First car: used 1998 VW Jetta or 2001 Hyundai Accent?

U

une_etoile

New member
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
i really don't know much about cars and i'm a student looking to buy my first car. i have narrowed my choices down to a 1998 jetta (140,000 mi) and a 2001 accent (78,000 mi), both have been negotiated down price wise to my budget. if i had more money i would be buying a civic but hondas and toyotas are pretty much out of my price range.

both cars were test driven and neither seem to have any problems with the engine/transmission. i'm worried about the jetta b/c i've been hearing it has a reputation for having reliability issues, and hyundai i'm wary of just b/c they're sort of portrayed as a poor man's car and i haven't really heard anything on their performance/reliability. i'm leaning towards the jetta but the accent has a much lower mileage and it's newer...

please help! by the way i won't be driving it long distance or anything, just commuting to work and school, both 15 minutes away from where i live, probably for the next 4 years or so.
 
Well, the VW is in my opinion the better car of the two but maybe not the best option.


The biggest pro and con of the VW is that its built like a frickin tank. Ask any mechanic, you dont open the hood of a VW and fix something, you first have to make a pile of volkswagen next to the car to get at the part your trying to change. :) On the downside, the parts are expensive and so is the labor.

The hyundai is a pretty decent car (as of late) but its no where near the quality of the vdub. However it has just over half the mileage on it so its probably got some life left before your going to see any major problems. Also the hyundai may still have a power train warranty on it. I recall they started doing their 100,000 mile/10 year warranty around 2001. -Might be worth checking into.
 
I cannot comment on the Hyundai, but I've had my Jetta since I bought it new in 02 and now it has 160k miles. The only problem I have ever had in all that time and after all those miles is the AC going out and that was covered by the warranty. Considering the years of the 2 cars, both of them have low mileage in my opinion.
 
Back
Top