1999 Volkswagen Jetta

We purchased this car just about a month ago for my daughter's first car. It has been a huge letdown both for her and us. It had been owned by a car rental company so we figured it was probably maintained pretty well, and then after that one man had owned it for a short time before trading into a dealer. From day one literally it has been nothing but problems. When we received the car it was sputtering and making funny noises. My husband replaced the spark plugs, some of which were difficult to get to without special tools. That helped somewhat, but then we discovered that there was a leak coming from around the distributor cap. He ordered a new cap which would solve the problem. Strangely enough however the ordered part didn't remotely resemble the cap that was on there. He ended up having to keep the old cap and simply remove the O-ring gasket from the new one to make the seal work. Thankfully that worked. Then we had a problem with the battery going dead. We bought battery charger but it wouldn't charge it, so we got a brand new battery. Now a few weeks later the battery (new one) is dead. We are at an impass since we cannot figure out what is draining the battery when the car is not in use. No lights or other items are left on. All that we can figure out is this. The previous owners had the starter go out and replaced it not with a new one, but a rigged button to hotwire the ignition and start it. To start the car you push the button, the brake pedal and turn the key at the same time and it cranks. Well apparently this rigged notion is draining the battery. In addition to that the brake lights quit getting brighter when you stop or slow down. My husband checked the lightbulbs which were fine, then checked the fuses which were good. He did research online and found out it was probably the brake light switch and ordered the part online.

So to sum up, we have paid a ton of money for this car, a ton of money on parts and it still is sitting in the driveway and my daughter is broken hearted since she can't even learn to drive her first car. We have no idea what is wrong with the thing and afraid of what will break next on this money pit lemon of a car.

I should mention I have always loved Volkswagens. We had owned several bugs, Golfs over the years and never these kinds of problems. I always dreamed of getting a Jetta. A dream shattered unfortunately. I will never buy one of these again.

Only a seasoned mechanic would love this car.