Jetta made the worst of worst list

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=435706

Althgough my Jetta has been the best car I have owned.

I call B.S on that, they calculate from 1998, like a magasine in Quebec called protégez-vous, everything is crap excepts Toyota and Honda and Mazda.

Something really funny about that : in this magasine all car ads are Toyota and Honda...

That's why I call BS

I didn't see our cars on the list. Since reliability is a key metric, ours should be on the best of best list. Gassers: well... not my problem.

Our 06 Jetta's were doomed with the transmission failures - then the headlight. Possible oil cooler rubbing a hose. Then there were also some brake issues - In a consumer guide that is a the end.

Lets face it - the so called best engine makers in the world put a very poorly designed camshaft in a famous engine, the wealest link. A supplier produced some very bad flywheels and there was improper clip used in the DSG.

I normally like CR, but that is dumbest list I've ever seen. Just because car keeps the same name from 1998 through 2008 doesn't mean it's the same car.

You could have huge variances in quality depending on model years.
Thats like taking the average safety rating for all those years and saying this car is unsafe.

My 05.5 is running fine. Had the DSG trans serviced just before 40K. Car has original brakes, no dsg trans problems,no oil cooler hose problem, runs great, no headlight issues ( I amied them myself) except they suck even with better bulbs. I'm still glad I have it although I don't like the prices of diesel anywhere from 395 -415 here in So. Florida.

Heh, my '91 was the bottom-of-the-barrel rating in its day too. As you can guess, it is a horrible car.... what a POS !!! Has only lasted me 17 years and 400k miles. Yeah, I won't ever buy another one. LOL

I used to subscribe to Dirt Rider magazine. It was well-known the winner of it's annual shoot-out between dirt bikes was always won by the manufacturer with the most ads in that issue.............

I didn't even know about the hose rubbing on the oil cooler. Where was that brought up?

You can all believe as you please - and I'm not trying to incite a heated debate - but I'm of the opinion that CR is an unreliable source for accurate information of any kind.

oilhammer said:

Heh, my '91 was the bottom-of-the-barrel rating in its day too. As you can guess, it is a horrible car.... what a POS !!! Has only lasted me 17 years and 400k miles. Yeah, I won't ever buy another one. LOL

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And my 85 TD has been awful , it has only lasted me about 750,000 miles frackin piece of crap . Less than 21 hours & counting to season 4 beginning of BSG Frackin great ............

I never held much stock in this groups evaluation of German cars , cutting edge German cars .

tdisedanman said:

My 05.5 is running fine. Had the DSG trans serviced just before 40K. Car has original brakes, no dsg trans problems,no oil cooler hose problem, runs great, no headlight issues ( I amied them myself) except they suck even with better bulbs. I'm still glad I have it although I don't like the prices of diesel anywhere from 395 -415 here in So. Florida.

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My headlights are fine also - its the fact there was a recall.

If you have a recall for a missing valve stem cover the consumer guide does not take into account what it is - just that it happened.

4x,xxx on my 06 TDI and loose exhaust bracket,burned out brake light, and washer fluid hose are only issues I've had. Should I try to lemon law it for the brake light bulb?

DrewD said:

4x,xxx on my 06 TDI and loose exhaust bracket,burned out brake light, and washer fluid hose are only issues I've had. Should I try to lemon law it for the brake light bulb?

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The bulb isn't the problem, it's the quality of the rest of the car that caused it to fail - most likely cause; A known issue with the angle and slope of the doplinger flaker flanges on the D bulkhead swarmer swashplates, so yes, get your Lemon Law paperwork together.

I think it's hillarious that the Honda Odyssey made the "best" list. Our 2005 Odyssey was a piece of crap. It had door sensors that would falsely indicate to the driver that the door was not shut completely. EDIT: We also had a friend whose Odyssey also had door sensors that stayed on like this.

It also had a defective emissions system. I replaced an O2 sensor, then the second O2 sensor, and finally the catalytic convertor in a futile attempt to fix a faulty "check engine" indicator. After dropping all that money on out-of-warranty repairs and still not fixing the problem, Honda notified me by mail that there were "issues" with the environmental sensors; there was no recall, but they were graciously extended the warranty on those sensors to 100k miles.

Well, la de farkin' da. I already spent all that money on a minivan which was just out of the 50 or 60k standard warranty (and therefore out of pocket), and now that my Odyssey had just over 100k miles, Honda's warranty extension did me absolutely no good.

Yep, the Odyssey as well as several other Honda models have had horrific transmission problems, and Hondas have had catalyst issues for nearly 15 years now, nothing new. Not to mention door lock actuators, main relays, and lets not forget their not-so-wise choice to equip many V6 Accords with a Delphi (aka "Leftover GM") alternator that left many a driver stranded...

mh, let me see, just the minor stuff on my '06 jetta
- blown DMF
- blown transmission
- right now I have an airbag light
- washer hose broken
- unfixable oil-leak on turbo

Yeah, I guess that makes it a great used car.

I like the car for what it does for me, and that is comfortable transportation for about 1200mi/week. Compared with the rest of my fleet it has been a lemon supported by a dealership with a poor service department.

Maybe it's qualified like a bad used car because of the VW dealer service.

