Buying a 98 Jetta TDI
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 2:14 pm
I have a friend that took a job 50 miles from town and wanted to spend less than $5k on a diesel. He's owned VW diesels in the past and wanted one again. Anyways, he called last night and asked if I would like to go along this am with him to inspect one. He filled me in on the details on the way down.
The 98 Jetta had 154k on it and was in pretty decent mechanical shape. The timing belt had gone, so the mechanic that got it from the PO fixed it replacing the timing belt and tensioner (VW guys know to replace these when doing a timing belt) and completely redid the head with new valves, guides, followers, etc. Ran and drove like a top with the turbo spooling up nicely. The underside is starting to show some rust, since this is in Wisconsin. The rear drivers side door is rusted out at the bottom on the inside of the door and the fuel filler area was all rusted out. Neither of these shows much on the outside of the vehicle at this time though, it's all hidden from direct view. There were some rust spots on the floorboards that were still solid, and the rockers had some rusty areas on them, but were solid as were the shock towers.
Other than the obvious body/rust issues that will soon be more issues down the road, I thought that this was a damn nice car for what he was asking - $4k. My friend offered $3800 and the guy took the offer. Too bad he took the car, because if he hadn't, I would have seriously considered getting it. I thought my friend got a good deal for what seemed to be available locally in the past few weeks. I just couldn't resist bragging about his purchase here.............
The 98 Jetta had 154k on it and was in pretty decent mechanical shape. The timing belt had gone, so the mechanic that got it from the PO fixed it replacing the timing belt and tensioner (VW guys know to replace these when doing a timing belt) and completely redid the head with new valves, guides, followers, etc. Ran and drove like a top with the turbo spooling up nicely. The underside is starting to show some rust, since this is in Wisconsin. The rear drivers side door is rusted out at the bottom on the inside of the door and the fuel filler area was all rusted out. Neither of these shows much on the outside of the vehicle at this time though, it's all hidden from direct view. There were some rust spots on the floorboards that were still solid, and the rockers had some rusty areas on them, but were solid as were the shock towers.
Other than the obvious body/rust issues that will soon be more issues down the road, I thought that this was a damn nice car for what he was asking - $4k. My friend offered $3800 and the guy took the offer. Too bad he took the car, because if he hadn't, I would have seriously considered getting it. I thought my friend got a good deal for what seemed to be available locally in the past few weeks. I just couldn't resist bragging about his purchase here.............