97 Jetta TDI on FB Marketplace, 33k miles...

[Steve Addy]

Here's something you don't see everyday. I hope that this link works, 97 Jetta tdi with 33k miles on it, FS in Lynnwood WA.

Looks very clean but then again things out that way tend to stand up pretty well, the miles don't hurt either.

Steve

 

[turbodieseldyke]

Link works. Holy shmoke, i wasn't expecting to see "Total" on the odo, but there it is.

 

[burn_your_money]

Needed a clutch at 32k? Ouch.

 

[Steve Addy]

Needed a clutch at 32k? Ouch.

Yeah that is a confusing point.

Steve

 

[Mongler98]

Yeah that is a confusing point.

Steve

Could have been a leaking clutch slave cylinder. 30k is nothing and if that's true, the breaks on this thing are shot. Well at least the fluid is. Unless it got more service in yearly oil and brake fluid changes.
Looks like it will definitely need maintenance but still cherry other than the damage on the bumpers front and rear!
I would be suspicious if no records on service was provided.

 

[GlowBugTDI]

mint! I would think because of age and low miles it would need new seals, and gaskets in places in addition to what's been stated here. That's what usually seems to happen for vehicles like that, but once you get past those it would probably be great!.

 

[Steve Addy]

Price reduced to $7k now

Steve

 

[Mongler98]

It's still only a 3 grand car. 4 to the right buyer. This 7k nonsense is just a premium that somone might consider.
If it was a garage queen with perfect paint, maybe. But it's not.

 

[jetta 97]

Car does not look like 33k car , it maybe 333K, those older cars will go up to 300k then turn to 0 miles at Odo.

 

[turbodieseldyke]

Odo says 33k Total, meaning, 033,000. Doesn't prove anything (could theoretically be swapped, or eeprom edited), but i guess you'd have to see it in person and judge for yourself.

Agreed on the price fantasy. It would have to be the last Mk3 in the world, or today would have to be 2001 to be worth that much.

 

[Steve Addy]

It's still only a 3 grand car. 4 to the right buyer. This 7k nonsense is just a premium that somone might consider.
If it was a garage queen with perfect paint, maybe. But it's not.

I don't think it would last very long at $4k with those miles. And I don't pretend to know what the market price for that car will be when it does sell, but I'm smart enough to know I've seen a lot less go for a lot more, and so what if the guy wants to fish around above where it will sell? You can always come down, but it's a lot harder to go up.

The paint is a lot better than anything else production wise in the $15k range from 97 that I see around (econobox that is).

Car does not look like 33k car , it maybe 333K, those older cars will go up to 300k then turn to 0 miles at Odo.

I don't think it looks like a 333k car, I've seen cars with less than 33k in a lot worse condition than that. It has some imperfections to the bumper paint but I don't see anything that significant. What I do see is a car that probably was owned by some older folks that didn't get driven a lot.

And as TDT said the 'total' is still present on the odometer.

Steve

 

[turbodieseldyke]

so what if the guy wants to fish around above where it will sell?

He's waited 23 years to sell. He's got looooots of time to fish. Being in Washington, we should give him credit for keeping it under $20k, as NCC would've tried.

 

[tdidieselbobny]

Ad says sold now....

 

[Steve Addy]

I guess someone felt that there was value at that price..

Steve

 

[turbodieseldyke]

That's more than I spent on my 4 different TDIs combined, and only one of them required any repair ($500 body work) to be roadworthy. I hope they enjoy it. I also hope the TB has been changed sometime since 1997, even though it's got "26,000 miles left".

The 4 also were gently broken in with a combined 910,000 mi on them, so there's that.

 

[Bob S.]

Asking price of a car (and most things) for sale does not indicate the selling selling price. In private personal property sales, such as a car, where there is not 3rd party in the transaction, and the purchaser is on the honor system to report the sales/purchase price for purchase sales/title tax purposes, even those reported prices are (can be) suspect. Just cause someone advertised a car for sale at $7K; when the add is marked sold; nothing in those two events establishes that the car actually sold for $7K. Unless you were party to the transaction, you do not really know.

