Used 2013 Volkswagen Jetta Sedan Consumer Reviews
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Business-like
I bought my 2013 Jetta 2.5 SE with 4,000 miles on it four months ago and it now has 15,000 miles. I work as an outside salesperson and was looking for a car that would get great gas mileage and still have some style. I did not have a Jetta in mind, but the mileage and price were both right, so I test drove it and to my surprise liked it a lot despite it being fairly vanilla on the style front. After four months, this car represents who I am very well, a business man. The looks are nice and clean. Not too boring, but not extroverted. The ride is generally compliant, quite nice on the interstate but very firm on rough pavement. Impressed with the highway mileage which has been 37 mpg.
Bought new 2-2013. Now 9-2016. No problems at all
This has been a great car. I am 45 years old this week, only owned 4 cars prior, 1 Nissan and 3 Volvos. VW Jetta has been great, no issues at all. Very affordable(Volvo out-priced me and stopped selling 4 series). So good that husband bought a 2015 Passat. Husband owned about 1cars since we married 24 years ago. Passat not as good as Jetta, sorry to say. Never had any maintenance issues with Jetta. Only issues are it is sometimes hard to get key out of ignition and sometimes difficult to see out of rear window. Gas mileage exceeds what is printed on invoice.
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- TDI Diesel SedanMSRP: $6,99071 mi away
- Base SedanMSRP: $7,44544 mi away
- S SedanMSRP: $6,90086 mi away
NO PROBLEMS AT ALL
Our beautiful blue Jetta has 31000 miles on it. The whole time we have owned it, we've had only one recall, and it was fixed promptly. We had the light switch in the trunk go out and Fowler VW fixed it within 2 hours. This car rides so smooth on the freeway with no engine noise coming into the cab. As a matter of fact, we were going up Raton pass to Denver last year and didn't even realize we were doing 125 mph. Still no engine or road noise inside. The one thing in this car that sold the car was the lumbar support. The car was for my wife so she had to be satisfied. We drove the Jetta, a Corrolla, a Sonata and a Mini. The only requirement I had was 4 doors. The only thing I would say that needs to be changed on the VW's made in Mexico is the turn signals in back. This is supposed to be a world-class car. The turn signals should be amber as they are when made in Germany. Mexican VW's have red turn signals. As of Sept., 2016, there are STILL no problems with our Jetta. I have never been more pleased with a car that I have purchased new. When I go to buy another car, I may try to find another 2013 Jetta because I like the 5-cylinder engine. UPDATE--Sept 2017 Still enjoy the car and now had a small problem. The horn system went out so no horn at any time. Was fixed within 2 hours by Fowler VW and only cost $100.00 since we had the extended warranty. Still want to keep the car. I HAVE driven the new Jetta's but don't like the 4-cylinder, no matter gas mileage it gets. My next Jetta WILL be a used one that has the 5-cylinder! UPDATE 3/7/2018 Still have the car and will drive it into the ground. I'll retire with this one. Volkswagen has so much going for it. I wish more Americans thought so. UPDATE 9/2018 The original battery died last month and had to replace. Still have 2 of the 4 original tires. Does my Jetta have a blessed life? Will I still keep it? Our second car has 225,000 on it and nothing more than scheduled maintainence (2001 Sentra) I am now actively looking for another 2012-2013 Jetta. Update 3/11/19 Not many miles my wife hasn't been using it much. One odd problem has come up. The daytime driving lights keep going out. I've had to replace both of them twice at different times. I can't get to them to replace them from in the engine compartment. The dealer must put it on the rack and get them from below. Next time one goes out, it stays out! No more money to the dealer for something that SHOULD be easy to replace! Update 9/12/2019 One small thing went bad in the interim. The actuator for the gas tank cover went out. That means no matter what you do, it won't open. We had to go to the dealer and have a new one installed. We have 3 Volkswagen dealers in metro Oklahoma City. Normally this actuator is NOT an in-stock item at any dealers that Fowler VW knows of. Luckily, someone ordered one and never showed up to get it. You better hope that IF this goes bad, you have a full tank of gas. Other than that, no problems. This is STILL the car my wife loves. Update3/14/20 RECALLS! Recall letter for a micro switch, but we don't have the part so we are just letting you know. We'll send you a letter when we actually have the part in stock! How stupid is that! Oh, and it took 6 months from the first letter to the second! Other than this problem, the car seems flawless. The only thing that has gone wrong is the automatic part on the drivers window. Sometimes it goes down with one touch, sometimes it doesn't. But hell, it's a 2013. Something has to go wrong. Oh yeah! One other thing! As you can tell, we love this car. I spent $1200.00 recently to fix all the door dings and scratches on the driver's door and rear panel. My wife was happy since she drives it!3/21 69,500 miles Fixed the window problem. Blown circuit. Now, the windshield sprayer doesn't work. Wipers