initial dead zone.  That growl is music to my ears compared to most whiny 4's.  I'm not sure I'd buy an upcoming 2015 with the 1.8 turbo.  Too many moving parts for my repair budget after warranty.

I think the Golf wagon is great, but only with the TDI optiion.  In fact this is one of my shortlist picks when i go shopping for a replacement in a year, or so.  My only concern is reliability and service.  I have 2 friends who currently own one and they love them, but one complains about the high cost of service, and the other rarely complains about anything.  But another friend in particular bought one in 2010 i believe and had it for only one year before he traded it at a loss because it was the proverbial car from HELL!  He went throgh 3 fuel pumps within that year and had countless other issues!  In fact he claims the he only drove it for about 8 of the 12 months he owned it because it spent so long in the shop!  It sat in the local dealers service centre for about 2 weeks one time while they dithered around trying to figure out some fuel problem and actually acused him of filling it with gasoline when they couldn't figure out the problem.  He ended up having it flatbedded to another dealer about 120km away.  The local dealer has since been taken over, so i will wait and see how they pan out and see how the otheer 2 friends are fairing with theirs before i make any decision on that.

That is the uber BS. "I know a friend that has issues with his VW Vagon. It was the car from hell". Well, I can make stories of ANY car like that. "I know a friend with Corolla that is the car from HELL"!!! Statistics is not supporting it. Period

Sorry, but most of my friends are car guys, many of them are VW guys and i value their opinion.  Who better to ask than a current, or former owner?  I do tend the hear more nightmare stories regarding VW products though but mostly regarding the old VR6 drivetrain.  I have owned a couple of golfs in the past and sold them both due to service issues.  One was a 200o tdi that I bought used as a "cheap" commuter, but it had transmission issues at 180km that cost $3k to rebuild.  When i brought it in to the tranny guy he knew what it was right away and said its a common issue for that model.  The other was a gas version with doors that would drop an inch or so evrytime they were opened and had a few other naggling issues related to integrity.

One of my buddies is a real VW fan, has had 3 or 4 in the last 5 years. Had a 2005 Jetta wagon, 1.8T, was an electrical nightmare, all sorts of "this doesnt work, why wont this come on, why is this light on" type of thing. Bought a 2008 or 2009 VW Rabbit 2 years ago, this has been solid, not an issue to speak of. I think VW may have finally sorted its electrics out, but I wouldnt touch one from about the mid 90s to about 2010, eeeekkk.

A co-worker of mine actually took the dash apart in his daughter's electrically challenged 2000ish jetta and found a major issue with cold solder joints.  He resoldered all joints and the electrical gremlins disappeared!

My buddy just needed many rides to the dealer as he bought the extended warranty, thank god..... 

Glad you brought that up though as i forgot about that one.  I thought it was brilliant and made perfect sense to me!  I am not much of a car repair guy, but i have been involved in the electronics and IT field for over 20 years now including a stint in pcb design and repair and I have seen a fair amount of issues due to cold solder joints in the past.  In fact i remember a power supply for one of our products was recalled due to this issue which caused us a lot of grief.  Good thing to check for anyone having these issues and are inclined toward this type of thing.

[Fobroader]

Nice to see vw at least try to reinject some semblance of driver enjoyment back to this line!  But that face!  And that body! Hard to believe but even the new corolla looks more driver oriented than this thing.  Bye bye 2.5!  Who ever met a 5 cylinder they could love?

I love my '10 Golf wagon with the 2.5 auto.  It's great on gas with highway consumption as low as 6.9 l/100km highway driving at 110 to 120 considering it weighs as much as many mid sized cars, so quick off the mark that it's difficult not to squeal the tires.  You just have to give it a little punch to get it past that initial dead zone.  That growl is music to my ears compared to most whiny 4's.  I'm not sure I'd buy an upcoming 2015 with the 1.8 turbo.  Too many moving parts for my repair budget after warranty.

