Date:         Wed, 6 Aug 2003 12:19:04 -0600
Reply-To:     Fred Brittain <vanpire@CITLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Fred Brittain <vanpire@CITLINK.NET>
Subject:      JD Power and VW
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Yo,

Anybody looked up VW's on JD Power. They don't seem to think too much
about our elite German, Mexican vehicles.

I have wanted a VW TDI since I first found out about them. I just ran
a long term quality check on JD involving several cars. 1) '90 Vanagon
(oldest listed), 98 Jetta, 98 Passat, 98 Beetle (my choice of commuter
replacement), '94 Geo Metro (my present commuter vehicle).  The ratios
represent rating over possible of five.

Results: mechanical dependability     accessory dependability
body and interior

90 Vanagon       3/5
2/5                                    3/5

98 Beetle            3/5
2/5                                   2/5

98 Jetta              2/5
3/5                                    2/5

98 Passat            2/5
2/5                                     2/5

94 Geo Metro    3/5
3/5                                      3/5

This is set to seventy column so hopefully it is legible. Interesting.
I can tell you I bought the Geo new, driven 100k miles and have done
only routine maintenance.

I WANT a TDI. New Beetles are the most easily accessible (available
and affordable). I would appreciate any feedback, especially regarding
the overall quality of a '98 New Beetle TDI. (that is the hitherto
unstated purpose of this post)

I apologize profusely if this is considered off-topic. It is,
however,  of interest to me that the '90 Vanagon is considered second
in reliability only to the Geo.  Go figure.

Fred
89 Westy
shopping for TDI
Moab, UT