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I owned a 2001 VW Jetta 1.9TDI that I bought brand new. The car drove very nice but the quality just wasn't there and the money saved in fuel with the diesel was eaten up by the scheduled maintenance of the VW. There are a couple of engineering tidbits about the VW that are a pain as well. It has a EGV valve(Exhaust Gas Recirculation) that recirculates diesel exhaust into the intake manifold. They do this to help meet EPA restrictions but it causes heck with the intake. Eventually it gets so sooted up that you (or the dealer) have to take the intake off and physically clean it out. I had to have mine done at 63,000 miles but I have heard of this having to be done in the low 20's. On my Jetta I had a little rust bubbling up through the paint on the drivers door after only 3 years. There must have been the tiniest little nick in the paint that was hard for me to see. They also want you to change the brake fluid every 24 months! Add the timing belt/water pump replacement every 60,000 to 80,000 depending on what model you have and all of a sudden you are spending more on maintenace than you saved on gas mileage. My father in law has a Camry that is cheaper, larger, higher quality, gets gas mileage with the 4 cylinder in the low to mid 30's an fuel that is 25 to 50 cents per gallon less. And the Camry is built in the U.S. by U.S. workers while the VW is built in Mexico. I found the dealers after I bought the car to not be helpful at all. There is a reason that VW sales have crashed as hard as they have. VW has a long way to go. I sold my VW in disgust. I had really wanted to own the car and had longed for one before I bought one but was terribly unhappy with it after a few years. Dave
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