more on searching for a daily driver

[Tony Hoffman]

I know of issues with them, but not all. If they get sludged up (a large
percentage of them I've seen do) they timing chain tensioner will fail, the
chain will jump, and you will be replacing the engine. Do not pass go, do
not collect $200.

I thought they were rated at 170hp, BTW. No real connection to the old
5-cyls, other than that, the # of cyls.

I prefer the 2.0 for it's simplicity and reliability. But, you have to step
back to a MK4 for that.

Tony

On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 11:13 PM, robert weinberg
<centaurus3200 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> hi all,
>
> i finally got up the will to look at some recent used cars today in search
> of a
> daily driver for relatively trouble free commuting of about
> 18,000-20,000/yr.
>
> my previous DD, a POS 1998 nissan sentra was rear ended about 4 months ago.
> my
> fun car is a 1991 Audi 200 Turbo Quattro 20V. i love the car, but she's a
> nice
> old girl - and i'd rather not beat the crap out of it in traffic for that
> many
> daily miles.
>
> i checked out a 2008-2009 ford fusion and a mazda 3. but they were right
> next to
> the VW dealership. i was planning on buying private party - but figured
> dealers
> were a good place to see a bunch of cars in on place. anywho - i was not
> aware
> of the 2005-current VW Jetta's 2.5 5 cylinder. is their a direct lineage of
> it's
> 2.5L 20V inline 5 to the 3B in my car? or the 7A for that matter? or is a a
> totally different beast with nowhere near the same bulletproof reliability
> that
> audi 5 pots are known for?
>
> i unfortunately didn't get a chance to test drive the mazda 3 because they
> didn't have many used ones and it doesn't seem ANY dealers are dealing on
> year
> end 2010s. weird.
>
> point being the jetta 2.5 seems pretty reasonable on the used market. i
> drove a
> 2007 and it's ride and handling were loads better than the ford fusion -
> which
> lumbered along like a boat - and its 4 banger buzzed nearly as annoyingly
> as my
> sentra. the interior materials were about the same quality but VW certainly
> had
> better aestetics and ergonomics compared to the fusion.
>
> of course, i'm wary of VW reliability - i've always heard of nightmare
> issues
> with those cars. but admittedly, we are talking 1990's era cars. i wish
> they
> made an auto without the tip BS. but i hear the tiptronic issues in audis
> and
> VWs were ironed out in the 2005 model year.
>
> the 2.5 20V 5 cylinder certainly doesn't make much power with only 150HP -
> but i
> wonder if that conservative output given it's displacement is actually a
> good
> thing with regards to long term reliability of both the engine and the
> transmission?
>
> anyway - does anybody have some insight into the jetta 2.5? or are they
> junk and
> keep looking...
>
> thanks,
> Robby
>
>
>
>
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