Used 2016 Volkswagen Jetta Consumer Reviews
Used Jetta for sale
cheap and unreliable car
mc69, 09/30/2017
2016 Volkswagen Jetta 1.8T Sport PZEV 4dr Sedan (1.8L 4cyl Turbo 5M)
2 of 4 people found this review helpful
car broke twice in 1 year to end up on the tow track on the way to the dealer. one time some heating element burned out, second time some cabling from the turbo burned out. I have owned a Jetta MKV for 5 years and i do regret giving that away for the 1.8T sport. I find it unreliable especially going for long distances. wife had hyundai that never broke once in 6 years. interior is indeed cheap and everything squeaks and rattles after few thousands miles. no more air conditioning in the back although the interior is larger. The windshield is always foggy unless you put the climate on windshield on speed 3. I cannot even say Jetta is the new hyundai b/c is not ever as reliable as a hyundai. update: since the problem with the turbo, car seems to get longer time to crank at cold, and this worsens with every day, so i will be back to the dealer. VW warranty is also a joke b/c they do not reimburse you for rental if your break point is less than 30 miles away from home. I mostly use the car to commute to work.
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45 mpg nightmare
Chris, 05/03/2017
2016 Volkswagen Jetta 1.4T SE 4dr Sedan (1.4L 4cyl Turbo 5M)
4 of 10 people found this review helpful
The engine is a magical 1.4 liter torque monster that seemed to never eat or drink. I regularly got 44 miles per gallon. That was good. 44 could be had at 70 with the Air conditioning on. 50mpg wasn't unreasonable at 60. The trunk is a colossal cavern. I got a grandfather clock into my car. A sedan. (the trunk was closed) Everything that isn't mentioned above ranges from sub-par at best to unforgivable at worst. The 5 speed is great as a means to send the car's fuel mileage into the stratosphere. The shifter linkage may have been found in a box in wolfsburg marked "1975 rejects". The throw to fifth is within a knuckle of the distance to the passenger's knee. The release for reverse sometimes failed to activate reverse. This caused a great deal of unpleasantness. Camera on, clutch out, car goes.. forward. Sometimes the camera didn't come on. The backup camera came on a couple times in 1st. That was amusing. And there's all that torque but nowhere to go, because the traction control cannot be turned off. This causes problems when the car can smoke its wheels easily. If it was raining, the car was sketchy. Traction control would have a meltdown. If it was snowing, there was a good chance that traction control and skid protection's constant freakouts made you and your vehicle a danger to the public. Let's see, App-Connect hardly ever worked. Only the misfortune of driving a 2016 base model made me thankful for the former plymouth designer (I presume) who designed the cheap, monotonous interior of the SE trim - it's black plastic. The dashboard is harder than the bumpers. And it's cheap. the inner door reflectors fall out. often. The mirror control button is counterintuitive, Seat heat was great, and the heater was great. The glovebox was huge. That's good. The dashboard had old school gauges. I like that. Unlike many vehicles in its segment, it looks like a car. The problem is that it's a lousy one. It was a riot to drive in the dry and a nightmare in the wet. they could have spent two hundred dollars more per unit to have a great car. The problem was that VW didn't, and the car is lousy. If fuel mileage is your only concern, this is a winner. If you're going to lease - don't. VW might delete your payment history and report all kinds of strange things to the credit bureau. VW credit has an ongoing computer glitch that is affecting several hundred people, but they won't fix it. Also, the car's mediocre at best. If you're basic, it's perfect. Its failings will be lost on you. If you need a cheap, newer vehicle, don't do it. It's german. It's turbocharged. The parts are expensive. It's not made well. And neither the dealer, VW Credit, nor VW itself were willing to stand behind its product.