I think the Golf wagon is great, but only with the TDI optiion.  In fact this is one of my shortlist picks when i go shopping for a replacement in a year, or so.  My only concern is reliability and service.  I have 2 friends who currently own one and they love them, but one complains about the high cost of service, and the other rarely complains about anything.  But another friend in particular bought one in 2010 i believe and had it for only one year before he traded it at a loss because it was the proverbial car from HELL!  He went throgh 3 fuel pumps within that year and had countless other issues!  In fact he claims the he only drove it for about 8 of the 12 months he owned it because it spent so long in the shop!  It sat in the local dealers service centre for about 2 weeks one time while they dithered around trying to figure out some fuel problem and actually acused him of filling it with gasoline when they couldn't figure out the problem.  He ended up having it flatbedded to another dealer about 120km away.  The local dealer has since been taken over, so i will wait and see how they pan out and see how the otheer 2 friends are fairing with theirs before i make any decision on that.

That is the uber BS. "I know a friend that has issues with his VW Vagon. It was the car from hell". Well, I can make stories of ANY car like that. "I know a friend with Corolla that is the car from HELL"!!! Statistics is not supporting it. Period

Sorry, but most of my friends are car guys, many of them are VW guys and i value their opinion.  Who better to ask than a current, or former owner?  I do tend the hear more nightmare stories regarding VW products though but mostly regarding the old VR6 drivetrain.  I have owned a couple of golfs in the past and sold them both due to service issues.  One was a 200o tdi that I bought used as a "cheap" commuter, but it had transmission issues at 180km that cost $3k to rebuild.  When i brought it in to the tranny guy he knew what it was right away and said its a common issue for that model.  The other was a gas version with doors that would drop an inch or so evrytime they were opened and had a few other naggling issues related to integrity.

One of my buddies is a real VW fan, has had 3 or 4 in the last 5 years. Had a 2005 Jetta wagon, 1.8T, was an electrical nightmare, all sorts of "this doesnt work, why wont this come on, why is this light on" type of thing. Bought a 2008 or 2009 VW Rabbit 2 years ago, this has been solid, not an issue to speak of. I think VW may have finally sorted its electrics out, but I wouldnt touch one from about the mid 90s to about 2010, eeeekkk.

A co-worker of mine actually took the dash apart in his daughter's electrically challenged 2000ish jetta and found a major issue with cold solder joints.  He resoldered all joints and the electrical gremlins disappeared!

My buddy just needed many rides to the dealer as he bought the extended warranty, thank god..... 

Glad you brought that up though as i forgot about that one.  I thought it was brilliant and made perfect sense to me!  I am not much of a car repair guy, but i have been involved in the electronics and IT field for over 20 years now including a stint in pcb design and repair and I have seen a fair amount of issues due to cold solder joints in the past.  In fact i remember a power supply for one of our products was recalled due to this issue which caused us a lot of grief.  Good thing to check for anyone having these issues and are inclined toward this type of thing.

Yeah, I know all about cold solder....or not cleaning the joint well after you 're done.

Sent from my Galaxy S3

[KD]

Nice to see vw at least try to reinject some semblance of driver enjoyment back to this line!  But that face!  And that body! Hard to believe but even the new corolla looks more driver oriented than this thing.  Bye bye 2.5!  Who ever met a 5 cylinder they could love?

I love my '10 Golf wagon with the 2.5 auto.  It's great on gas with highway consumption as low as 6.9 l/100km highway driving at 110 to 120 considering it weighs as much as many mid sized cars, so quick off the mark that it's difficult not to squeal the tires.  You just have to give it a little punch to get it past that initial dead zone.  That growl is music to my ears compared to most whiny 4's.  I'm not sure I'd buy an upcoming 2015 with the 1.8 turbo.  Too many moving parts for my repair budget after warranty.

I think the Golf wagon is great, but only with the TDI optiion.  In fact this is one of my shortlist picks when i go shopping for a replacement in a year, or so.  My only concern is reliability and service.  I have 2 friends who currently own one and they love them, but one complains about the high cost of service, and the other rarely complains about anything.  But another friend in particular bought one in 2010 i believe and had it for only one year before he traded it at a loss because it was the proverbial car from HELL!  He went throgh 3 fuel pumps within that year and had countless other issues!  In fact he claims the he only drove it for about 8 of the 12 months he owned it because it spent so long in the shop!  It sat in the local dealers service centre for about 2 weeks one time while they dithered around trying to figure out some fuel problem and actually acused him of filling it with gasoline when they couldn't figure out the problem.  He ended up having it flatbedded to another dealer about 120km away.  The local dealer has since been taken over, so i will wait and see how they pan out and see how the otheer 2 friends are fairing with theirs before i make any decision on that.

