By February 1994, I was ready for a new car. The Tracer had served me well, but I wanted something more “adult”. I was working full-time and going to school full-time, and I had been promoted to Overdues Assistant; saw a nice salary increase so I was able to save some money. I knew that Bobbi was going to have to move for a teaching job, and that meant I was going to do a lot of highway driving if we were going to see each other. To that end, I started car shopping and popped by Billco VW-Mazda in Wexford, PA, to look at the new 1994 VW Jetta III.
Volkswagens had been popular when I was in high school since the VW plant was in New Stanton. I wasn’t really a fan of the Rabbit or Golf, but I liked the Jetta; it was the perfect-sized car for city driving. In 1988, the New Stanton plant was closed, and VWs were now imported from Germany. When compared to Honda, Toyota, and Nissan, VW’s were expensive. VW set out to change that with a new Passat and the Corrado, but the big seller at that time was the Jetta. Unfortunately, the second-generation Jetta had been around since 1984, which impacted sales in the early nineties. VW needed a successful launch of the third generation; otherwise, it was said they would leave the US market. The Jetta III was launched in late 1993 after production delays at the Puebla, Mexico, plant.
When I started thinking about a new car, I wasn’t sure what I wanted. There were a lot of options, including the Ford Probe, Pontiac Grand Am, and Acura Integra. However, in July, 1993, I started watching the Tour de France and was captivated. There I saw all sorts of European cars, many of which were not available in the US, and I decided I wanted something European. VW was the logical choice, and when European Car, which I got a subscription to, reviewed the Jetta and Golf in their October 1993 issue, I was hooked. VW dealers had not received their first shipments of the new model, so my purchase was delayed until early 1994. I had signed up for information and VW sent me a card with a Valentine’s Day lease offer. I could lease a new Jetta for $199.00 a month for 48 months with 15,000 miles a year. I’d never leased a car before, but the deal was pretty good. My commute was short, and I figured if I liked the car, I’d buy it at the end of the lease.
Bobbi and I went over to Billco VW, and I saw the Jetta I wanted. It was a black GL with dual airbags and these cool four-spoke alloy wheels. It looked sporty and I wanted it. However, the lease deal was for the early production models which had the passive restraint belts. They didn’t have another black Jetta, but they did have a silver one. I liked the color and said I wanted the same four-spoke wheels that were on the black one. With those added and my Tracer sold, I picked up my new Jetta on a Saturday afternoon. My new Jetta was the nicest car I had owned to date. It was well-equiped with black cloth interior, five-speed, AM/FM cassette radio, AC, power locks, intermittent wipers, and security system. It had everything I wanted except a sunroof. I loved driving my Jetta and felt grown up.
In August 1994, Bobbi accepted a teaching job in Maryland, and I used my Jetta to help her move. She had rented a truck, which her best friend’s husband drove, and we squeezed the rest of her stuff in my Jetta and her Accord. She settled into a townhouse with a roommate and started her teaching career. Bobbi being away meant I had a lot of free time, and so I resolved to finish my degree. In the summer of 1994, I had taken four summer classes and was able to take my last eight classes in the fall and spring semesters so I could graduate in April, 1995. I refused to go to commencement, much to the disappointment of my parents and Bobbi, but I was ready to move on. I didn’t need a ceremony where I was one of thousands. My parents threw a nice party for me, and Bobbi and her parents were there. I asked for a mountain bike for graduation, but my parents bought me three suits instead–interviews and all. Maybe if I had gone to commencement, they would have bought me the bike. I had proposed to Bobbi in February 1995 and was ready to move to DC after I found a job.
That summer, I would buy copies of the Washington Post and browse the classifieds. I found a job listed as a sales assistant at The Washington Times and sent off a resume and cover letter. A few weeks later, I got a phone call from a lady named Marjorie. In her message, she said that I had applied for a sales assistant role, but she wanted to talk to me about another job at The Washington Times, and could I come down for an interview. I drove down on July 13 for an interview on July 14 with Marjorie. The interview was just over an hour, and when I left, I knew the job was mine if I wanted it. I didn’t have an offer yet, but the interview went so well. On Monday, I had a second interview with the IT Director. A week later, I had an offer for a job, making the salary I had requested, much to Bobbi’s surprise. Marjorie, my boss, was the Associate Ad Director, and Mike, her boss, was the Ad Director. Both helped launch my career in advertising, and I worked with them for 12 years. To this day, I can’t thank them enough for the opportunities they gave me that have led to my success.
