Perry’s CC on the mk2 Golf inspired me to answer the cries to write another article to follow my ’59 Beetle COAL. I wanted my next piece to be something other than a COAL but I guess it will be one anyway. This time it is about the car I miss more than any other I’ve sold, my 1988 Jetta. In many ways it was the epitome of a CC; a once-common sedan, in a common trim level, with a common drivetrain and which its owner loved.
As you may know, my roots are in the air-cooled cars and it took some time for me to warm up to these blasphemous, engine-in-the-wrong-place, liquid-cooled Volkswagen imposters. My first was a total beater ’87 Jetta I purchased for $300 in 2006. I was almost 21 years old and it was actually my first car ever with a radiator. It was a total beater, pretty much the engine, trans, brakes, tach and fuel gauge worked. Everything else was either broken or missing but it ran, it really ran and I turned out liking driving it more than I thought I would. A few months later I moved up or rather, back to a mk1 1984 Jetta GLI and while it was a blast to drive, the time it sat idle outside with a blown head gasket with the previous owner was not kind to it and its reliability suffered, so I decided I would rather have another mk2 as a daily driver.
I found this ’88 on Craigslist in Knoxville for $1800.00. It sounded perfect, but there was one small problem: I only had $1100 and hadn’t sold the ’84 yet. I was honest with the seller and told him this. His response was “cash talks,” so a friend of mine drove me (in a 2001 Jetta, still reliable well over 200k–another one for the VW naysayers) the 4 hours to go look at the car. After one drive, I handed him the cash and got a title in return. I knew I’d made the right decision once I nestled into the Recaro bucket and clicked down the highway at an easy 80mph with the windows up and cold air blowing out of the dash.
I’d never owned a car with such a luxurious feature as air conditioning and the car had 301k on it when I bought it. After talking with the owner and having him hand me a sheet of paper detailing how often he serviced everything and showing what fluids to use, this did not scare me at all. He was meticulous with the maintenance which is something I will admit is key in keeping a German car reliable. The brakes had been upgraded to 4-wheel discs from an ’88 GLI, as were the front Recaro bucket seats. It also had the near bulletproof 1.8 8-valve engine and 5-speed gearbox combo. Being an ’88, it was the first year for the Digifant fuel injection system: a vast improvement in driveability and reliability over the more mechanical Bosch CIS (Continuous Injection System) of the previous years. I’ve owned both and prefer how the ’88 ran. It was always smooth as silk and no matter how I drove, it never got less than 30 mpg. That includes a trip where for nearly 300 miles I did 100-110mph and later climbed West Virginia mountains.
I love how these mk2s drive and it’s interesting to me that many of the comments I read on Perry’s write up criticized these cars for the same reasons I like them. They are a bit austere. However, I like that in a car. It’s a Germanic thing. You get just what you need and nothing more. The engines do have a rumble and a bit of a growl to them and again that’s a feature I didn’t mind at all. These cars are about driving, not gadgets or how space-age the dash and interior looks. My complaints in that department are minimal and I will echo that the headliners do not hold up of course that was a common problem with many cars from that era. My biggest peeve regarding the interior is that the armrests in my car’s door panels disintegrated, leaving nothing but fabric covering that space, meaning you couldn’t really use them any longer.
Over the next three years I put nearly 50k on my Jetta, driving it to Florida a few times, Mississippi once, South Carolina to visit friends a few times, a friend’s wedding in West Virginia. Ask anyone who knew me when I had this car and they will tell you that they were not easy miles. I recall a conversation at a VW show where someone said, “Your car is just an 8-valve right?” and friend countered, “Oh, don’t worry, you can rest assured that Adam always uses all eight of those valves to their fullest potential!”
The problems I had with this car were minimal for a 20-year-old car with over 300k. The first was the right front CV which was clicking when I bought the car, so that was no surprise and at around $60, it was the most expensive repair I had. I had the thermostat stick open (which didn’t leave me stranded, just cold for a couple of days) and that was $12. I had to replace a plastic coolant hose flange with a metal one from an earlier car as well as an o-ring in the fuel pressure regulator, which only cost a few cents. That’s a pretty good track record if you ask me. I know people with Hondas that were less reliable and more costly to maintain.