 

[Steve Addy]

Asking price of a car (and most things) for sale does not indicate the selling selling price. In private personal property sales, such as a car, where there is not 3rd party in the transaction, and the purchaser is on the honor system to report the sales/purchase price for purchase sales/title tax purposes, even those reported prices are (can be) suspect. Just cause someone advertised a car for sale at $7K; when the add is marked sold; nothing in those two events establishes that the car actually sold for $7K. Unless you were party to the transaction, you do not really know.

Bob, while I agree with you, we won't know what the price was, I would say that we'd be safe in guessing that it was somewhere between $5k and $7k. Do I think it was $7k? Well, I'd say that since it was likely the drop from $8k to $7k that triggered the sale or a discussion, I'd think we're actually safe if we said $6k. I can't imagine (as a seller) that I'd be interested in lopping off more than 25% from my asking price. Do I think the car was worth $8k....don't know, I'm not there to look at it, but the miles and body condition certainly could justify a price in that range. Unfortunately I don't like to value things that I can't see in person, but I do know that prices for everything appear to be going up.

So what if anything does it mean? Nothing, it says nothing about anything that's really relevant other than someone (one person) decided that they wanted it and it was worth (probably) $6k. It doesn't mean there's a market for TDI cars in that range, just that there was an instance where a low miler happened along and someone decided they wanted it. That's it.

But, it's nice to see something like that happen and more importantly I think it's a good sign regarding older technology.

And Bob...check your PM's please?

Steve

 

[02NBTDI]

Definitely a low mile car. If you look at most of the metal on that car it is pristine. Door strikers and the other small things make it a low mile car.
Under the hood the cad plating looks fantastic as well as the strikers I already mentioned.

 

[Bob S.]

Understood & agreed on Steve's comments. But, without knowing the situation & dynamics, almost anything is possible.

 

[Mongler98]

It's not so much the (car is worth 7 or 8k) it's the (what can you buy with that $) and the answere is completly dependent on who is buying it. Clearly we wont know the final sale price...... but for 7 k, I would be buying a used porsche is much nicer condition with only 2x the milage for the same age. And that's still a very good deal!

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I bought the twin to this car back in '06. 34K, one owner, always garaged. Paint was perfect. Can't find a photo right now. MrChill sent me the link to this one because he thought it would be funny to do the same thing again. I didn't, but if it were a MKIV with that few miles I'd be all over it.

 

[oilhammer]

If that were an ALH or BEW car you'd be in a bidding war methinks. The only reservation I have with spending that money on that car is the availability of parts going forward, and the fact that the A3s just do not seem to age as well as the A4s do.

But for less than half the cheapest new car you could buy, it really is not a bad deal.

 

[Steve Addy]

It's not so much the (car is worth 7 or 8k) it's the (what can you buy with that $) and the answere is completly dependent on who is buying it. Clearly we wont know the final sale price...... but for 7 k, I would be buying a used porsche is much nicer condition with only 2x the milage for the same age. And that's still a very good deal!

Exactly what Porsche are you going to be buying that "is much nicer condition with only 2x milage for the same age" and "for 7k?"

IDK what alternate universe you're living in but $7k doesn't buy you much of anything in the world of Porsche except for a serious project. That is unless it's water cooled....

And OH, where I live the Mk4 cars are in many cases worse than most Mk3, or at least the ones still around. The only problem is that the Mk4 rot in the front fenders and rockers seems to be worse. As for the engines, I've seen two ALH with rods through the block and not one AHU / 1Z with that condition.

I'm not that worried about parts at this point TBH, there isn't anything I need that I can't find out there. If you're talking about exclusively VW supplied parts that's different, I don't generally get much from the dealer anyway although there is the occasional item I have gotten from VW when it's necessary.

At any rate, I do agree with OH about the dollar value compared to new and the side benefit of simplicity.

Steve

 

[oilhammer]

I have never seen any A4 cars with rust as bad as A3s... although we hardly have any A3s left here anyway. If I see three come through the shop this year, I'd be surprised. A4 cars, though... shoot, at any one given time I have at least one here. There are two here now.

Although in sheer numbers, they sold a LOT more A4s than A3s with diesel engines, and maybe even more with gas engines, although we did sell a boatload of '95-96 2.slo Jettas back in the day. And since so many were pedal deficient, they single handedly put an end to the 10 yr/100k mile powertrain warranty.

