Opinion Desperately Needed: Jetta 1.8 Turbo or Accord LX-V6? - Page 2

i always heard that toyotas and hondas were reliable, but i never heard about nissan. anyway, my mothers 2000 jetta gls is 3 years old, and we havent had any problems with it (so far). on the other hand, my girlfriends 03 civic is practically brand new, and she has had quite a few problems with it already. and it already squeaks like its 15 years old. maybe she got a lemon, who knows. although ive heard stories of 1987 accords going for 400k miles. my 1986 jetta went for 280, before i killed it. engine still ran strong too. as far as i can tell, the new jettas are pretty damn reliable. of course, i'll bet that an accord will be just as reliable. but beware the squeaks.
then you may not want to get the jetta then. i am 5'9, and while the room in the back seat isnt huge, its not that small. although the trunk is ENORMOUS for such a small car. cant you get a different salesperson? or another dealership? if you like the accord, dont let some prick salesperson get in the way. it makes me laugh when a salesperson thinks he is 'in charge' and he works directly for the company who makes the cars that he sells. car dealerships are basically stores who buy tons of a certain brand of product, and they also perform service on those products. they are essentially no different than a circuit city or a best buy. a sales dept, and a service dept. if a salesperson is giving you a hard time, go to his sales manager. if he does the same thing, go right to the top, if you can find someone who has ownership or something like that. if they dont listen, there are PLENTY of other places that sell hondas who would love to have your business. this same thing happened to me as well, which is why i may be a bit more passionate about this. anyway, best of luck, i hope you find what youre looking for.

CJ

If you're getting rid of the Protege over a relatively cheap to replace brake rotor, don't delve into VW ownership.

Stick with a reliable Japanese make like Honda, Toyota, Nissan.

Over half the used cars sold at the Toyota dealership where I work are off-lease cars bought at auction and gone over in our shop.

Typically 2 or 3 year old VWs need a lot more work than Toyotas, Hondas, or Nissans. Altimas are actually among the least troublesome, usually sailing through the inspection with no problems at all.

VWs are about on a par with Ford and Chrysler products as far as how much work is necessary before they can be resold. The auction buyers have pretty much quit buying Ford products due to the high number of problems found, but we must still keep a few VW's on the lot because so many customers buy into the "fine German craftsmanship" mystique.

Another vote for the Accord. They're proven dead on reliable and a turbo adds another thing that could cause problems that a naturally aspirated engine won't have.

I'll vote for the accord, only because you're stuck with an auto transmission. The 1.8T engine loses a significant amount of responsiveness when paired with the tiptronic. The Jetta TDI is always an option though, but it seems like the back seat spacing may be an issue. My brother and I test drove a Jetta TDI a few weeks ago, and it mopped the floor with the 4-cyl Mazda 6 we drove right before it (and the 6's interior is terrible ).

Well I've been looking for a Sedan. I don't want a Truck or SUV anymore (no thanks 15 MPG).

I'd love a Maxima, but not willing to spend the extra.

The accord V6 is slower, but you can get their full leather and luxury one for a good cost. Also Hondas last forever.

I have the advantage of living about four blocks away from the BEST VW/Audi/Porche tuner in the country. The effects of just their chip in the 1.8t is phenominal. ~200hp ~2240 ft-lbs of torque with 91 octane. YOu can get up to 215hp with 93.

http://www.goapr.com/VW/images/dyno_...8t_stage_i.gif

or visit their site www.goapr.com.

A chipped Passat or Jetta would be my choice if I couldn't get the Nissan

BTW... all APR software un undetectable by a dealer's diagnostic tools. A buddy of mine has his passat chipped by them For an extra $200 he had this thin installed which allowed him to switch between several different "settings" for the ecu using the cruise control buttons. He had three maps installed, one regular, one for 91 octane, and one for 93 octane. really... really cool.

Wow,

These cars are not really comparable. The Accord is about twice the size of the Jetta.