do but not the sprayer. What do you expect in an 8 year old car. Something bound to go wrong. Still positive about the car. Back to Fowler VW to fix it. No one else can fix it so quickly. I COULD shop prices for repair between the 3 Volkswagen dealers in metro OKC, but will stay with who we bought it. 10/1/21 4/7/22 $5343.37 That's what I just spent on my Jetta, my 9 year old Jetta. Wouldn't start one day, although fine the day before. Ended up after trial and error with replacing a control module and ABS control module, and a battery. Of course, parts weren't at the dealer. Of course, it took 3 weeks to be completed. They let me use a 2021 new GLI for a courtesy car. Short critique on that car. Don't like the 4-cyl sound compared to my 5-cyl. Cheesey imprint on the plastic below the radio where the CD player should be. If you're playing the radio loud, and turn the engine off, when you restart the volume is still up. Unlike my 2013, where the volume is automatically low when you start the engine. 10/11/22 mileage 77,350. After the big expenditure earlier in the year, the car is STILL running well. Won't give it up. 10/14/23 81580 Started looking for new Jetta. I'll keep our current one as a work car. Don't know what color it will be because the blue they have now is just UGLY! Will buy an SE because it has the lumbar support. Will have the engine cut-off permanantly disabled. Can't stand that feature! Between OKC and the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, I have plenty of dealers to choose from. Wish me luck!!4/25/24 87,000 miles Finally talked my wife into a new car. Looked at the new Jetta. The rear seat seems to be smaller in the new ones. So that was out! Looked at many brands but ended up with a 2024 Taos. Good rear seat room. The added bonus was the front of the driver's seat could be tilted down to relieve the pain in my wife's legs. So it's now in the garage while the Jetta is my "hand-me-down"
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Great so far
I've only had my 2013 Jetta SEL for two months, but it's been pretty great so far. I like that it's got a sporty look inside and out, and I like the leather interior. The acceleration is pretty good for 170HP and the ride is smooth overall. My main complaints are some cheap aspects of the interior - for the price I paid and having the premium trim line, I can't believe it doesn't have power seat adjustment. Also, to tilt the chair back, you have to pump this plastic pedal up and down (tacky). Also, even when you move the front seats all the way back, there isn't enough leg room for tall people over 6 feet. Not much head room for tall people either. Could have designed that better!
Good car with great space.
This is a big car for its class but needs the 2.5 litre to make it work. The 5 speed manual transmission seems too tall in an attempt to gain fuel mileage. An extra gear in the manual gear box is needed to bring some life to it. The space is off the charts compared to any competitor which is a big asset when you have a family to fit in the back seat and luggage in the trunk. The Civic and Elantra might win the "fun" category but the space, quiet ride and solid road performance in weather trump the fun factor for me. It is not a TDI (my previous car was a '05 Jetta TDI before the moose destroyed it) and if you can afford it, go with the TDI. The TDI is a Santa bag of fun with crazy torque!
Save your money and buy something else!
I have been driving for 39 years and have owned 16 different cars. This will be my first, and last, VW. I bought this 2013 Jetta with 32,015 miles. At 34,200 miles the air conditioning compressor went out....thank goodness for the warranty! I now have 42,100 miles, and since the warranty expired I have had to replaced the fuel pump, fuel filter, ignition lock, ignition housing, and brakes. I have also had problems with some of the plastic interior knobs coming off. Unfortunately, many mechanics do not like working on German made cars, which limits who will fix your car. This, along with expensive parts, makes repair and maintenance a lot more expensive than your normal US, Japanese, or Korean car. I currently have a 2006 Tacoma with 196,000 miles with no issues, and drove a Civic for 210,000 miles with no problems. For a 3 year old car with less than 43,000 miles I have had way to many problems with my Jetta....and doubt it will make it to 100,000 miles. My advice is buy a, Chevy, Ford, Toyota, Honda, or anything that does not have a VW logo. Sorry to be a bummer, but stay away from this car!
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2013 Jetta SE 2.5L
I have had this car since October 2013. In the first 3 years I put 75,000 miles on it, it currently has 116,000 miles. The car has been relatively trouble free, I had one brake line leak on to the caliper causing it to rust quickly. Other than that this car has been great, the 2.5 l is peppy with the triptonic auto trans... this cars stock airflow is very restrictive.... open her up a bit for some cheap fun. Maintenance has always been a little more expensive then my honda, nissan, toyotas, etc., however I do the basic stuff ..brakes, calipers, oil, struts, on my own so that helps. Overall a good purchase, feels upscale and quiet compared to the other cars in this class from the same year.
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Great little car!