I moved to Alexandria in August 1995 and started work on August 14. My commute from Alexandria was easy. Our office was on the east side of the city, right next to the National Arboretum. It was an easy commute, though driving a stick in DC traffic is not always easy. I shared a townhouse with two other roommates, but Bobbi and I were close, so we would see each other almost every night. For Thanksgiving, we took my Jetta and drove to Pittsburgh to spend the holiday with our families. Bobbi had never learned to drive a stick, but I enjoyed driving and didn’t mind. We had planned on getting married in July 1996, but Bobbi’s dad had health issues. He was in kidney failure, and Bobbi thought she might want to move back to Pittsburgh to help take care of him. We agreed to postpone the wedding. In the end, her mom convinced her to stay in DC. She wanted Bobbi to live her life and not worry about her parents. They would be fine. Her dad went on dialysis, and with her dad’s health greatly improved, we rescheduled the wedding for December.
We settled in Alexandria in Bobbi’s townhouse. It was a great area for a young married couple as we were close to DC. We were able to walk to restaurants and bars. The Jetta was the perfect car for that time in our lives. One of the first purchases we made was a table, four chairs, and a floor lamp from Ikea. We still have the table and lamp. All of these purchases fit into the Jetta with the seat folded. When we bought our first house, the Jetta was pressed into service again, along with a moving truck and our friends, to move our stuff into our house. Our rented townhouse was 900 square feet so we didn’t have much to move.
Our new house was in Southern Maryland. We bought it in March 1998 just as my lease was up. Since we didn’t want to mess things up with a new car, we bought the Jetta out of the lease. In retrospect, we might have negotiated a better deal on the buyout, but we were excited to buy our first house. I did the first major service on the Jetta, changing the timing belt and water pump at 60,000 miles. Living in the suburbs meant a longer commute. The drive was okay for DC traffic, and the state of Maryland was making some road improvements on my commute.
In March 1999, my grandfather turned 90. My dad and his siblings decided to take my grandfather to brunch on March 14. We drove to Pittsburgh on Saturday, visited with Bobbi’s parents, and then went to brunch with my family the next day. The weather forecast had called for snow, and we decided we’d leave early and try to beat the storm home. We left brunch and hopped into the Jetta. Normally, the trip from Pittsburgh to DC was five hours; on that day, it took us four hours to get to Breezewood. The roads were terrible, with cars and trucks in ditches or spun out all along the PA turnpike. When we got to Breezewood, we stood under an awning and pondered whether we should just stay overnight, but we didn’t. Instead, we got back into the Jetta and pushed on. It snowed the entire way until we reached the southern part of the DC Beltway. Bobbi had decided that school would be canceled and she’d have that Monday off. When we woke up, it was snowing, but school wasn’t canceled. I was exhausted from driving and called out sick. She got lucky as they dismissed school early that day.
The Jetta stayed with us for two more years and continued to serve us well. The most important trip we would take was when our oldest daughter came home from the hospital in the Jetta. Emily was born in early January, and the Jetta had more room for the car seat. In those days, you had to kneel on the car seat and pull the seatbelt into a channel so you could buckle it. This held the seat securely, but it required room to maneuver. The night we went to the hospital, it was so cold. They took us into the birthing suite and prepped Bobbi for delivery. However, Emily was in the wrong position and, after several hours, the decision was made to deliver her by C-section. I was allowed in the operating room, and soon enough, Emily was born. She was a healthy 8 pounds and .25 ounces. We were parents, and we settled into a routine after both sets of grandparents left.
That March, my parents were pressing us to come to Pittsburgh as they wanted to see their first grandchild again. We had decided to use Bobbi’s car as the family car, but when we went to load all the things that new parents need to take along, we couldn’t fit them in the trunk. The Jetta had a larger trunk, and so we loaded the pack and play, stroller, and tons of luggage into the Jetta for the trip to the grandparents. By this point, my grandfather was in a nursing home. He was 92 and not mobile. The nursing home was on the way to my parents, and so we stopped on our drive in. This would be the last time seeing my grandfather. He got to meet his newest great-granddaughter before he died.
When we returned home, we knew we needed a larger car for family trips. The Jetta could have been perfect, but Bobbi was not proficient in driving a stick, and I was tired of it in DC traffic. We decided I would take over her car, and the next car would be hers. Shopping for the Jetta’s replacement started in late March, and it would be another silver car. What became the family car will be covered soon.
I too bought (leased) one of these, an early 1995 in my case in red. It was my first new car and I also had (probably still have) that same issue of European Car. And we had a daughter a couple of years after you.
