Compared with their Golf sibling, is the Jetta really that unloved and hard to sell-on? Why?! Same basic car, but with a large boot instead of a hatch. The 3-4 year old used Jettas I have found are noticeably cheaper than equivalent Golfs, and my mind says "Bargain!"
Am I right, or will I be stuck with an unsellable used motor in 2-3 years' time!
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I can't understand the fetish for hatchbacks, in the UK at least, in this size of car.
An ex colleauge bought a similar engine manual Jetta to replace his thirsty Toledo DSG, very pleased with it and to my eyes a handsome car too (prettier than Passat imo) which most hatch's could never be accused of.
Maybe there's an age thing with saloons as there is with colours, younger people are very fashion conscious, the Jetta may not appeal to younger buyers.
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I see Ford no longer offer a saloon Mondeo-only hatch or estate.Personally I agree with them remembering what I have carried in the back of hatches & estates.I buy a car to be useful-not elegant!!!!!!!!!!
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Don't get me started !
Saloons.....pah !
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The booted versions of VWs always seemed more popular in Scotland. Would any of our memebers north of the Border care to comment?
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Yes generally they are unloved, do not sell well, and yes that makes them a bargain.
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I owned a Mk 2 Jetta when they were the current model, it had a huge boot and the family hack was an estate car so carrying capacity not a problem. The Jetta was a good buy, nothing to do with my northern location.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 19 Jun 10 at 09:49
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>> I see Ford no longer offer a saloon Mondeo-only hatch or estate.
>>
Perhaps they do not remember the screw up with the Granada ?
No saloon in that sized car so many customers went to Volvo and Vauxhall.
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I thought all granadas were saloons?
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I can remember carrying a full-sized chest freezer in the Scorpio hatch!!!-went in easily!!
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I've never understood why, to my eye, small saloons just don't look right. The bigger stuff like the Passat, Volvo S60, Mondeo, Accord etc look good as saloons, but a boot on a smaller car somehow looks awkward. That said, I think the Jetta is one of the better looking ones.
I considered a Jetta when we were looking for our Golf diesel, as you get so much more for your money on the used market (or the same car for much less). However, we really wanted the practicality of a hatchback, and SWMBO put her foot down.
My old Volvo S60 had a massive boot, but I remember on many occasions not being able to accommodate bulky items which would have easily fit in terms of volume, but wouldn't go through the opening. The other thing that used to annoy me was almost having to climb in the boot to retrieve loose items from the depths of it, or releasing the seat backs and going in from the passenger compartment. None of these are issues with a hatchback.
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was almost having to climb in the boot to retrieve loose items from the depths of it
Not looked in an Octavia hatchback then - An enormous luggage compartment with which I struggle to reach to the back. Not complaining though - best car I have ever had.
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Don't those foreign chappies, over the water like small, booted cars?
I remember seeing quite a few Renault 5s, with boots, in Spain, years ago.
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Seems most here like their vans with windows then.
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>> Don't those foreign chappies, over the water like small, booted cars?
and the Americans and the Canadians. Its probably fair to say that the Brits are the biggest lovers of hatchbacks.
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>> and the Americans and the Canadians.
Only because they have a truck in the yard as well, when they go down to the home depot to buy lumber.
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>>
>> and the Americans and the Canadians. Its probably fair to say that the Brits are
>> the biggest lovers of hatchbacks.
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And in China a booted version of the outgoing Astra car is considered superior, I noticed in Greece last week that most (possibly all) Mondeos (MK 2,3 and 4) were of the booted saloon variety, a fair number of Focus saloons too (actually quite hansom in MK2/3 form I'd suggest). A friend of mine in Moscow has the saloon Focus, again it's considered superior to its hatchback brethren.
The Jetta does represent good second hand value and the boot is enormous, again (like the Bora) it's quite hansom IMHO - a scaled down Passat? So the moral is not to buy one brand new I guess ?
Personally I always get hatchbacks or estates, they're more practical and often look more stylish IMHO (Audi Avants in particular) although I'd concede that saloons are generally quieter on the motorway.
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In the EU,the UK & Germany both order high percentages of estates-much higher than any other EU country.
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>> And in China a booted version of the outgoing Astra car is considered superior,
I'm sorry, but any country that can produce this
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/SsangYong_Rodius_24-12-06_1629.jpg
does not warrant any comparisons on car taste.
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The new Jetta is actually a really nice looking car, far better looking than most medium sector booted cars.
AT nearly two grand dearer (17 grand) than the equivalent golf new price tho, its little wonder they dont fly out of the showrooms. Then you realise you can get them two years old 30k on the clock for 9 grand. You aint gonna buy new at list price are you.
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(pedant mode on) Zero, I thought the odious Rodius came from Korea, not China? (pedant mode off)
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The Rhodius doesn't look any dafter than an X6 or Pug 1007 to my eyes and 3/5008 not much better either.
One mans meat i suppose.
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>> The Rhodius doesn't look any dafter than an X6 or Pug 1007 to my eyes
>> and 3/5008 not much better either.
>> One mans meat i suppose.
And they aint selling shedloads of those either. At the end of the day, motoring history is littered with trully ugly cars that have been sales disasters. Its a guarantee.
