[ba] more on searching for a daily driver

[robert weinberg]

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