In the summer of 2010 my automotive ADD was kicking in and I wanted to branch out and do something I never had before and own a car that didn’t have a VW badge on it: an E30 BMW. While I love my liquid-cooled VWs, selling one of my air-cooleds was out of the question, so the Jetta had to go to make room for the BMW. So I sold it, knowing as it left my driveway that I was going to regret the decision, despite the fact that it sold for $500 more than what I paid for it. While the 1987 325 coupe that replaced it was a blast to drive, it was not as trouble-free as the Jetta had been and this proved to be a severe disadvantage a few months later when my life took a sour turn and my income took a dive. If you go back to my Beetle COAL, it was around this time that I put that car into daily service. I sadly sold the BMW in early 2011 and it remains the one car I actually lost money on. As I said, I went back to my air-cooled roots for some time until I briefly drove my mom’s old ’85 Jetta. However it just wasn’t the same and I traded it for something I thought I needed, a Ford Ranger.
I just couldn’t keep away from the mk2s and a few months back I bought one as a project, one that I had always wanted, a 1992 Jetta GLI 16v with the 2.0 16v and in the rarest color, Dark Teal Metallic, with the same hip hugging Recaros my ’88 had. It should be on the road again soon with the help of a good friend; look for it in a future COAL.
You and I follow similar paths; my second car was a Mk2 8v GTI, followed by my beloved ’89 E30.
Love these cars. I actually prefer the Jetta, with its glassier rear end and more solid body.
You’ll note in my review that I said the chassis was and is one of the best FWD platforms out there, and that the ergonomics and styling appealed to me.
I was simply explaining the reasons for the car’s lack of success in the US market.
I didn’t really mean to criticize your article, sorry if it seems that way, I enjoyed it. I felt the need to talk about this car in response more to the reader comments on it.
I also don’t doubt when anyone says they have had a bad VW experience, but I hate when I get looks like I’m lying when I talk about how great mine have been.
I admittedly have very “euro” tastes when it comes to cars, unlike most here in the US.
The first 200k mile car I ever encountered was my friend’s dad’s ’88 base-level Jetta coupe. He rarely had issues with his and almost always got around 35-40 mpg (with the tall-ratio gearbox). Being a coupe, of course, his was German built.
I think half of the reason that VW’s have (until the last few years anyway) a better reputation in Europe than in the US is that we get the ones made in Wolfsburg, as I believe your Jetta was- during the late 80s, the Mk2 Golf was Mexican while the Jetta was European. I know it doesn’t make sense, but when I lived in the states, every Jetta seemed to be screwed together better than every Golf I ever rode in. This trickled down to components too, as most Mexican production used Mexican suppliers. Any air cooled Beetle fan knows the mystery of the ‘Bosch blue coil’ which are always genuine Bosch, but made for different markets with varying levels of quality control. Multiply this to the entire KE-Jet injection system and the rest of the electrical system, and one can see how a fundamentally good design can be ruined.
A second reason is probably also owner demographic. I think that due to the general unreliability of everything on this continent in the 70s, expectations were lower and there is a greater tolerance for ‘wear and tear’, meaning part failure. The Golf/Jetta in the US was the perennial college girl’s car. The owner often didn’t know how to open the bonnet, and used engine knocking as a warning to add a quart of oil every 30K miles or so. In the UK, this was not a cheap car, and as such sold to families and upwardly mobile singles as their main car, often to the type of person who read positive reviews in Which, (British Consumer Reports) and believed that without a 4K mile oil change at the main dealer the engine would explode. These were classless cars that sold to people who could often afford a much more expensive vehicle, and certainly could afford the servicing that a German car requires. Indeed, the 80s VW ad here in England showed a rather posh Princess Di lookalike after being dumped by her boyfriend going out in the rain and starting her Golf- ‘there’s nothing as reliable as a Volkswagen’ was the slogan of the day.
It sounds like you had a European style owner, and I have no doubt that in such hands it is capable of 300K miles. My ’91 Saab had nearly that, and with cold air as well for the same reason- a service history that was probably equivalent to its purchase price.
However, most US VW’s tend to go from the sorority girl upon graduation to a high school student, and then on a series of boy-racer owners of ever decreasing means, who tend to keep them going by using crimp connectors, duct tape, snake oil, and $3000 alloy wheels. No amount of specialist attention can undo the combination of poor upkeep, thrashing and bodgery. As they say, there’s nothing so expensive as a cheap European car.