Well, one thing for sure, it's an pro Jap-Gasser magasine and everything exept BMW is crap... whatever, I am happy wiht my car almost 0 trouble and!!! it will be not the last one.

I just did a USED car to car comparison on Edmunds, using the 2005-2006 Honda Civic and the same 2 years of the Jetta. There are far more Hondas on there for sale than Jettas, almost 3 to 1. The prices for similarly equipped cars shows a lot more Civics with lower prices than Jettas.

Rod Bearing said:

I just did a USED car to car comparison on Edmunds, using the 2005-2006 Honda Civic and the same 2 years of the Jetta. There are far more Hondas on there for sale than Jettas, almost 3 to 1. The prices for similarly equipped cars shows a lot more Civics with lower prices than Jettas.

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Well realistically more Civics were sold so this means nothing.
The Accord is a better comparision for price.

I'm sure the rest of you noted, they did not put the TDI on their worst of the worst list, it was listing the gassers.

Its all BS I dont listen to lists..my TDI is awesome....Honda Odyssey was rated best minivan( and it has many probs)2002 and up..I have friends that went through transmissions and lots of stupid small things even Ford or GM have no trouble with...so if you want perfect...get a Bentley....tired of hearing all the complaints of this fantastic Jetta...holy crap!!!

The complaints serve a useful purpose though for a web site such as this. They enable us to come up with inovation to fix them when possible and to keep everyone informed of what to do if "this" thing happens to them. We already know how good the car is overall. Other than the Easter Egg list I really don't need anyone telling me how good the car is repeatedly. That would get real boring real quick.

I love my car.
Me too!
Me too!
Me too!

On an on.

First off I would like to say I have no doubt that the number of ads a company puts in each of these magazines or websites has a direct influence on how cars are rated, wink wink. This is how the world works unfortunately. However, i don't believe the ratings to be based soley on this, its just a small portion, the icing on the cake lets say...

The fact is the difference between a "good" car and a "bad" new car nowadays is minimal compared to the past. The thing I am intertested in seeing would be a breakdown of the actual issues each model has and not just follow the numbers. My bet is alot of the cars that are "bad" suffer from poor dealer networks and service (cough VW!!) which only amplifies the issue. Also, how valid are the survey responses from customers, some people are seriously out to lunch and have absurd demands, if they are not met they would most certainly speak negatively about the product. I'm sure the ratings from CR and others might be in some cases a close ball park if they had a good sample size of the vehicle in question, but there are many other factors that could sway the ratings if they were considered. I would also like to learn more about how JD power ranks the mechanical design of vehicles because if their engineers are like half of the idiots I have dealt with in my automotive career I would most likely piss myself laughing at them.

wjdell said:

Our 06 Jetta's were doomed with the transmission failures - then the headlight. Possible oil cooler rubbing a hose. Then there were also some brake issues - In a consumer guide that is a the end.

Lets face it - the so called best engine makers in the world put a very poorly designed camshaft in a famous engine, the wealest link. A supplier produced some very bad flywheels and there was improper clip used in the DSG.

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If I remember correctly, the headlight recall was to install a non tampering part to the headlight aiming adjustment screw.

farfrumsanity said:

If I remember correctly, the headlight recall was to install a non tampering part to the headlight aiming adjustment screw.

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Yep, not only did they sell me a car whose low-beams lit up the tree tops (up to spec per dealer ), they also issued a recall that took away my ability to fix the problem following the instructions on this website. To make matters worse, they did the work despite explicit instruction NOT to perform it.

I'm pretty sure the dealership is legally resposible to perform the recall if the car comes in to them.

El Dobro said:

I'm pretty sure the dealership is legally resposible to perform the recall if the car comes in to them.

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They are legally responsible to do what I tell them to do. The contract to do work on my car is between me and them, not between them and VWoA. If they want to do additional work that affects the safety of my car (like dicking around with its lighting system), they need my prior approval.

TwoTone said:

Well realistically more Civics were sold so this means nothing.
The Accord is a better comparision for price.

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The Accord is not a comparable car to the Jetta. The Civic is. Comparing the Jetta to the Accord is foolish.

Numbers of cars sold, or in the used car market also has no bearing on a cars mechanical rating. It certainly halps to refine the statistics overall, but it doesn't bear upon the result CR is basing their ratings on.

Price comparisons are a can of worms.

My quick, unscientific comparison on Edmunds highlighted one thing.

Used Volkswagen Jettas are more expensive than comparably equipped, comparably aged Honda Civics. From that I came to an equally unscientific conclusion that CR is still, and always will be, a biased piece of bird cage liner. If the Jettas are junk, their resale prices would reflect it.

They don't. That tells me CR is hoping no-one reads past their biased talking points.

Jetta headlights

farfrumsanity said:

If I remember correctly, the headlight recall was to install a non tampering part to the headlight aiming adjustment screw.

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I complained about my headlights to the dealer and was told some models had better headlights than others and that the jetta headlights were "not that good". I asked that the aim be checked prior to the recall being done. After the recall I checked my lights on my companies shop door at 25' and was shocked to see that they were all over the place. I laid the required beam pattern out with a laser level and tape, took out the stupid plugs and discarded them and proceeded to aim the lights according to DOT specs. I can now see, I like my lights now and have never had an oncomming vehicle flash their lights at me.