Have you considered the 1.8 Passat? It's not a whole lot more expensive than the 1.8 Jetta and it's more the size and class of the Honda you're looking at. My wife has a 2002 1.8 Passat (5-speed natch) and it's a really great car! Plenty of get up and go (at least in the manual, don't know about the slubbermatic) and nice acoutriments(sp?). Nice stereo, leather, alloy wheels, etc. Nice car. Not quite as nice as my 2.8 A4 but noce nonetheless.

EDIT - just noticed that you have eliminated the Passat for price reasons. Too bad, it's a great car. We test drove the Jetta wagon and loved it. Have you considered the Jetta wagon?

Oh, you're going to love it. The car that my wife replaced was a 1996 Jetta with 120K miles. It was still running great, but getting tired. She kind of wanted a new car and a family member needed a low cost commuter so we sold it. It was and contrinues to be a great car. Also, the thing handled great and was a blast to drive, even with the 115hp little engine (of course it was a 5-speed so that helped there).

Anyway, enjoy the new car, I hope it serves you as well as ours did. If so you may end up back for another one in 6-7 years!

I took the plunge today and bought a 2000 nissan maxima loaded. Your posts on your mazda kinda made rethink the little protege I was looking at. My budget was $20000 plus tax. the Nissan was $17995. the sucker just flies down the road leather, all power, heated seats, climate control and a nice 222hp engine with over 200ft of torque

Jin E quote:

The effects of just their chip in the 1.8t is phenominal. ~200hp ~2240 ft-lbs of torque with 91 octane.
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You must mean 240 ft-lbs of torque, because 2240 ft-lbs would absolutely wipe the floor with Vettes, Vipers, Ferraris, Lambo, etc. You would probably put fear in the heart of John Force also.

congrats! enjoy the car

I loved the style of the jetta. Almost going to buy one but found that I should probably go with a bigger car. I just have to wait 2-3weeks for delivery. its a used car lot that only certifies and fixes at time of sale. Haldimand Motors. I think I had a very similar dream there Dave

dream? sounds like a nightmare to me!

j/k, and enjoy your jetta! welcome to the (extended) family

David,

Congrats, I doubt you'll be disappointed!



Well, I can say that it looks good on a shelf in my closet. Seriously, I opted for the base head unit specifically so that I could rip it out and replace it with an aftermarket Sony that I had from my previous car. I will say that the factory, non-monsoon speakers do sound pretty darn good. I haven't felt the need to touch them yet. The stock radio sounded OK for the two days it was in there, but lacked a CD player.

Enjoy the car, and seriously, when you feel like you're getting used to the power, take a look at APR as mentioned before...

-Brett.

Geez I ended up with the one stereo in my car I thought I would never buy...Bose Aw well have to do until the dvd screen goes in

I did find the quality of stock sytems to vary a lot from car to car brand. For about 120 bucks a pair speakers can be replaced quite easily. and a decent head unit is only 300-500 bucks. It only gets real costly when you add amps and subs. In the next three years I probably will have another 3 grand in the stereo. I do like the car you got Dave.

Dave,

the stock system in the current Jettas is decent, but the head unit is a tad underpowered. The first thing I would replace is the head unit, as you'll notice a huge difference in sound quality, esp at higher volumes. You can always add an amp later on if need be, so be sure to get a head unit with at least one set of pre-amp outputs. Of course, this assumes that you're not satisfied with the stock system, which you haven't head yet =P

Ha, I just ordered two subs from stryke audio. av-12, at a pre-order of $140. Both are going to upgrade my stock system in my new nissan. Hope you enjoy the jetta more than the mazda

Be Careful!! One of the guys on my Kawasaki message board noticed a similar smudge (and I have one on my Kawasaki myself). He opened up the instrument cluster and cleaned it off and now the damn thing steams up all the time! Turns out the "smudge" was anti-fog solution.