I can’t believe I forgot to add that this car was actually one of the few Pennsylvania built Jettas……
My future wife bought an 87 Jetta Wolfsburg just after I met her. Sharp looking car in white with black trim…matched my 86 GTI at the time. We went camping in it and it was amazing what that car could swallow with all our gear.
After we sold it to a friend I heard it was doing weekly trips between Vancouver and Prince George BC and eventually died with 350,000 kms on it!
My sister had two Jettas of this era – a gas 87 and a diesel 89. The gas engined car was very nice, but had been bought in sort of an emergency. The kind of emergency when she discovered that buying the 86 Diesel Golf with no air conditioning and two toddlers had been a huge mistake. By 87 there were no diesel Jettas to be had, so she settled. It was a nice car, though.
By 89 the diesels were back and she traded. The 89 was not nearly as nicely trimmed as the 87, but she was (and remains) a diesel girl. She piled a lot of miles on the 89.
A great story. With a couple of years with my 85 GTI under my belt, I understand everything you say about the chassis dynamics of these cars. Mine was always fun to drive. Fahrvergnuegen!
My best friend has a mk1 1984 Jetta turbo diesel. Stay tuned for a CC on it in the future.
I had a MK2 Golf, it was an OK car but what is up with VW plastic disintegrating? The interior looked like it had been brought up from the titanic, faded and brittle from sitting in the sun. I’ve never seen this happen to any other cars interior.
Then there is that weird crayon smell VWs always have.
I had a 97 Jetta that was made in Mexico. I can vouch for the shoddy quality of Mexican made VWs. My carpet was always wet and when I pulled up the carpet I found those circular holes with the plastic inserts (no idea what they were for, but they always rusted out) had rusted and I had huge holes in my floor. Half my drivers side back seats floor was literally gone. I’ve never seen a modern car rust like that, and I know its a common feature of MK3s.
Another great story. Thanks for taking the time to write it. I’ve never paid much attention to Jettas, but now I know better.
Yeah about those weird smells, I was helping some lady put something int her beetle at work and I recall it smelled of wax or something.
I would guess the plastics they use. My SAAB, and all SAABs I’ve had the privilege to sniff, have a similar, distinct smell. Our Volvo did too.
Nice article. I’m glad you have had good Jetta experiences, as have I.
There are so many complaints on CC that too many cars today are uninvolving, inert appliances, and maybe just as many criticisms of VWs for requiring more than regular oil changes in exchange for their (usually) great driving dynamics. I don’t know how that dichotomy gets rectified.
I’ve had two Jettas, an ’87 GLI and ’00 GLS. My experiences with both suggest early growing pains and long-term durability. I bought the ’87 new, and it required a new steering rack, front wheel bearings, and a few other expensive things under warranty. I had no problems after that, until it was stolen at 132K (10 years). A few tiny rust bubbles were just starting, but otherwise tight, original clutch, no faded plastics (except the exterior black trim). Great driving car. When friends mentioned the Spartan interior I didn’t get what they were talking about… the straightforward execution simply made sense to me.
I bought the ’00 used in ’07 with 90K on the clock. It was in almost perfect shape, and remained that way until I sold it three years later at 118K for the same price. I performed no work on it at all, although a stash of receipts in the glove box suggested some growing pains for its first owner. But overall, it probably was the most perfect little car I have owned, save for the sluggish acceleration. Great interior, great paint. I still see a lot of the Gen IVs around the northeastern US, and most still look great… a sign that they are built for the long haul and that their owners find them worth taking care of.
The most major problem with the MkIVs was the automatic gearboxes. They are complete garbage for the most part. That’s a pretty universal problem regardless of the engine. The early 1.8turbo cars had the issue with the coil packs going back often.
If you want a soul-less appliance to simply get you from one place to another and that’s it, you get a Cam-Cord blandmobile. That’s just not what a VW is about.
It seems that MkIVs, especially Jettas are everywhere here in the southeast. I swear there seem to be more than there were when they were new!
I do love how a MkIV drives. My dad has a MkIV GTI 1.8t and I enjoy every time I get to be behind the wheel of it.
