[Vwdiesel] Any 89-92 Jetta's for sale

[William D. Hamblen]

Hi Kevin (and anyone else who may be interested),

On Fri, 24 Jan 2003 KevWolford at aol.com wrote:
>
> I am looking for an 88-92 Jetta diesel (I miss my 84 TD).  Anybody know
> of ones for sale?

I've got a 91 Jetta diesel that is sort of for sale.  It's Dad's car but
it's been in my driveway for the last 6 months.  I drive it a few days per
month to keep everything lubed up.  We've been meaning to sell it since
last summer but haven't gotten around to it.  I'll give as accurate a
description of it as I can, subject to the caveat that I wasn't prepared
to write this email today.  :-)  I can take pictures and post them on the
web if anyone is seriously interested.

Anyway, the Jetta is in pretty decent condition for a 12 year old car. It
runs well and starts down to 15-20F without using the block heater. It's
red, 4 doors, has a sunroof, very little rust, ac of unknown
effectiveness, about 93K miles.

The engine is not original.  When my Dad bought it used from a dealer the
engine had some serious problem (don't know what, Dad might remember) and
the dealer replaced it with a used engine of unknown history.  He's put at
least 25K on it since then.

Tires are less than ideal for snow but my recollection is that they have
good tread left.  Front brakes are fine, haven't looked at the rears but
the parking brake works great.  I think the exhaust is pretty new (less
than 10K miles old).  Handles well, no obvious suspension or steering
problems.  New wiper blades!  The only real problems I am aware of are:

1) It uses antifreeze, about 1/2 cup per 400 miles.  I don't know where it
goes but there are never puddles or drips on the ground and I don't smell
anything.  I'd guess it's probably getting combusted but that's just a
guess.  This could be a serious problem or might be something not so bad
like a head gasket.

2) The cabin fan suddenly stopped working the other day.  I've done
nothing to check this out yet.  My hope is that it's just a blown fuse.
I'll probably fix it this weekend unless the motor itself is shot.

3) The headliner is held up by office binder clips in the rear (much less
noticeable than it sounds :-)).

4) I had some trouble with new alternator belts breaking very quickly.
I've got a regulation 10mm belt now instead of the 9.5mm belt Autozone
carries and I think this is solved.  I did have to retension it after 100
miles or so, but it's been almost 700 more with no trouble.

Price?  Well I haven't really thought about it.  www.kbb.com suggests a
private party value of $1770 for this car in fair condition.  Since we
don't know the engine history, I ran it for 150K miles too: $1370. If I
were writing an ad I think I'd ask for even less than that because of the
undiagnosed antifreeze issue.

The car is just outside White River Junction VT if anyone is interested in
seeing it.

 - Bill