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>> The Rhodius doesn't look any dafter than an X6 or Pug 1007 to my eyes
>> and 3/5008 not much better either.
>>
X6 and 1007 are as almost as bad as the Rhodius, actually the X6 is worse when you factor in it's ludicrous price. Pug 3008 does look too much like a guinea pig, but what's wrong with the 5008? I think it looks quite neat, and better than the latest Scenics.
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but what's wrong with the 5008? I think it looks quite neat,
>> and better than the latest Scenics.
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That why i said one mans meat etc, i can't stand the wide mouth front on recent Pugs, and having just looked at some pics of the 5008 i still can't.
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>> (pedant mode on) Zero, I thought the odious Rodius came from Korea, not China? (pedant
>> mode off)
it was designed in china, Must have been.
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Any manufacturer who decides to sell saloons here is going to have to accept that the British as a whole prefer their hatchbacks. I see a lot more Avensis, Mazda 6, Mondeo's than Honda Accords, presumably because Honda don't do a hatchback version anymore. The old shape Accord was much more popular. I havn't seen many of the new shape Accord's either, someone told me that they are keeping the supply very tight.
The boots may be large on saloons, but it's hard to get bulky stuff through the opening, and even if you fold the seats down, you've still got the bulkhead in the way. I suppose the best way round that if you've got a saloon is to buy a roofrack.
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I always understood that the 3 box construction of the saloon was inherently more rigid than a hatchback and hence why preferred in perfomance cars. Any truth in this?
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>> 3 box construction... inherently more rigid... Any truth in this?
It was one of the selling points on the original Peugeot 405. So much so that you couldn't specify folding rear seats - one of the reasons I preferred the Cavalier which was launched the following year.
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>> >> 3 box construction... inherently more rigid... Any truth in this?
>>
Makes them more refined too ? However, modern hatches and estates are pretty good in my experience.
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i prefer a saloon to a hatchback
why?
quieter
taughter
safer
why not
cant sell the dammed things to a public who want to do their own settee moving
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Maybe, but just look at them! Compare the MK1 focus hatchback and saloon, all small saloons look strange, the smaller the stranger.
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>>I prefer a saloon to a hatchback
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Me too. Contents in the boot are a litle more secure.
IMO my MkII Mondeo looks a lot better than the lumpy hatch.
I do not need a big noisy hole in the back of my transport.
I had to look for quite a while to find any with the spec I wanted and it was 100 miles away.
I have been having a half hearted look at the market but there are almost no high spec models anywhere.
I might just change from Ford to a Jetta. Just had a quick look on Autotrader and there are just two, both the wrong colour and I am still wary of long term DSG gearbox.
VW have none. So Jettas are kept by their owners of they are all hidden ?
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No, I expect they are all just a bit embarrassed
:-)
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I bought a Jetta SE DSG tdi from a main dealer in 2008, £9995 for a 7 month old ex hire car. Not one thing went wrong on it, though it was green and therefore got hit once (neighbour reversed into the side of it) and vandalised once. Once it was back from the bodyshop I sold it.
VW used to flog loads of them to hire companies, nowadays it's role has been replaced by the SEAT Exeo in the hire car stakes.
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>> VW used to flog loads of them to hire companies, nowadays it's role has been
>> replaced by the SEAT Exeo in the hire car stakes.
>>
A friend of mine is on his second company Jetta, does a high mileage and loves them for their comfort and practicality.
As for the Exeo - that's an exhumation on a par with the Daewoo Nexia 20 years ago imho, just horrid, the A4 B7 upon which it is based was already 8 years old (and compromised in so many ways) before Seat exhumed it, no wonder they have to offload them on hire companies - what where they thinking of ? The terms stop-gap and expediency might be used if there was actually a need for this model in their line-up but as far as I can tell there isn't.
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I owned a Mk II Jetta GTI 16V, a lovely fast car with a sensible boot lid size.
But it was stolen and returned with slight wheel and lock damage (after a bank job or two apparently) , then, six months later, stuffed in a ditch by yours truly on ice.
After the second repair I reckoned it was unlucky and got rid.
An insurance assessor demanded answers about the car about 5 years after I sold it.
Told him to push off -after admitting to two claims- always puzzled by that.
The Passat saloon is just that -with a small boot lid making access tricky .
The Octavia saloon has a well disguised hatch and is great for moving setees etc. I admit that I still need to open the doors to shove things right back.
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I had two Jettas (1.3 of 1989 vintage and a 1990 1.6 TX big bumper model from 1990); the first I bought with 66,500k on the clock and ran it for three years, before PX-ing it in 1995 for the TX to get a bit more power.
The TX remained in my possession until 2003 before giving way to a 1.6 SE Bora, which I staill have. None of the three have ever leaked any oil nor needed topping up between oil and filter changes.
I've always preferred a saloon although sometimes it could be a problem trying to reach small items in the TX's 23cu ft boot - the Bora's is pretty big too.
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I'd a loan 1.6SE Bora which seemed to have quite large alloy wheels and tyres as standard.
Compared to my comparable Mk IV Golf it was fine and we might have bought one, BUT on exiting from a mini roundabout or a tight junction the suspension bobbed up in a stomach turning fashion. Is this a 'characteristic'? It certainly was unbearable for us.
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Volkswagen Jetta - Are they that unloved?! - -