Funny you mention the tranny. My ’00 had the AT, which I wouldn’t have gone for had the car not been somewhat of an emergency purchase. Just before I sold it, I noticed it shifted oddly into second gear once or twice. Not unusual though, as many ATs mated to a small engine will hunt for a gear from time to time. I forgot about it, and the problem didn’t surface again. Then a guy showed up to buy the car for his gf, and I rode with him on the test drive. Damned if the tranny didn’t do it again… just enough for me to notice, but apparently he did not. A fistful of cash later, he drove it away. I’ve hoped ever since that he hasn’t had any problems with it.
I believe the main problem with those transmissions was VW claiming the fluid was ‘lifetime’, thus a lot of owners never changed it. If you can change it early enough, the life could be extended considerably. I would never buy a MKIV with 100k+ and no receipts for a proper AT fluid change.
Maybe, but I’ve seen them with less than 100k with the trans going back, especially that Tiptronic one. I think that the TDIs and the VR6s especially had too much torque for an already weak design
Yeah, mostly thinking of the 4-speed that went with the 2.0, since that was the bulk seller and had been used since the early 90’s. 2006 and later they’ve been using Japanese Aisin 6-speeds (DSG excepted).
It’s too bad A2s were indeed notoriously easy to steal, or at least break into. Found my Jetta with the door opened and the dashboard and steering column trashed one morning. Couldn’t figure out how they got in: I was sure I locked it the night before, and the door wasn’t clearly broken upon or anything.
Then I looked UNDER the door handle and saw it: someone whacked a knife or screwdriver into the lock from underneath the handle. Many Golfs and Jettas met their demise like this, taken for joyrides and torched afterwards.
Great to see another article on 2nd gen Jetta. These cars are loved or hated, very little middle ground. These cars in good condition and stock are becoming hard to find. I am starting to get complements (mostly from young adults) about my clean “old school Vee Dub”. Simple to work on for the most part and parts are inexpensive and easy to obtain. I believe Chinese versions are still being built today or were until recently. The front and rear sheetmetal is updated, but they are the same A to C pillar. I recently bought a master cylinder, the box was made in Germany and the part was made in China! (ATE brand). At least this insures parts will be available for years to come, 295K (miles and 23 years later still running strong on original engine (1,8 8 valve gas and 5 speed wide ratio trans). The best start the vin with W. When new they were a secretary special, especially in Southern California. Today younger males seem to appreciate them more, at least in the US. With proper tires they do well in snow/ice, they seem to be well balanced. My 86 GL hopefully will be plugging along for years to come. I guess I’m just a hopeless fanboy. Thanks Adam and Perry for defending us in the minority who continue to enjoy owning and maintaining these old VW’s. VW’s downfall was trying to be price competitive with the Jetta, and not keeping the quality seen in the German built cars carry over to the US and Mexico assembled cars did a lot of damage to VW’s reputation in the US. The fact the same car could vary from very go to really crappy to be priced lower was a big mistake.
They are still on the road in China but they are no longer being made. I was in a small town northwest of Nanjing a few years ago, where I was taken to a wonderful Buddhist shrine/park/museum, with traditional canals and homes all over the place. It was really interesting. At the park HQ there were two of them parked. I looked it up and apparently 2011 was the last year. Travelling around the sticks in western China I saw lots of them, mostly government cars of some sort. Although the Chinese Jetta is gone, the Santana is going strong. It’s the Dasher/Passat of the early 1970’s and the most popular taxi in China. Everybody and his brother knows how to fix them and parts are cheaper than cheap. Shanghai-VW wanted to stop making the, but the public uproar was so intense they backpedaled on the plan.
Appreciate the first hand info. Amazing the changes China has gone through.
I meant to add the pic of the ’92 GLI 16v I mentioned that I have now. Hopefully it should be running again soon, weather permitting. It’s been crazy weather here lately and it’s not garaged.
Nice whip. That is indeed a nice color. When reading, I thought you were referring to that sort of metallic green color which was also available (another nice color)… not sure if I can even remember seeing one like this! In my opinion, these cars really benefited from the mid-cycle refresh, with the big bumpers, side skirts, and cleaner grill.
Gotta ask though, what happened to the BBS basketweaves? That along with the Recaros really made these special.
Also, did you remove the plastic fender flares? I know that was a popular mod.
Unfortunately the BBS wheels and those flares were not on the car when I bought it. I took this right after I got the car last summer. I’ve gotten flares since then. I still can’t decide what wheels I want to run. I’d like some Borbet Type As but we will see. I will probably keep the steelies for track tires as I plan on autocrossing this car a little.
