Re: Hardware bugs (was : coil/distributor replacement)

[Khan Klatt <khan@mediaaccess.com>]

At 3:56 PM -0500 2/28/2000, JoseGomez wrote:
>Believe me, I'd like to buy a 24 valve 4 motion Jetta as my next car if they
>ever make one but I would think twice about it b/c of the reliability
>issues.

Jose-

I hear you-- if I was in your position, I'd probably feel the same 
way, but luckily I'm on the other side of the fence, with essentially 
zero problems on my car.

Of course, there are the standard Jetta (III) annoyances--

such as

*the la cucaracha sound
(I fixed that with a piece of tape on the speaker for the relay)

* no locking gas cap
(Scavenged one off of a wrecked earlier model)

* difficulties shifting
(just the standard pain when trying to go into reverse or into first 
from second)

* stock brake pads, tires, & suspension

* the odd noise here and there that are "fun" to find and squash (if you can)

* cupholders

* tiny glove box


Of these, the flaws in the car are the cupholders and the tiny glove 
box. These are a direct result of a german-engineered car. They 
didn't make our Jettas with cupholders, they were an afterthought. 
They also had to wedge in the airbag, hence the glovebox problem. You 
might also say that the transmission could have been better, but I 
know very little about those things. This is the kind of thing that 
is inherited from a European design brought to Mexico for 
manufacturing.

The rest are bad choices by marketing/engineering (removing locking 
gas cap because of a few clueless individuals out there, as well as 
picking the dusty brake pads). These are things that they could have 
kept or improved on from the factory.

Most of the remainder are simply personal preference (suspension, 
tires, cucaracha sound, tires, and suspension). These are things I 
wish VWAG would have done differently, but couldn't have expected 
them to do because it probably only bugs few people like me.

Which leads to my primary complaint about the Jetta III is how noisy 
it can be. Either things rattling, or rubbing or jostling, or just 
plain road or engine noise. And this kind of thing you can expect for 
what we paid for our cars.

-Khan


Khan Klatt                                         khan@mediaaccess.com

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