My wife and I joked that it seemed like VW had that $199 lease for the Jetta FOREEEEEEEVER, we were pretty sure that our kid would be able to get one at that same price and I believe the deal was actually still available pre-pandemic for that.
I realized that I was driving way more miles than the lease allowed and ended up liking but not loving the car so I sold it, VWs were still popular enough in the late 1990s that it wasn’t overly difficult to find a buyer to buy out the lease and get a little money back at that time.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1995-volkswagen-jetta-gl-that-new-car-smell-wears-off-quickly/
They really did run that lease deal forever. I remember seeing a deal like that a few years ago and thought it was amazing that they could still offer that. My lease was 15,000 miles a year for four years. I don’t think you can get a lease like that today.
VW needed a successful launch of the third generation; otherwise, it was said they would leave the US market.
Maybe they regret not having left? VWoA has been an endless money pit for Volkswagen since the end of the Beetle era, with persistent annual losses in the hundreds of millions/billions (Undoubtedly quite a few billion in 2025). They also came close to leaving near the end of the aught due to continued large annual losses at the time. Instead they doubled down on the US market with a plan to sell 800k cars in the US. That involved huge investments in building their Chattanooga plant and US-specific (or primary) cars like the larger Passat and the Atlas and such.
How’s it going? Terrible. They sold 330k cars in 2025, down 13% for the year. I shudder to think of the losses. But of course the new Scout will finally solve their endless US problems! As if.
Sorry for the digression, but I’m always a bit amused and perplexed at VW’s endless efforts to end their American bloodbath since the Beetle era.
It would be an interesting business study on how Volkswagen approached the US market. On one side, you have Audi above them, so they can’t rise too high lest they compete with their corporate cousins. On the other side, there is the need (desire) for volume as a mass-market player, so you can’t price too high lest you lose the volume. People, like me, bought a VW because they wanted a European car, so a US-specific product wouldn’t be as appealing.
Once they were caught cheating with Dieselgate, the primary difference between VW and other brands was eliminated. Of course, with hybrids being more readily available, the mileage advantage of diesel disappeared. Now that VW mainly sells crossovers, what differentiates VW from Mazda, Honda, Toyota or any of the other brands? The only Eurocentric vehicles are the GTI and perhaps the Jetta. It’s too bad as they did make interesting cars.
“what differentiates VW from Mazda, Honda, Toyota…?”
Dependability and reliability, as it has for 40+ years or more.
Anyone that hasn’t figured that out isn’t paying attention.
Interesting isn’t enough anymore, at least for most buyers.
VW should pull out of the US, doubt they’d be missed all that much.
The issue started before Audi became any kind of significant player. The main problem as I see it is that the Beetle was always a low cost product; the lowest in the market (with a few minor exceptions). But the Japanese came along right as the Beetle was becoming obsolete and they offered significantly more car (and more modern car) for the money.
VW has been trying numerous ways to reposition the brand in the US ever since, with not near enough volumes to make it profitable. What’s VW wanting to be in the past 15 years? That’s easy: Toyota or Hyundai/Kia. But they can’t pull it off, for a number of reasons. Toyota is very hard to steal business away from, and H/K have eaten away that segment of the market VW was hoping to win. And there’s no way VW can win against them. They just don’t have it. H/K is getting stronger each year and VW is getting weaker, along with Nissan.
And no, Scout is not going to save their bacon; that market bis getting more crowded by the day. They might carve out a bit of a slice, but not enough for real success. That’s my prediction anyway.
When I bought my VW, I was warned that it would be a service nightmare and that I had made a terrible decision. Almost eight years later, my VW has been perfect. Not a single problem.
VW kind of shot itself in the foot. The first Rabbits were not reliable cars and they were not cheap. Then VW started building them in the USA, and the quality nosedived. That’s when VW’s real problems started. Buyers were so burned that they bought reliable Japanese cars instead. Later generations of Golf were not a lot better, cementing VW’s reputation for being unreliable.
I don’t think there is much VW can do in such a crowded marketplace. Yes, the cars drive beautifully, but fears of poor reliability still dog VW.
Regarding repositioning the brand: Shortly after the Rabbit was introduced in the US, the Deutschemark rose against the dollar, which didn’t help matters.
The DM started rising against the dollar in 1970, well before that. And it kept rising steadily through 1980, by which time it had risen 100%. So yes, the 1970s were very difficult for German exporters. BMW and MBZ survived through big price increases that consumers were willing to pay. VW got hit hard by that, which explains them opening the Westmoreland factory. But that had its own pitfalls.
So yes, it wasn’t just the Japanese. But VW sales had started to fall in 1970, before significant price increases came along, and the downward trajectory had already started.Several factors converged.