The interior is still complete with the Recaros and they are even nicer than the ones in the ’88 this CC is about. The paint and interior condition sold me on this car.
I completely get these cars, having both my dad and I owning Jetta M2’s. The cars handled beautifully and the bodies were very solid. The base gas I had as a really fun car to drive as the 1.8 made loads of torque and the chassis was really stiff. The stock Conti tires also stuck like glue and with no power steering, fast country roads were a blast. These things could really haul if you wanted to, 130 km/h was an easy cruise for any of them. My dad ran is Turbo Diesel across the prairies at 160 km/h on cruise control and still saw 6.0 L/100 km. He ran that car to over 400,000 km until the motor finally needed a rebuild, so mom sold it. With a rebuild, it was in the neighbourhood for many years afterwards.
The key, like it said here, for all German cars is German dealer only fluids, or the real OEM stuff if you know how to get it, which any auto-supply place can get you OEM for way less than the dealer. If you are really careful, like coolant every two years, brake fluid the same and ps fluid at 5 years, chances are your Jetta, if you don’t flog it to bits, will last for a good long while. The are stupid easy to wrench on, a real benefit of VW stuff of the era. Forget any power stuff, the windows seem to never break but the rest is always a challenge. The important stuff like the rear defogger always works, though.
Finally, the best thing about these cars was their seating position. You sat high, in chair-height seats. The wheel and pedals matched perfectly, the instruments were clear and the steering wheel substantial, even on the cheap models. They were really nice to drive and very practical, with a huge trunk. You just had to be willing to wrench and fix a bit on them, nothing all that serious, just pesky, like broken door handles, for which VW’s are infamous!
I really like the MKII coupes, personally. Just a straight up clean and attractive car. Too bad theyre so rare, but I see them from time to time with a few tasteful mods.
My ’86 had 200,000 miles on it when I bought it, and would easily have gone 200k more had I not cracked it up. My mechanic at the time, whom I bought the car from, was a mechanic for big rigs and ran Rotella in it; I changed the oil religiously and had all hi-Po German and us-sourced racing parts in it. I loved that car…but I love my e30 a whole lot more. 🙂
MK2/MK3 are still solid despite electrical gremlins. My former boss is still driving his 02 GTI Golf from brand new. Only about 85k miles and nothing more than a couple grand in the usual electrical issues.
An ’02 would be a 4th gen. BTW, I always liked the Golf’s front end over the Jetta’s, and wondered if it would be possible to exchange the front clips. Recently, I’ve indeed seen a 4th gen Golf with the Jetta front. I’ll have to try to get a pic.
Mk2, 3 and 4 the Golf and Jetta front ends were a bolt up affair. The Mk1s have the rad support welded to the front end but the Mk2-4 it’s a bolt on piece.
A friend of mine had a light green Mk2 16v Jetta back in the ’90’s. He beat the hell out of it, but it kept on going and to this day he considers it his favorite car.
My uncle had one of these he got used. I want to say an ’87 or something. His had the dual headlights though. I saw quite a few like that so I feel like we (Puerto Rico) got them from another market.
It was lowered and a huge tailpipe so it was pretty loud, though a nice sound. I liked it.
My other uncle bought a 1993 Cabrio around ’04. That one was a Wolfsburg Edition in dark green with white leather. Unfortunately, he crashed it and its been waiting for repair for years now 🙁
It was really classy looking.
My dad later got a 1996 Cabrio, and that one was trouble free as well.
All of them fun cars. All of them 5 speeds.
My dad also got a 2004 Beetle Turbo convertible with an automatic after the Cabrio and it was also trouble free and fun. Drank a good amount of fuel though so he sold it. The convertibles were second cars.
I really always thought VWs were regarded as the more reliable of German brands, and the number of Jettas and Beetles still around would support that claim. I’ve realized though that its still German labor rates if repair is needed, ie. expensive.
I wonder, why was the Jetta required composite headlights but the Cabrio could use the dual headlamps in the US?
Oh and that signature VW crayon smell. Every Volkswagen (after Mk3) I’ve been on had it.
Mk2s used many different headlight setups in the US. The 1985-87 Westmoreland, PA built Golfs had smaller square headlights (known in VW circles as a “Westy” front end) but the GTIs through 1990 had the aeros like the Jettas. 1990-91 GTIs had the quad round setups while the Golfs kept the aero setup. The Jettas in the US all had the aero lights. However it is easy to swap them out.