That is the uber BS. "I know a friend that has issues with his VW Vagon. It was the car from hell". Well, I can make stories of ANY car like that. "I know a friend with Corolla that is the car from HELL"!!! Statistics is not supporting it. Period

Sorry, but most of my friends are car guys, many of them are VW guys and i value their opinion.  Who better to ask than a current, or former owner?  I do tend the hear more nightmare stories regarding VW products though but mostly regarding the old VR6 drivetrain.  I have owned a couple of golfs in the past and sold them both due to service issues.  One was a 200o tdi that I bought used as a "cheap" commuter, but it had transmission issues at 180km that cost $3k to rebuild.  When i brought it in to the tranny guy he knew what it was right away and said its a common issue for that model.  The other was a gas version with doors that would drop an inch or so evrytime they were opened and had a few other naggling issues related to integrity.

One of my buddies is a real VW fan, has had 3 or 4 in the last 5 years. Had a 2005 Jetta wagon, 1.8T, was an electrical nightmare, all sorts of "this doesnt work, why wont this come on, why is this light on" type of thing. Bought a 2008 or 2009 VW Rabbit 2 years ago, this has been solid, not an issue to speak of. I think VW may have finally sorted its electrics out, but I wouldnt touch one from about the mid 90s to about 2010, eeeekkk.

A co-worker of mine actually took the dash apart in his daughter's electrically challenged 2000ish jetta and found a major issue with cold solder joints.  He resoldered all joints and the electrical gremlins disappeared!

My buddy just needed many rides to the dealer as he bought the extended warranty, thank god..... 

Extended warranties and FGC's.............an match made in heaven 

It would be interesting to see a comparison of the cost of extended warranties for comparable vehicles.  It may be indicative of issues expected down the road. 

[sailor723]

Nice to see vw at least try to reinject some semblance of driver enjoyment back to this line!  But that face!  And that body! Hard to believe but even the new corolla looks more driver oriented than this thing.  Bye bye 2.5!  Who ever met a 5 cylinder they could love?

I love my '10 Golf wagon with the 2.5 auto.  It's great on gas with highway consumption as low as 6.9 l/100km highway driving at 110 to 120 considering it weighs as much as many mid sized cars, so quick off the mark that it's difficult not to squeal the tires.  You just have to give it a little punch to get it past that initial dead zone.  That growl is music to my ears compared to most whiny 4's.  I'm not sure I'd buy an upcoming 2015 with the 1.8 turbo.  Too many moving parts for my repair budget after warranty.

I think the Golf wagon is great, but only with the TDI optiion.  In fact this is one of my shortlist picks when i go shopping for a replacement in a year, or so.  My only concern is reliability and service.  I have 2 friends who currently own one and they love them, but one complains about the high cost of service, and the other rarely complains about anything.  But another friend in particular bought one in 2010 i believe and had it for only one year before he traded it at a loss because it was the proverbial car from HELL!  He went throgh 3 fuel pumps within that year and had countless other issues!  In fact he claims the he only drove it for about 8 of the 12 months he owned it because it spent so long in the shop!  It sat in the local dealers service centre for about 2 weeks one time while they dithered around trying to figure out some fuel problem and actually acused him of filling it with gasoline when they couldn't figure out the problem.  He ended up having it flatbedded to another dealer about 120km away.  The local dealer has since been taken over, so i will wait and see how they pan out and see how the otheer 2 friends are fairing with theirs before i make any decision on that.