I traded my Corolla in for the top of the line Jetta SEL and I never looked back. Great product from VW! It had leatherette seats, heated, AMAZING Fender sound system, comfortable ride, NAV system was easy to use. MPG was lower than I expected, I was averaging 28 MPG 70% highway.
Get one of these 5-cylinder SE Jetta's asap.
The VW Jetta with the 2.5 (5-cylinder) engines are Great Cars. Soon this engine will only be available on much more expensive automobiles. Everyone seems to be going to a dinky 1.4 - 1.8 size engine with a turbo charger. ... s i g h
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Jetta
Brought the Jetta in 2015 at 36000 miles now at 67,518 miles. I've haven't had a single issue with the car easy to clean Interior and great trunk space. Love this car it's my daily driver.
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Early Impressions - All positive
I was looking for a small commuter car that, while reasonably priced, had a bit of style and personality for the daily commute. While some excel in certain areas, nothing else we test drove had the same combination of features, and style that this Jetta has. After two weeks of ownership, we are very pleased so far. Plenty of interior room for adults (or big kids) in the front/back seat. Rides & responds like a solid German car should. Great torque and acceleration (I'll give up the 2-3 MPG for that over others in the class). SEL adds some great creature comforts. Sure, it's not a BMW... but it is close enough to stand out as a cut above the class of economy appliances in this segment.
I love my jetta!
This is my first VW. I have owned an X5 and two mini coopers. I have had my jetta 2.5 manual for 2 years. I am at 46k and i haven't had too many issues other than constantly battling the tire pressure light and regular maintainance. Ive noticed my breaks starting to squeak, the paint on the front bumper began to chip at 10k. I have white with tan interior and i constantly get compliments from co-workers and bosses that ride in it. They are also impressed when i whip it around a corner. I have achieved 43 mpg in my 2.5 SE. Overall i am impressed but small things like the front bumper paint shouldn't chip so easily.
75K needs new timing belt
Be careful when looking at this car or you will end up like me. I bought this car new for the very reason I was looking for a car that can hold up to high mileage. Well what a mistake I made. The car has 75K miles on it now and the dealer says the timing chain is stretched and needs to be replaced. The dealer could not give me a reason why this happened. They did say that some screen came loose and jammed into the tension pulley of the timing chain and deprived it of oil. They told me that they have had others in with the same problem. The extended warranty people are fighting paying for the repair. The dealer could not give me a reason why this happened The repair is $2900. Not at all what I expected from a VW. It is sad that they do not back their cars. No reason for this to have happen
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Great car! Second Jetta owned.
This is the second Jetta we owned and bought new. The first was a 2004 diesel that we traded at 224,000 miles. We decided not to get the diesel this time because we are driving less. This car averages 35 mpg on the freeway! We are very happy with the car. No mechanical issues, drives great, comfortable to sit in.
Great Car!
German engineering. Feels like you’re driving a much more expensive car. But it rides very firm.
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Piece of [non-permissible content removed]
In 2013 we bought the car brand new. At first we loved the car it got great gas millage, but 2 weeks after that it started jumping. I took it in and they looked at the transmission and the engine and said nothing was wrong. It keep doing it so i took it back they keep saying the same thing the techs said that nothing is wrong well eventually they replaced my crank shaft sensor "emission part" keep in mind mine is a gas car not diesel. It was still messed up so i took it back ant they had to fix my ECM "emission part" and now it is in the shop getting the engine wiring harness replaced "emission part". I think that vw screwed up on all of the emissions in all of their cars not just TDI. The car has horrible road noise, the "premium" sound system sucks and the car is just the worse thing that we have had. The only good thing that i have to say about this car is that it is amazing on gas. When we get to drive it and when it is not in the shop which is rare. I recommend getting a dodge we love our charger.
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Worse car I have ever owned in my life.
This car has been the worst experience ever! I have had everything from a Ford Taurus to a Camarro and in 2013 I decided to get this vw Jetta. And it has been the worse decision of my life. I have had more problems with this one car and put more money into it then all of my cars combined. The transmission is horrible. The electrical in the whole car is absolutely horrible. My doors will not lock and sometimes will not unlock once I do get them locked. The Windows and sunroof will have problems closing. The last problem that has put me over board is my key will get stuck in the ignition I have had to leave my car running over night until it just runs out of gas because I am not able to turn it off. On top of it running out of gas the battery will also die because the car will not shut off at all. When I do call or go into the dealer they say they can do nothing to help but sit there and jiggle the key until it will sometimes pop out. Multiple technicians at the dealer have told me that this happens to a lot of people and from the research I have done it happens to many people... Yet vw still doesn't make a recall on it or offer to fix this problem with no charge. If I did want to get a new ignition it would be around 1000 dollars and it's still not guranteed to fix the problem cause it can just happen again and on top of that if the key happens to break while they are trying to pull the key out its not their problem and that will have to be replaced also. I could go on and on about how horrible these cars are so my advice would to stay as far away from vw as possible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Cheaply Built Junk
Garbage. VW does not stand behind their product. Begins to fail immediately after warranty.
