Used Car of the Day: 1991 Volkswagen Jetta

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Yesterday we brought you a nice, if arguably way overpriced, Volkswagen pickup.

Today's UCOTD is another VW, one that is very cheap -- but also needs a whole lot of help.


Those looking for a project car might be interested in this bad boy. Those who are not will take a pass. Here, direct from the listing, is what the car needs*:


  • This car needs to be towed
  • this car has been sitting for like 3 to 4 years
  • heater core blown and bypassed
  • car needs some body work -rust under drivers rear fender flare
  • motor has issues..the car overheated and shut down
  • needs a new battery
  • fuel smell near fuel pump housing
  • drivers rear window does not go down
  • this car has a working manual sunroof
  • hood and trunk need to be manually opened
  • 5 speed shifts perfectly!
  • 1.8l motor
  • this car has a new starter and cat and magnaflow muffler


*All typos and capitalization comes from the original post.

The seller will take a grand and will not tow it. Take a look if this sort of thing is your bag.

[Images: The seller]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

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4 of 26 comments
  • DedBull DedBull on Dec 07, 2022

    Mk2 Jettas are getting harder to find, especially ones that haven't been modified within an inch of their life. I grew up in an 85 GLI, and would love to have one in as close to stock configuration as I could get. This car isn't that starting point, especially sitting 3-4 years in the NY dirt. It's a parts car at best, but there might still be money in it even at that price, if you are willing to take it down to absolutely nothing left.

  • Verbal Verbal on Dec 07, 2022

    Crusher bait.

  • Rochester "better than Vinfast" is a pretty low bar.
  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
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