Raoul's China Saloon (V5.0) Beta

The Bar Room => The BS-Wrestling Pit => Topic started by: xwarrior on May 14, 2013, 11:32:48 PM

Title: The Jetta is dead; long live the Jetta
Post by: xwarrior on May 14, 2013, 11:32:48 PM
One thing leads to another. While I was looking for a news item I noticed a link to an item on an American site:

Five Great Used-Car Daily Drivers
....
2005-2010 Volkswagen Jetta: Jettas get high marks for refinement, safety features, and engineering. What might give a buyer pause is VW's reputation for a lack of reliability, but the Jetta has maintained high resale value despite that. We also like the look of this generation of Jetta, as opposed to the boring slab-sided styling of the current car. Green-car buyers might try to unearth a diesel-powered version. The best Jettas of recent vintage will fetch $23K or less.
http://www.web2carz.com/autos/buying-and-selling/1989/five-great-used-car-daily-drivers?w2caf=21d0495d9c89ae19

A Jetta looks something like this (the green one!)

(http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae15/xwarrior6/junk%20-%20odds%20and%20ends%20from%20other%20places/lambo-guiyang-china-1_zps4bf58056.jpg) (http://s953.photobucket.com/user/xwarrior6/media/junk%20-%20odds%20and%20ends%20from%20other%20places/lambo-guiyang-china-1_zps4bf58056.jpg.html)

There was a time, before the advent of the Santana, when every taxi in China seemed to be a Jetta. Looks as though Chinese taxi drivers know a good deal when they see one. Another link threw up this news:

Extreme Tuning from China: Volkswagen Jetta, the Best of the Best

Everything ends, and sadly, so will the production of the MKII Volkswagen Jetta in China. The new Polo-based Jetta is on its way and will be launched on the China auto market late this year. Production of the Jetta started in 1991 at the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture and continues until today, the last MK2′s will roll of the line in early 2013.
More than 2 million Jetta’s have been made in China so this won’t be an easy goodbye.
http://www.carnewschina.com/2012/07/21/extreme-tuning-from-china-volkswagen-jetta-the-best-of-the-best/

Last week the China Car Times came out with an update.

Is the New Jetta Heading to the Taxi Market?

The New VW Jetta has been out on Chinese roads for a few weeks now along with the New Santana which look virtually indistinguishable from each other and look fairly similar to the larger Bora and Lavida, the only real differences being the FAW-VW and SH-VW badging on the rear of the car. Autohome.com.cn are running with spy pictures of a ‘poverty specification’ Jetta that is reportedly heading for fleet service within China’s humongous taxi fleet, the majority of which seem to rely on VW’s aging Santana and Jetta fleet – or if you’re in Beijing Hyundai.
The mk2 Jetta was thought to continue in production for taxi fleet use, but that could potentially change with the introduction of the Polo sedan based Jetta.
http://www.chinacartimes.com/2013/05/is-the-new-jetta-heading-to-the-taxi-market/

So, it looks as though everything will change and stay pretty much the same - for awhile anyway. While news about the Jetta will be of no interest to most people (especially those residing in Beijing, where the Hyundai reigns supreme it seems) it is great to be nearly part of history in China, ain't it?