Nothing hidden, "It is what it is..."
I purchased a manual SE w/ conv package a few months ago and have driven about 80 miles a day since, mostly highway and I have been satisfied by the MPG, transmission (wish it had a sixth gear, but the fifth and forth gears are rather tall) and features. If you expect high grade interior material, then you should understand that this car is a compromise, high value, high feature, something had to give, and that was the "plastic" nature of this car. I call it my plastic car (even the seats are plastic) but appreciate the good ride, decent acceleration and good transmission. The car is surprisingly fun to drive, but compliant as a highway cruiser.
Fun to drive
fun car, ok gas mileage depending on how heavy your foot is, lol..lots of upgrades if you are into that like me..worth buying....
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VW = VERY WRONG
Whatever they want to say about their customer service, safety, price....whatever....I will never own another VW ever again - I don't know what happened from 1986 (owned Jetta gli) to the current cars but holy hell these things are now FULL OF ISSUES - if it's not one thing, it's related to another thing that triggers another thing - stay away is my advice BUT I have one and I'm lucky that I purchased an EXTENDED WARRANTY when I bought it with 7k on it......I now have 79k, extended warranty ended at 75k and I'm running into continued bull(expletive) SO if you decide for whatever reason, price, look, whatever - I recommend extended warranty BUT keep looking around because once the issues start they do not stop.....
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So disappointed at quality of VW.
I bought VW jetta 2013 SE automatic about two months ago and it has been nightmare driving the car with so many flaws. First of all, about two weeks ago, the car just stalled out in the middle of the road when I was driving 40 miles per hour. Did I get into an accident because of that? almost. Nearest dealership towed my car and had a look at it, but what they said was there was no problem found, so you need to drive with it. Second issue I'm having right now is grinding sound and from when gear changes. I've never had this experience from my previous car that I drove for two years. Last but not least, steering wheel has been off-centered since it came out of dealership. Don't buy VW jetta!!
There is a reason it is #1 in europe
Very nice and reliable car, oil change will cost you more since it is a german car need to do full synthetic. Check the tire air, oil change and alignment and you should have reliable car, fast and sport for a few years.
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One year old, already falling apart...
Bought this car a year ago and right when the warranty (3yr/36000) went out I started having problems cranking the car and turning it off. This is at 40,000 miles, only 4000 over the warranty. So I took it to the dealer to see what was wrong and they tell me that the ignition cylinder is worn out!! Okay, first of all there shouldn't be any parts worn out after only ONE YEAR of use. That's ridiculous. And because the warranty is out I have to pay for it! Tell me something isn't wrong with this picture. We've brought the car in for every maintenance time and take of it. Apparently, the construction is crap... Not a happy customer.
Not bad, not bad at all
Decent starter car for 21 yr old.
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Surprisingly poor driving car
The 6 speed auto transmission is one of the most unresponsive that I have ever driven. The engine is underpowered. Throttle response is not smooth. Initially the car does nothing then surges. The transmission is too reluctant to downshift making for a frustrating drive. The transmission downshifts much too slowly. Mash the throttle and I sometimes forget that I've done it as the seconds count down (2-3 seconds). That can be dangerous is you try to jump lanes. Interior feels unusually cheap for a VW. No cup holders in the rear. No cruise control. Rear view mirror can obstruct.
love my jetta
No problems so far except headlamp keeps going out. But as far as performance no prob. 5star
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VW for teenager
Good kid car - safe, good gas mileage
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Grinding Noise 2013 Jetta
I really like the car, it handles very well in the city and on the road, however, it makes a grinding noise when simply driving 25-30 mph down a city street. The noise is right under my feet! At first they couldn't find anything so I had one of the guys ride with me and when he heard it he was puzzled. I was told to bring it back one day and they'll have a Tech ride with me so when I have a chance, I'll take it back! Had I known it was assembled in Mexico I never would have purchased it! I thought they were being assembled at least in Tenn. I'm so disappointed that I wished I had purchased a Chevy or Buick!
Had the car for about 2 years and some change.
I get a lot of complements on the look of the car and passengers love the heated leather seats here in upstate NY. Only have had 1 issue so far and that was a bad crank position sensor which caused the car to jolt and stall while driving with no check engine light, went to dealer and was told "Unfortunately you're going to have to drive it until a light comes on" which kind of sucked considering my pregnant girlfriend rides in the car and it stalls leaving is short handed as far as power steering and hydrolic brakes. Other than that I LOVE the Fender Sound System, it sounds amazing. Tons of trunk space. Fun to drive and navigation has yet to leave me stranded! That's a plus.
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First time TDI owner
First time TDI owner. I love it!
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