Coolieman1220

My sister has a 2010 Jetta TDi and it is a great car! Drives well. 63k miles later it is a bit beat up but nothing of a major issue. It handles like a german car and is so torquey, on the highway you don't know its a 4 banger. Way better than any Japanese compact. The new Jetta's have gone down in quality though.

I would still consider a jetta before a jap compact. If I did have to go jap, Mazda 3 series is looking mighty fine.

SQive

Perhaps it's just the type of people who drive them around here. Some feel entitled to the fast lane like Obama supporters to welfare. If that offends anyone, get over it!

BlackSVT

This may be an unpopular choice here, but the Focus ST has retained quite a good portion of the Euro Focus' character despite Ford's past attempts at neutering. The A3 looks like a fine alternative as well.

and VWVortex is probably the biggest VW forum out there

Good luck

big residual

I had a 2012 Jetta GLI Autobahn that I liked at lot. The VW nav sucks, so you can't really find that option, but it was otherwise loaded. Bought it new for $24K, just traded it after 2 years and 6K miles for $18.5K... so you could buy that car in amazing shape for under your price limit. It's basically a stripper A4 (stripped down, not something a stripper would drive). I would definitely recommend a Jetta in TDI or GLI trim. But as others have said, look hard at the dealer -- a decent VW dealer is harder to find and makes a big difference.

snagitseven

Let's leave political references out of the forums

idale

That's anyone in any car around here. (And no, it's not all the California transplants, native Texan drivers can be just as bad as us native Californians. Besides, San Diego traffic was refreshing compared to Austin.) If you made car-buying decisions based on the behavior of other drivers, you'd be unlikely to buy anything at all.

Coolieman reminds me that Mazda's a pretty decent choice, too. Looked at a CX-9 when I was upsizing from my Passat Wagon, and those things can fly despite being large! The 3's really small, though; a Golf would be a better choice in that segment unless your budget just won't allow it, since the Golf at least used to have a pretty cavernous interior for such a small car.

Q5 Bob

Thank you!

zeus48

Thanks for the input. I like the TDI myself, the wife like SE w/ connectivity or SEL. We really want to stay away from sport suspensions. I just wish the quality of materials didn't drop in 2010. Looks like its going up starting in 2014 but that doesn't help the used car market too much.

(2008-2010 was bad for car manufactures...)

kga1978

I just bought a Q5 coming from a VW Golf. Forget about the Jetta - it's a cheap car that is cheaply made. Spend a little more and buy a Golf instead - it is smaller on the outside, bigger on the inside, MUCH more practical and the interior quality is night and day between the two.

I really loved my Golf and I already kinda miss it driving the Q5 - plus the new MK7 is coming out in June.

If you can afford a little more cash up-front consider the GTI and you'll have a fun rocket on your hands - it's an outstanding car!

I found this forum to be very good:

http://www.golfmk7.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1

VW Vortex is kinda a big mess.

kga1978

Oh I forgot - check out this thread for some pics:

http://www.golfmk7.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1

That is one good looking car! And with the new 1.8T engines the Golf is going to be über fuel efficient and have plenty of punch (0-60 around 7s??).