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2016 Volkswagen Jetta for sale near you
Showing 3 of 38 listings
- 1.8T Sport PZEV SedanMSRP: $10,00095 mi away
- 1.8T SEL PZEV SedanMSRP: $16,990In-stock online
- 1.8T SEL PZEV SedanMSRP: $12,998In-stock online
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Good If You Don't Like Driving Much
R.D., 10/10/2016
2016 Volkswagen Jetta 1.8T Sport PZEV 4dr Sedan (1.8L 4cyl Turbo 5M)
4 of 10 people found this review helpful
First of all, Sport has nothing to do with it. "Sport" is an overstatement. If you performance and an engaging car to drive, get a GTI or GLI. I bought my 2016 Jetta Sport last January to replace my 2000 Audi A6 2.7t and boy do I regret it. The "Sport" model includes the same suspension setup featured in the GLI, fog lights, a lip spoiler and sport seats with more bolstering than your standard Jetta. All good things, but unfortunately the rest of the car doesn't match the persona that Volkswagen tried to get with the "Sport" trim. The 1.8t is a bit of a dog. Not much torque, average pickup and bad gearing. If you care, even in the slightest about performance the Jetta Sport is not the car for you. The five speed gearbox features nice, smooth, short throws. But that's about all it's got going for it. The clutch has an excessively long travel, the engagement is bad and it's feather light and feels like it's pushing away from you. It's also worth nothing that the reverse gear of this car does not have a syncro. What this means is that it sometimes won't engage into reverse properly and will grind occasionally when being put in reverse. This also means that the car can't be put into reverse while moving at all. Something that most cars nowadays have. Throttle application is uneven and not smooth and the turbo lag is annoying. The interior build quality is pretty sub-par, expect plenty of squeaks, rattles and badly pieced together trim. Everything is hard, hollow plastic and everything from the speakers to the headliner will rattle at some point. One of the few redeeming features this car has is that you can get up to 45 miles per gallon highway. That's pretty damn good.
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New VW has a 3 hour lifespan
KK, 07/24/2016
2016 Volkswagen Jetta 2.0T GLI SEL 4dr Sedan (2.0L 4cyl Turbo 6A)
9 of 27 people found this review helpful
I leased a new VW Jetta at the Santan VW in Phoenix AZ, in April this year. It was a brand new 2.0T SEL and I was very excited for my first ever new car that my parents had got for me as I graduated high school. The nightmares were just an hour away. As we drove back to Tucson, first the engine light went on about 70 miles into our return. It was about 9 pm but the dealership sales person who had sold me the car answered right away and told me that perhaps there was nothing wrong and I should not worry about it. Then the electronic malfunction light went on and about 2 miles from home the car started to shake and shudder like one of the cylinders was missing or misfiring. By this time it was 10pm and no one to turn to for what to do. After a sleepless night, I was able to speak with the dealership in Phoenix the next day and they told me to have the care transported to the nearest dealer in Tucson. Imagine the sight of my first brand new car being lifted on to a flat bed to be taken to the dealership 16 hours after I had gotten it. After a few hours of baited breath I was told that the fuel injectors in two cylinders were blocked and would have to be replaced. I was quite upset to hear this and after multiple back and forth phone calls with the dealer who would not initially believe this, my father was able to speak with someone senior at the dealership. They kept saying that the problem was easy to fix and it was only a minor issue but eventually gave in and said they would exchange the car for a new one. I had to accept whatever they had available in the same trim and I did. Every time I get into this car, I wonder what is going to go wrong next. You all can take away whatever you think from this experience, but certainly not what one would expect from a brand new car, no matter what make or model!
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Classy and sporty
Chris G, 01/15/2019
2016 Volkswagen Jetta 2.0T GLI SEL 4dr Sedan (2.0L 4cyl Turbo 6A)
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Just bought this car a few days ago. So far I love it. It's a great blend of classy and sporty. It rides really nice, has great acceleration and sporty handling while still getting great gas mileage. There's a few interior rattles but coming from a Honda civic I can't complain. If you're looking for a family car with some pep, definitely test drive a Jetta GLI!
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