 I bout my Jetta in 2007 as a project with front end damage. When I was considering this car I was told that they have many problems and I should not bother. I went and bought it any ways. It had 59,xxx miles on it when it came to me. Today, April 20, 2013, it has 130,xxx miles. In general it is a very reliable car. Through out the history I have had to replace the water pump 2 time and a third time when the timing belt was changed. I have been changing the oil about every 3,000 miles. I traveled to Eastern WA about 4 times from Seattle. One trip I took to California a little over 1,500 miles round trip. I usually get about 28 miles/per gallon with about even mix of city+freeway commuting.