2012 Jetta Sportwagen?

[Trav]

My good friend has 2014 TDI, manual. He got it after racking 350,000mls on Prius. He does cross country trips, Ventura, CA, Delaware etc. has around 190,000mls now and still claim it is best car he had. He just had to replace front right bearing, which is biggest thing he had to do outside of timing belt replacement.
These are strong cars. @TiGeo is best example how much abuse this chassis can take.

The 2.5 is an old tank of an engine and one of VW best later engines 300K and more is in these all day long.

 

[edyvw]

The 2.5 is an old tank of an engine and one of VW best later engines 300K and more is in these all day long.

Yes. I suggested that on another thread and had slew of people trying to feel better about their own life choices arguing against it.

 

[supton]

It is true that 200K is the new 100K. It is not true that 300K is the new 200K. You may get the wrong idea from the outliers here on BITOG, but the number of daily drivers that make it to 300K is absolutely minuscule. Low single digits. Those that do tend to get excruciatingly detailed maintenance, which this car most assuredly has not had. Your notion of this car being "only half worn" is, I'm afraid, wishful thinking.

I hear you, but… In 2023 my ‘99 Camry, 268k on the clock, got totaled. I had every intention of 300k if not further. In 2015 I sold my ‘04 TDI at 314k, having achieved my goal of 10yr/300k and tired of patching rust holes (and other concerns).

I am not the norm but I have been trying to live in this area of high mile beaters. It is an appliance to me, I have no desire to wash and wax my car weekly. Gas and go. Road salt will kill it (although I just had my first deer strike and that can be another car killer).

 

[macarose]

None? I’d have to look and compare, as I don’t know much about any of them—I’m a typical Toyota shopper, I don’t cross shop much (if any).

I'm going to be getting in a 2008 Toyota Camry SE that was maintained at a Toyota dealership.

I'll keep you posted when I have it online.

 

[Trav]

Yes. I suggested that on another thread and had slew of people trying to feel better about their own life choices arguing against it.

Yes. There is a lot of hate for VW/Audi on this forum. I really like them, repairing them is easy even the big jobs like cam chains on the S4 and RS cars is easy enough once you put the car in service position, on a 2.0T it is child's play everything is modular on the engine.
Old Saabs can be a real PITA but I like them and own a couple anyway.

 

[addyguy]

I love all these people saying they wouldnt go higher than $3-4k…wake up to the market today people…it’s in pretty darn good shape for a ‘12, and it has low mileage for the year. You won’t get it for less than $6k!
I see no red flags, it sounds like your kinda car, go for it!!

 

[TomYoung]

I love all these people saying they wouldnt go higher than $3-4k…wake up to the market today people…it’s in pretty darn good shape for a ‘12, and it has low mileage for the year. You won’t get it for less than $6k!
I see no red flags, it sounds like your kinda car, go for it!!

$6k Canadian??? Still high.

 

[Delta]

The 2.5 is an old tank of an engine and one of VW best later engines 300K and more is in these all day long.

I absolutely loved the 2.5 in my '08 Jetta I had. Wasn't the most thrifty or fastest, but the exhaust note was something. It was also the 5 speed manual which the whole combo was dead nuts reliable. I should have kept it around.

 

[supton]

Well it dropped in price, $6,600 but that seems too high I guess.

Not easy finding a cheap & capable vehicle. I want something like this, wagon, modest towing, easy to work on, something I can put miles onto. But maybe I should look at CRV instead, maybe that's a better deal (other than the a/c woes), get a pre-CVT version. It would meet my needs (maybe not wants).