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Originally Posted by JSH
Total maintenance for my 2003 Jetta Wagon TDI was $8,560.62 for 10 years / 240K miles. That includes tires. I did the simple oil and filter changes myself and let the dealer do the timing belts. I also had them replace the water pump with each timing belt as the part was cheap compared to the 8 hours of labor to get to it if it failed. I sold it to a friend of the family and it is still going today - closing in on 500K miles.
Mechanically very little went wrong - the only thing I had to do outside of routine maintenance was replace the glow plug harness and a few glow plugs. I also had them clean the air intake every 100K when I had it in for the timing belt.
Now the interior was a different matter. I got rid of it because at about 200K miles the interior started coming apart. Broken glove box latch, center console latch, window regulators, fan resistor pack, sunroof leaked, etch.
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$8,560 is more in maintenance I've spent on all of my vehicles combined in 20 years of driving them. Of course, I do all my own maintenance, and I don't replace a failing cat, as an example.
I've never had a timing belt replaced on any of my vehicles. My '96 Legacy was supposed to get a new belt every 60k miles. I assume that had occurred at some point when I purchased it with 119k miles. During my ownership that went to 240k miles, I never replaced it. Non-interference engine.
These days I have no patience for a car that uses a timing belt. The Jetta had an interference engine, so timing belt replacement is not optional.
The ticky tacky failures really bother me on the truck. How can a blower resistor go bad? It's a passive component; making it last forever should be the simplest thing. I replaced the one in my truck from a junk yard pull. Zero excuse for those things going bad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
Arcimoto's faltering is quite sad - there had to be more than the former CEO's DUI and firing, I am assuming.
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Main thing was lack of a profitable market for such a vehicle.