Cheered to hear that VW has 2.0L A6 out (sept"10)as base car. Anyone see/drive these on the local lot? I don’t care that they lost the rear discs, my 1994 brakes rusted up and stopped working after a few Chicago winters. I am wondering if the Jetta wagon will be offered without the 5 cylinder which I am not fond of. Will it have “manditory optioning” of engines or will the “S1 and S2” be built in wagons? VW has been making good cars, but they real give the US consumer the shaft. Beetle is the 12 year old compact that gets about 25 mpg, and promises of the Lupo or other compact cars disappear into the mist to be replaced with overpriced bundles of electrical glitches (but they have nice interiors). Hope this 16K promise of utilitarian dependability doesn’t just poof into fog.
IMHO the new Jetta is a step backwards. They brought the boat-anchor 8 valve 2.0L out of mothballs, fitted it with inferior brakes, cheaper interior trim, and even decided to take the cheap route on the trunk hinges. Basically they removed alot of content and dropped the price by about a grand. You get a mechanically inferior car for not alot less money than the outgoing model. Doesn’t strike me as a particularly good deal.