Quote:
Originally Posted by Autobahnschleicher
From what I hear it's mostly neglecting maintainance over in the US.
Also the ratings of these cars are rather pessimistic, even when not hypermiling.
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Nope, not just neglected maintenance. The A4 cars with the 1.9L TDI (1999 - 2005 Jetta) were notorious for electrical problems. That isn't neglect.
I did maintenance by the VW service schedule with all OEM parts.
Things that broke on my 2003 Jetta Wagon (built in Germany BTW)
- The radiator fan
- The heater blower and resistor pack (twice)
- Glow plug harness (twice)
- MAF sensor
- Both headlights (The lenses yellowed)
- Replaced 3 out of 4 window regulators
- The sunroof seals started leaking
- I had to clean the intake manifold twice because soot from the EGR system would fill it up
- The glove box latch broke
- The center console latch broke
- The soft-touch paint stared peeling off the interior trim pieces
I had to do brakes, tires, shocks, struts, etc too but those are normal wear items.
Compare that to my 2005 Toyota Prius. The only thing I every had to replace on that car (and the 2009) that wasn't on the service schedule was the 3-way valve in the coolant system. The valve failed on both cars about 125K miles