1985 Jetta diesel

[JeepSJ]

I found a 1985 Jetta diesel. 56K original miles. Already had the timing belt replaced. Body is in decent shape for 1985, as is the interior. I'm thinking about this as a daily driver. They are asking $1750.

Anyone have experience with these?

Thanks!

[NH2112]

Go for it! If it's not a turbo, though, it'll be able to smell hills from miles away so keep your foot in it LOL

[redbird2]

Don'f pass that up they get great mileage mine had 285,000 before it started using oil, sold it 6 years after purchased it for the same price I paid for it but with almost 150,000 more miles on it godd luck

[jbplock]

Dittos.. go for it .. I bought a new 85 Golf Diesel and put 180K miles on it before I sold it in 2001.. Best car I ever owned .. averaged 48-50MPG. The guy who bought mine is still driving it.. I now regret selling it...

smile.gif

[D-max Man]

I ran one of those a few years back (see my sig) and it ran well until I blew a hose and cracked the head (Didn't want to walk to the next exit).
I paid $900.00 for it and ran it 40,000 miles until I abused it so I guess I did all right.

It is a bit slow on take off (non-turbo) but when she got wound up, she'd run 80 mph all day long (Unless you came to a hill). Most smaller hills she would just hold the speed you hit the hill at but she wouldn't accelerate on the hill. The bigger ones called for a downshift and the really big ones needed multiple downshifts and 4-way flashers.

It got decent mileage - around 38 mpg. She'd smoke like a freight train on take off but I turned the inj. pump up for a little more power which cut down the mileage a bit.

I loved it when I got tailgated (Which seamed to happen allot in that car) because I'd just pull out the cold start handle (Which advances the pump timing) and short shift her and really smoke them out. LOL

All in all she was a pretty good car though. I replaced her with a 1985 Mercedes 190D. It has a 2.2L non-turbo diesel & 5-speed. Slightly bigger engine, considerably bigger car but more power (would actually pick up speed on a hill without downshifting) and the same mileage.

[trbankii]

My father has been driving an '87 Golf for the past eighteen years. It is gas, but has held up well. The place he takes it for repairs has a couple customers with diesels on back to at least one Rabbit. As mentioned, a bit underpowered but they seem to keep going and doing well on milage. My father still gets high 30s with his gas engine. They just bought a new Passat Wagon diesel and my mother is a bit worried about getting a speeding ticket because it has so much power compared to her gas Jetta. It is turning in low 40s so far (less than 10K miles).

[JeepSJ]

Ah, I went and looked at it and it was a roach. The interior and wear on the driver's seat gave me an indication that the mileage was probably 250K, not the 50K that they were advertising. Plus, he started talking about pulling the pistons, blah, blah. Just seemed a little too shady for me.

[trbankii]

Sorry to hear it didn't work out. Don't VWs have a xxx,xxx.x mile odometer?

[mcp1810]

:( Too bad about the roach! Years ago I wrenched in an independant import shop and I LOVE those VW diesels! Clean oil and a timing belt every 60k and they are solid gold!

[B Lake]

It probably had 250,000 miles on it. I've owned several VWs of that vintage and all of the odometers failed around 75000 miles. My last Jetta had 78,000 miles on it- for the six years that I owned it. I was told it had 78000 on it for several years before I got it. Hey it was $200 and my brother had a new engine sitting in his garage. How could I pass that up?

There is a plastic gear in the odometer that cracks allowing it to slip on its shaft. On the older cars, it was easy to fix but from the A2 on, the odometers was basically sealed and impossible to fix.

Keep this in mind when looking at these cars.

[trbankii]

Come to think of it, my father's Golf had the odometer replaced under warranty too.