That is the uber BS. "I know a friend that has issues with his VW Vagon. It was the car from hell". Well, I can make stories of ANY car like that. "I know a friend with Corolla that is the car from HELL"!!! Statistics is not supporting it. Period

Sorry, but most of my friends are car guys, many of them are VW guys and i value their opinion.  Who better to ask than a current, or former owner?  I do tend the hear more nightmare stories regarding VW products though but mostly regarding the old VR6 drivetrain.  I have owned a couple of golfs in the past and sold them both due to service issues.  One was a 200o tdi that I bought used as a "cheap" commuter, but it had transmission issues at 180km that cost $3k to rebuild.  When i brought it in to the tranny guy he knew what it was right away and said its a common issue for that model.  The other was a gas version with doors that would drop an inch or so evrytime they were opened and had a few other naggling issues related to integrity.

One of my buddies is a real VW fan, has had 3 or 4 in the last 5 years. Had a 2005 Jetta wagon, 1.8T, was an electrical nightmare, all sorts of "this doesnt work, why wont this come on, why is this light on" type of thing. Bought a 2008 or 2009 VW Rabbit 2 years ago, this has been solid, not an issue to speak of. I think VW may have finally sorted its electrics out, but I wouldnt touch one from about the mid 90s to about 2010, eeeekkk.

A co-worker of mine actually took the dash apart in his daughter's electrically challenged 2000ish jetta and found a major issue with cold solder joints.  He resoldered all joints and the electrical gremlins disappeared!

My buddy just needed many rides to the dealer as he bought the extended warranty, thank god..... 

Extended warranties and FGC's.............an match made in heaven 

It would be interesting to see a comparison of the cost of extended warranties for comparable vehicles.  It may be indicative of issues expected down the road.

Just over 3K for my 2011 ML.  My wife's 2011 328 is about 2500.  2 year/ 80,000kms in both cases.

[dirtyjeffer]

It would be interesting to see a comparison of the cost of extended warranties for comparable vehicles.  It may be indicative of issues expected down the road.

Just over 3K for my 2011 ML.  My wife's 2011 328 is about 2500.  2 year/ 80,000kms in both cases.

i doubled the warranty on my 2012 Kia Rio5...$2000 for an additional 5 years/100,000 kms "bumper to bumper" coverage...no, brake pads and headlights aren't included, but pretty much everything else is (non-maintenance type things).

[Solstice2006]

Kia/Hyundai/Mitsubishi already have really good warranties, if it were me, I would not have spent $2000 on an extended warranty, I would have put that money towards stuff that warranty doesn't cover, regular maintenance, tires, brakes, oil changes, filters, fluid changes..

[quadzilla]

i doubled the warranty on my 2012 Kia Rio5...$2000 for an additional 5 years/100,000 kms "bumper to bumper" coverage...no, brake pads and headlights aren't included, but pretty much everything else is (non-maintenance type things).

Are you saying you now have a 10 year/200,000 kms bumper to bumper? If so, that is pretty good.

[dirtyjeffer]

Kia/Hyundai/Mitsubishi already have really good warranties, if it were me, I would not have spent $2000 on an extended warranty, I would have put that money towards stuff that warranty doesn't cover, regular maintenance, tires, brakes, oil changes, filters, fluid changes..

i plan on keeping the car for 10 years...on every car i have owned, things start to fail in the 5-8 year range, which usually pushes me to buy a new(er) car...this way, i don't really need to bother until the 10 years is up (unless i simply want to).

[dirtyjeffer]

i doubled the warranty on my 2012 Kia Rio5...$2000 for an additional 5 years/100,000 kms "bumper to bumper" coverage...no, brake pads and headlights aren't included, but pretty much everything else is (non-maintenance type things).

Are you saying you now have a 10 year/200,000 kms bumper to bumper? If so, that is pretty good.

yes...and i also have free oil changes for as long as i own the car...so my regular scheduled maintenance oil changes are free, and i get $40 off the other 2 service packages (the value of the oil change service a la carte)...i get my oil changed every spring and fall, so my maintenance costs are about $40 one year (one free and the difference for the "Service #2" package) and about $150 every other year (one free and the difference for the "Service #3"), so it averages to just under $100/year.

also, if i don't use the extended warranty, at the end of the coverage term, i can either get $1000 cheque from Kia Canada, or a $2000 voucher for a new Kia at the dealership...pretty reasonable if you ask me.

[Solstice2006]

well sure, with the free oil changes, and the fact that you get something back if you don't use it is great, that was mentioned before...