 

[Abacus]

In the northeast the rust gets to them so bad they don't last long. I have seen a lot of A4's rusted out at the rockers, fenders, and tailgates (on the wagons). But I swear the A3's didn't come with floorboards from the factory. I might have seen a handful that had them intact and original. It's part of the reason we moved west, to get away from the salt, rust, humidity, cold, bugs, mold, allergens, and weather. Both weeks in August are nice though, and we'll miss them.

 

[oilhammer]

I would not consider my area "rust belt" or anything at all like the north east (or Anywhere, Illinois), but my 1998 Jetta was starting to have rust spots in areas that my 1991 Jetta never did (still doesn't). And I take VERY good care of my cars regarding that sort of thing.

When the dumbass punk I sold the '98 to crashed it, the rocker had a hole starting in it.

It was a reliable car, aside from the power window regulators.

But its replacement, a 2004 Passat, still looks as good as the day it was brought home new. Not a peep of rust anywhere at all. I think the A3s were just unusually bad for rust... at least as bad as the A1s. But if I could still buy a new one, I would.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

My son had to part out his A3 after 10 years of ownership because, as our mechanic said, it was rusty enough that he was afraid to put it on a lift. MKIIIs rust in places that ALHs don't, including door jams, around the fuel filler, trunk (MKIVs might do this if neglected) and, as mentioned above, floors.

I've replaced fenders on my ALH 3 times (last time probably wasn't really necessary) and had the rockers repaired and the tailgate replaced, both under warranty. The rest of the car is holding up very well, 19 New England winters later. You basically never see an A3 around here any more. Or a B4, for that matter.

 

[Steve Addy]

I agree with OH et al, the Mk3 did not hold up as well as the 91/2 Puebla cars. Those seem to hold up very well, in fact I had a 92 Jetta Carat I'd picked up a few years back I sold last year and the undercarriage was awfully nice still. I actually think the B3 Passat cars held up better than the Mk3s did.

I also have to concede that aside from my Mk3, which doesn't get out very often but will shortly as the wagon's 50,000 mile anniversary rolls around and the maintenance list on that will require several days to accomplish, I don't see any others in town anymore. There used to be a black one a few blocks away but that disappeared several years back and I have to say that even at the JY they are few and far between.

At any rate, the mid-west does not treat cars well, and Iowa is liberal with the salt and brine spray. One reason I drive a (now hit by a deere) Dodge Dakota in the winter and keep the 31yo Passat TDI conversion in the garage when snow is on the ground.

But, I do have a floor issue in the 97 Jetta tdi, as much as I've been protective of that car over the years (bought in 2002) it still managed to get a hole in the passenger rear floor and I know the one rocker has some problems under the GLX side skirt. It will need to be attended to at some point, which is too bad because it's still all original paint. I'm putting it off as long as I can....

I had always heard that it was junky steel, but that was just rumor...

Steve

 

[Mongler98]

Exactly what Porsche are you going to be buying that "is much nicer condition with only 2x milage for the same age" and "for 7k?"
Steve

Boxsters have gone up in price so that ship said a year or 2 ago.... used to be able to get them for about that much, now its a lot more.
I just got a 2001 Cayenne with 110K on the clock for 4 grand. needs a timing chain job, that's going to be a video soon. usually about 6K in the shape its in. don't get me wrong, the parts on that thing are $$$$ compared to a jetta lol and the ease of work... give me a break. BUT there is a lot of good options that are MUCH better IMO than a Jetta TDI from that era, especially one driven so little. unless your willing to do all the work to it, just as much as a well kept one with 200K on the clock. i see no difference other than some parts like the shift towers life, and some other things. At this poor things age, it needs as much if not more work than one with 200K on the clock.... yea its nice but nothing special about it other than that sweet low OD count...
Just trying to put it into perspective on what you can do with 8 grand. Heck, my parents just traded in there subaru Crosstrek for about that much with i think 90K on the clock....

 

[oilhammer]

You bought a broken 20 year old fake Porsche for $4k. Yeah, that's a GREAT deal. LMAO....