[Vwdiesel] 98 Jetta TDI FS

[Scott Kair]

    The people I bought my 92 Jetta ECO from have decided to sell their 1998
Jetta TDI.  The TDI was to replace the ECO, and they planned to keep it a
few more years and agreed to call me when they were ready to sell it.
    Last Friday they called and said that due to a bad knee on the wife's
clutch leg they were selling it sooner than they planned. If my personal
finances were in better condition, I'd buy it myself, but it's just not
feasible at this time.
    I looked it over and drove it Saturday.  Having owned and driven only
1.6l VW Diesels for over ten years now, this was my first ride in a TDI.
Objective evaluation of the car proved difficult due to having too much fun
on my favorite stretch of winding road.  I brought it back lest I get myself
into a severe financial jam.
    Cosmetically, the rubber trim on the front passenger door needs to be
re-glued.  There are a couple of curious dings between the rear passenger
door and fuel filler door about the size of the blunt end of a ball point
pen.  I got busy playing with the torque and didn't check function on
lights, horn, and so forth, but can do so if someone is interested.  Not
knowing much about the 1.9l TDI, I can't say much about it, other than I got
to get me one of them, eventually.  There did, however, seem to be some
unevenness in running around 2k on the tach when letting off- not quite
surging, but something close to it. With 135k on the odo, it's a good bet
that a timing belt change is about due.
    Tires looked pretty good, and I didn't notice any handling anomalies
going through curves at 1.5-2x the posted speed.  There was a stretch of
straightaway on another road on which there was some instability or
wallowing at 80, but that may have been a pavement flaw.  The return trip on
the same section and same speed exhibited no such tendency.
    The interior showed no glaring flaws, although it could use a good
cleaning.  Stereo is am/fm cassette.  Car is black, with dark charcoal
interior.
    Owner is pretty firm at kbb individual sale price of $6000.  License
sticker expires the end of this month.  Owner drives a semi otr and says he
isn't home often enough to deal with conventional advertising. I offered to
post it to the groups.  Car is located in Danville, IL, about 80 miles west
of Indianapolis and 120 miles south of Chicago.
    If interested, p-mail me and I can forward contact information, go
inspect it more closely, etc.  My own interest is that it doesn't sell for
about another year; maybe I could afford it then.  :)
    Scott Kair