Caring For Your Volkswagen Jetta

Dating back to its introduction in 1979, the Volkswagen Jetta has maintained its position as a midsize model for VW for more than three decades. Translated as "jet stream" from German, the Jetta made its North American debut in 1985, helping to round out Volkswagen's then limited product line. Now in its fifth generation, the Jetta will likely be updated again in time for the 2011 or 2012 model year, signaling the automaker's commitment to one of its longest running models. Jetta's longevity has inspired a fan following for the model, which includes a sedan and in more recent years a station wagon, from enthusiasts who share advice, exchange parts, and even wax poetic over their Jettas. Though clearly not a styling queen, the Jetta manages to hold its own against more expensive competition including comparable Audi, BMW and Mercedes sedans. Indeed, those Jetta models with earlier edition diesel engines can still be found on the road today, many with 250-, 300- even 500,000 miles or more on the odometer.

But the vast majority of Jetta models on our roads are newer, as sales of the car has increased and as buyers have traded up to newer cars. As with any older vehicle, keeping those cars roadworthy means regular maintenance and the swapping out of components and updating of some parts. Purchasing parts directly from the Volkswagen dealer means that owners will have to pay intermediate mark ups when choosing select German replacement auto parts including Bosch, Hengst, Mann, Zimmerman, Brembo, Varga and others. Sure, you could settle for cheap "knock off" parts from China, but quality is suspect, even downright dangerous for both car and driver. Quality car parts can be found online through retailers who sell directly to customers and who sell OEM (original equipment manufacturer) parts. This means that you'll want to choose the same parts that Volkswagen recommends instead of selecting a lower cost, but much lower quality car part that fails to meet industry safety standards. Let Your Mechanic Do It! Finally, if you end up finding the parts you want but aren't sure you want to install them yourself, some mechanics will accept your parts charging you for labor only. But that means making certain that the part you get meets quality standards because if you buy knock off Volkswagen parts and something breaks, your mechanic will have to charge you additional labor as he swaps out the defective part.

Where is the new auto technology? We have it now, shouldn't we use it to reduce the 42,000 deaths in automobiles per year? Meanwhile its parent company Audi is busy testing some new radar assisted driving and anti-collision products in proving grounds in AZ. What is most unfortunate about this is that 42,000 people die a year in auto accidents in this country now. We can fix that, of course this new technology will become victim of class action law suits. We need to immediately kill all the attorneys, Shakespeare was right, Caesar said it best, then we can move forward to save lives. In Germany on many of the Audi models they have radar assisted following devices. For every 1 kilometer per hour the car is back half that distance so at 60 KPH the car is behind the car in front of it by 30 meters. Works great and several new cars have assisted white right line following also.

The new ESC also interfaces with this system but it needs to be an all-wheel drive car for it to all work. This would help in Winter Weather safety too. We have also seen the weather is changing consumer buying behavior for all wheel drive vehicles on passenger cars as well as SUVs, so people will not be bothered with putting on chains on their cars. Due to the desire by car buyers to have a “go-anywhere, do-anything” capable car after the recent SUV trend we see that consumers have developed an affinity for this freedom in all their car choices. This a 2/3 increase from the 2003-2004 model year. 1,500 as optional equipment. The growing interest in all-wheel drive is obvious after checking out the Detroit Auto Show prototype cars. All these cars will have superior handling and better cornering for those 10 PM to midnight canyon burner runs at Mach 2, which if you are a real car lover you fully understand.