Used Car of the Day: 2005 Volkswagen Jetta GLI 1.8 Turbo

by Tim Healey

July 25th, 2023 5:11 PM

used car of the day 2005 volkswagen jetta gli 1 8 turbo

In honor of the 40th Anniversary Volkswagen Jetta GLI, today we have a used one from North Carolina.

The owner asks $18,000 for this 2005 Volkswagen Jetta GLI, which has the 1.8 Turbo engine. It's an automatic and the seller claims it's been well-maintained and runs well.

Apparently, the car is stock and the only damage involves minor dents. There are only 53,000 miles on the clock. Perhaps this explains the high price for a 17-year-old car.

You can check it out here.

[Images: Seller]

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2 of 35 comments

Robin Masters on Jul 28, 2023

SO owned a 2004 Jetta with 1.8l turbo - it was a fun car but a total dog. These engines are complete crap. Anyone interested should just google VW 1.8l oil sludging. These engines were so poorly engineered that they routinely caused the oil to overheat and turn to sludge. We were running Mobil 1 full synthetic on conservative intervals, but the car would stumble on idle every morning until it warmed up. Car was under warranty and dealer could never find anything wrong (no codes). Something was bad wrong so we traded it in! Nice to hand a stealership a dog and get a decent trade in!

1 Reply
Zerofoo on Jul 28, 2023

The 1.8T from this generation of VWs had awful turbo lag. The "filled for life" automatic transmission makes the driving experience even worse.

On the plus side, the buyer of this car will become very close with their local dealer as glove box hinges, window regulators, brake light switches and other interior components fail.

This car is a candidate for the 24 hours of Lemons and not much else.

1 Reply

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