The Cabrio was never Mk2 based. Even when the Mk2 was introduced, the Cabrio remained on the Mk1 chassis through 1993 when the Mk3 Cabrio replaced it.
Still superb cars to drive, even compared to modern cars. Still have fond (and not-so-fond) memories of my Jetta (even wrote a COAL about it, can’t find it though). Mine was hardly the best example though and I wouldn’t want it back – I don’t know where that engine came from but it didn’t belong there.
Still, I would love to own an A2 again once! Today’s VWs still do feel somewhat similar though. My sister’s 2002 Seat Ibiza, a Polo in disguise, handles much like the Jetta did but on a narrower track (feels less stable), and the seat and seating position are very much the same, just a bit higher.
I had previously commented a couple of weeks ago in the Golf CC about my ’86 Westmoreland GTI; I had looked at an ’87 Jetta GLI with the nice Recaro seats as yours has, but went with the Golf (I’m a big hatchback fan). I had the GTI up until I bought my (current) A4 Golf in 2000.
The GTI also had nice seats, but would constantly wear the seat bolsters as you got in and out (kind of a burlap type of fabric, but wore quickly)…I got some NOS fabric and got good with hogring pliers doing upholstry work, so perhaps the Recaros would have been less of a pain…also had to redo the seatback release cable (inside the seat back) when it broke. I also noticed lots of disintegating foam under the seat, they felt great, but weren’t very durable. I also replaced the weatherstripping; had to buy the long A plilar piece that ran along the entire lenght of the roof (looks like giant hockey stick) being shipped to me from northern salvage yard since all the cars I looked at in Southern yards had same deteriorating rubber pieces (and I didn’t want to destroy them further by trying to get them off the car and having the piece break).
My GTI had the CIS-E injection, think it was a 1 year only setup, a bit different than ’85 and in 87 I think they went to Digifant…I did the timing advance to get a bit more power (but had to start running premium fuel do avoid knocking).
It was an easy car to work on, did suspension, ball joints, clutch, cooling hoses, timing belt, redid shifter ball rods, and alternator (went through many voltage regulators) and brakes.
I ended up keeping the car a couple of years after a front fender bender (and hood and radiator support) collision; replaced the fenders, hood and radiator support plus bumper metal (reused old bumper cover). I liked the black vinyl on the bumpers much better than the color coordinated bumpers cars have now (though they would whiten with oxidation). Never repainted the panels, so I had a 2 tone burgandy hood/fender and rest of car was silver but it didn’t look bad so I kept from repainting it.
Ended up selling it that way, even though body wasn’t prettiest I kept it up mechanically pretty well, and had lots of people interested in it, ended up selling it to a VW mechanic who drove up in his Wife’s Jetta, he had a long commute into my town and wanted my car as a VW for himself.
I still like the “tall” seating that VW has seemed to have given up on, plus the high mounted radio, the great trip computer/multiple odometers, and oodles of storage with underdash tray, and the metal crank sunroof. My car had AC, but no power steering (would now have preferred power steering with the 60 series tires, car didn’t weigh much, but the “wide” tires kept steering a bit tough at low speeds).
Nice as my current Golf is, I wish it didn’t have the power locks now that I have control board problem where I need to remove window regulator to get inside door to redo some apparently fragile solder joints. In fact, I probably liked my most basic Watercooled VW best, the ’78 Scirocco, which had manual everything (locks, windows, steering, transmission, no sunroof) though it had no AC which was tough then and would be tougher now in the much tougher traffic in the town I live in. My current car has left me stranded though, once when my ignition key cylinder wouldn’t turn the switch and I couldn’t get inside the steering column to bypass the switch.
This is a Euro specification Jetta, as I get it. The color seems to be the same, though.
