What are your thoughts on Volkswagens?

Question

I'm thinking about buying a new Jetta or Passat. Which one is better? Any thoughts or advice would be helpful. Also, do either one of these cars come with leather interior? What are the pros and cons of owning a Volkswagen?

Answer 1

PROS
Nice cars to drive and own
good engines across the range
top safety gear

CONS
they are too expensive for what they are
expensive to keep
maintanence is a nightmare
Just don't work well with the average joe
Volkswagen has cut corners in build qaulity.


My opinon is japanese cars are cheaper and much easier to live with.

Answer 2

I own both VW and Japanese cars (Nissan). They are relatively equal although VW has had some quality issues. I think it is safe to buy the new models as VW has reworked many of their past problems. I would get a TDI Jetta when the new models come out next year. As far as maintenace and repairs, all cars can cost money. A Japanese car doesn't guarantee perfect reliability. Labor rates are relatively the same whether you have a 12k dollar Yaris or a 30k Passat. Just my opinion.

Answer 3

well we owned 2 vws a 2003 passat v6 and a 2005 passat tdi both we sold because we had them back in the garage so many times and the parts r expensive go with a honda or acura. and both of our passats had leather. the jetta has bad reliability but is about the same just caome with a smaller engine. i would never go with a vw but if u do go with a passat v6 it has better reliability than the 4 cylinder

Answer 4

Volkswagens are great cars, although they sometimes have the typical German electrical bugs. It's easy to look over the few problems, seeing as how good of cars they are. Both the Jetta and Passat are great cars, and the one you pick depends on your budget and taste. And yes, you can get leather in both.

Answer 5

Interesting to read the previous answers... I looked at your question before I knew it was about today's VW's.

My family owned nothing but VW's from 1962-1982: Three Bugs, 4 Bus's, 2 Squarebacks, 1 Fastback, 1 Knotchback, 1 Dasher (72), and 1 Scirroco (78).

Back in those days, the VW was truly a "peoples-wagon" !! You could buy it at an inexpensive price, it would last almost forever (my Dasher lasted 400K miles), they got rather good mileage (by today's standards), and until fuel-injection you could do almost any repair yourself !!

The VW's I see today have become the car of the Rich, not the People.

Answer 6

They are okay cars. Yes they are more reliable on average than American makes but you pay for it in a number of ways:

Higher prices,
Higher financing rates,
Higher depreciation (in terms of number of dollars, not percentage),
Higher parts prices,
Higher dealer rates,

Also if you are considering a diesel, you have to drive them over 15,000 miles a year to be worth the extra expense.

The VWs also have some quirks that American or Japanese cars typically don't have, especially with the electrical systems.

Answer 7

get the jetta tdi- 44mpg highway- one of the most fuel efficient cars you can get, and they come with leather ;) the only drawback is they take specialized fluids (oil, power steering fluid, automatic transmission fluid, pretty much any fluid will be vw only) but they pretty much last forever aside from the pain-in-the-butt maintainence

Answer 8

there accualy a very decent car. Germany puts more effort into there cars then most American cars. sad but true. Now..if we are talking about old aircooled vw's...they suck unless there running good. but todays vw's are a nice car. go for it

Answer 9

too much money to start with,nice car,german quality is not as good as it used to be,parts are not cheap.do yourself a favour,and get a toyota or a honda. good luck in making the right choice.

Answer 10

better than a ford,although it's a volkswagon....