I’ve never owned a water-cooled VW, but I’ve had them on the shortlist a few times. I imagined them offering German quality and driving enjoyment but cheaper than a BMW or Mercedes. I did own an ’87 Audi 4000 quattro from December 1999 to August 2015 and really liked it.
When I was in the market for a car a while back, I asked the mechanic who’d been servicing my Audi if he’d recommend any VW, and he said no.
Great article – your path with this car reminds me of my first “grown up” car five years later. Also a sporty sedan (used Contour SVT in my case), I bought it when I was single and had my first decent job – and that car saw me move to the DC area, get married, and it carried both of my kids home from the hospital. And goodness, I remember that first drive after our oldest was born, in order to visit my parents… nothing can prepare you for your first long-distance drive with a newborn. That’s one experience I’d like to forget!
I’m glad you got by a few years of 1990s VW ownership without any major hassles; they seemed to be hit-or-miss during this period.
Did you write about your Contour? I thought I remembered you commenting on your Contour, but perhaps it was in a comment.
You’re so correct about the first long-distance road trip. All of the stuff we packed, you would have thought we were going on safari in the deepest jungle. All we were missing was a Fortnum and Mason picnic hamper.
I would say the Jetta was my favorite car among all the ones we owned, but that changed. The favorite one is in three weeks.
I haven’t written an article on my Contour, but I have commented about it occasionally. I loved that car, and if I could somehow have a brand-new 1998 Contour SVT, I’d snatch it up immediately. We got rid of it partly because it was mighty small for a family (those Contour back seats really were cramped) and also because it eventually just required more maintenance than we could deal with at that point. But I sure do miss that car.
And I regret not taking a picture of the packed car for that first road-trip-with-baby. But I probably thought I couldn’t spare the extra 2.5 seconds it would take to snap a picture. The trunk, front passenger seat, and part of the rear seat were packed.
I would have liked to have a Contour. At one point when I was in the market for a car, used Contours were too expensive for me. Next time I was in the market, they had too many miles on them. I missed the sweet spot. I know the Contour was criticized for being a bit small for its market segment, but as a single man, I would have considered its compactness a positive.
Nice life story and always good to hear the car did you well .
My middle sister got a job in D.C. and bought a house in Silver Springs, nice area although I’d not want to live there .
I had no idea VWoA was such a money sink for VW AG .
-Nate
Good work! That Jetta generation was called the Vento here, sitting between the Jetta Mk2 and the Bora, which were all Jettas in the US. Anyway, an uncle of mine (now 85 years old) had one. Both before and after that Vento/Jetta Mk3 era, strictly Peugeots.
These days, there’s only one compact VAG-Group sedan available here, the Audi A3 ‘Limousine’.
Audi shoulda named that one the “Remora”.
Almost as bad as BMW’s “Bucky Beaver” M model.
Honestly, who’d purposely design a car that looks like an angry beaver?
What’s up with German car design lately…some kind of weird oral fixation?
Great story. But I learned early on in both selling and buying cars that buying a car from your lease always costs more. The finance company has a “set” end of lease price that is often more than a used one of the same model sitting on the dealers lot.
The only time that a leasing company even attempted to negotiate a better deal was when the end of our lease on our 86 Mustang was up.
At the front end, I negotiated a high mileage limit-4 years and 72,000 miles! Ford didn’t care they needed to sell/lease 4 cylinder cars due to the rising EPA mileage. We turned ours in with 70,409 miles and Ford quickly abandoned the buy out of $3900! They offered it to me for $2000! No thanks. I can lease another!
But you were closing in a house, so that was a smarter move. Don’t mess with the debt to income ratio.
Interestingly, I think you are the third recent post (including one of my own) to position the Jetta as their first ‘adult’ car. These MK III models and the early MK IVs appear to be the least reliable, largely attributed to the assembly quality in Puebla. These cars were either stone reliable, or constant sources of frustration. That this quality lapse happened at the same time that VW’s image as a yuppie starter car peaked, has soiled its US reputation perhaps beyond repair. As I shared a few months ago, we leased (only way to go with German cars) a 2025 Atlas R just under a year and 14k ago, and so far it’s the single best family vehicle we’ve owned. The new tiguans are supposed to be excellent as well.
A familiar story – my wife’s first grownup car was a red 94 Jetta with ac sunroof and 5 speed. She loved it, a huge step up from her dodge colt with vinyl and a 4 speed.
These have disappeared, as I sometimes will search for one but they seem to be exceedingly hard to find now.