After three air-cooled VWs I purchased my first new car https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1979-mustang-turbo-the-old-all-new-mustang/#comment-177087
but when the 1983 GTi was announced I was on board instantly http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/02/24/lost-cars-of-the-1980s-1983-1984-volkswagen-mark-i-gti/?refer=news
This was a transitional car in many ways (and the subject of a future COAL article) as I transitioned from single to married to parentage. After spending an inordinate amount of time moving a child’s seat in and out of the back seat of a two door we decided on a new (1987) Jetta. A local (St. Louiis) dealer had a metallic red on the lot that was one of the last imported from Germany. The first new car I bought off the lot and I’m sure the last I will ever purchase for under ten thousand dollars, this car lasted through two additional children as well as a divorce. With 130,000 miles it still ran like new, with very little discoloration of the oil between changes. Unfortunately a minor accident resulted in it being declared a total loss at the age of 13. My only gripe was the passive restraint system that did not include seat belts. Fortunately I never had to find out firsthand whether or not these were effective.
The MkII Golf/Jettas were fantastic cars! My first new car was an 86 GTI, put 145k on the car and had no major problems (but it was not perfect either–radiator, heater core at 95k, water pump at 130k, shift linkage at 135k, traces of rust a bottom of doors and where rear quarters met reat tail panel under bumper). It was a blast to drive. It was also thrifty, versatile, and roomy. For the first 130k, the A/C could liquify air–take that Detroit!
I sold it in 99, missed it, but found a nice 86 with 72k in 2000. Since then, I’ve had a proper car in the house.
I am not sure if this was a difference with the German made models but my ’87 Jetta had a polymer undercoating that was applied prior to the paint. The entire underside of the car was completely covered with paint and the finish looked great right up until the end (the tow truck driver even commented on how nice it looked on its last journey). Two problems that were self inflicted: This was my first car with a clear coat finish and I mistakenly applied a polish not safe for clear coats, thus producing swirl marks that could be seen in the right light. Also it seemed that I experienced a period where the windshield had to be replaced annually. The smallest rock would produce a crater, which would then send out cracks that extended to the perimeter. You could actually watch the process as you drove (perhaps a function of air pressure?) Apparently one of the installers removed some of the paint along with the previous adhesive and the result was a series of rust bubbles that developed towards the end.
Made me check out CL to see what’s available. The ones listed on the greater Seattle list appear to be the boy racer types alluded to in previous comments. I could see a clean unmolested one finding its way into my garage one day.
“Rosebud” was our 1985 Jetta GL five-speed.
My parents got it brand-new; Dad wanted one badly enough that he got one from one of the first boat-loads and didn’t wait for a silver one to be available. (A champagne/gold one did just fine.)
It was unbreakable.
We drove the living snot out of it. In 1993, it had 85k miles, one semi-grouchy rear passenger-side window switch, and it was good-as-new condition. (Being garaged when parked certainly helped, big-time.)
Like fools, in 1993, we traded it in for a clean ’89 Taurus SHO.
Within five years, everything except for the power seats on the SHO had suffered some kind of kaboomage, including two acts of harakiri from the transmission. (Dad donated it to charity. Its replacement? A 1998 Sentra GXE that was partly drowned in 2004, but that’s another episode of some embarrassment.)
If I had the VW today, would it be bounding about with 400k-450k miles and a decade or two of outdoor parking? Who can say.
(ps, under the hood, one could read, “Made in West Germany.”)
I HAVE AN 1988 VW JETTA. IT WILL BE A SAD DAY WHEN SHE FINALLY QUITS. I LOVE THIS CAR AND HAVE REPLACE EVERY SINGLE THING EXCEPT THE ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION. I JUST FINISHED THE NEWEST MAKEOVER AND SHE IS NOW BLACK AND COVERED WITH HAM RADIO ANTENNAS. MY JETTA WILL ELECTRIFY THE ATMOSPHERE. I THINK I WILL CALL IT THE BLACK HOLE AFTER THE NEW STEVEN HAWKING MOVIE COMING OUT. W1OSO HAM RADIO GUY PETER 73’S
Awwww…. That was my car!!! Like this is actually me old car. Miss the Jetta!
Awesome write-up. I was sharing some old photos of my ’88 Mk2 with my 17yo son and of course he jumped on google to look at other Mk2s. Well low and behold I see an Mk2 that looks just like the one I used to have. The dead giveaway was that unusual, long exhaust tip. Everyone at the time was running those big coffee can monstrosities. I forget the name of the exhaust now, but I remember that it was nice an quiet at cruise, but was sweet at WOT. I loved that car. It was fun to mod and drive the twisty’s. Anyway I’m glad you enjoyed the car and it was cool to see that you didn’t change it much. I am digging the GLi badge add!!! 😉