can i get your opinion??

ok.. well my local dealer has a old jetta.. maybe like 1988-1991..
its probibly got lots of problems with it..its deisel.... but only 300$$ lol
i actually dont get my license until august but i just want a really cheap car as a project car...so i can learn stuff hands on and do repairs on it..
does this seem like a good idea??? and where should i start?
thanks.

in my opinion unless you have steady income dont start a project like that but in the case that you dont care then go for it and abouut the jetta i wouldnt recommend it because it is a european design and the cars are normally expensive this means that replacement parts will also be expensive if a three hundred dollar project car is your goal i would pick up and old american brand that has many available parts that aren't very expensive such as a chevy camaro, pontiac firebird, grandpas old beatup pickup or something along those lines. and if speed or insurance is a factor honda has plenty of older cars to offer.:wink:

thanks of your opinion....
actually i was asking around and i was talking to my dad and he said i could have his old ford taurus for free.. lol
its got a couple problems but the more there is the more i get to repair stuff and learn..
theres a leak in the brake line.. n e one know how to fix that????
and speed doesnt really matter.. its gonna be my first car and i dont think trying to go really fast is a smart thing to do.. cuz i dont have my lisence yet.. lol

Do some hard research on the internet. I think you'll find that parts for that car are DIRT cheap. I just got done fixing up an 87 Jetta; timing telt, tensioner, plugs, wires, NEW OEM axles with bolts, water pump, pump housing, belts, hoses, and valve cover gasket. Total bill for parts? under $300; and that wasn't any cheapy stuff: I specified top name stuff like Gates Bosch, and OEM VW. The misconceptions about european cars and parts cost are totally unfounded. If you take you BMW to the dealer they'll charge you crazy prices, but internet parts are often times cheaper than many US car parts.

The VW diesels from that era have a cult following but they aren't particularly reliable. They get great mileage, but that decade was nearing the end of European electronic nightmares. As an extreme generalization, Japanese cars have reliable electronics, Euroean cars have superior metallurgy and build quality with so-so electronics.

So I guess what I'm saying is... if you buy a Camry, expect 200,000 miles of almost no parts failures. If you buy an A3 or A4 VW, expect 250,000 miles of occasional mechanical failures. But don't be scared by parts prices. They're CHEAP if you know where to shop.

People claim imports are reliable for BLAH BLAH miles longer than a domestic, but that's only true for the ones that are stripped of all features. Of course you're not going to have to replace the window motor if you don't have power windows, or the mirror motor if you don't have power mirros, or the AC if you don't have AC.
Ex: My uncle owns a Toyota Sequoia, a $60000 expensive fully loaded import SUV. AC blew out within the first year. My cousin owns a Mazda 3, she's replaced 2 bearings and a water pump and she still hasn't passed the 50000 Km mark. So don't believe all the bull about import reliability. All cars are pretty much the same, with give or take on each model.

The taurus sounds good. It has cheap and COMMON parts, unlike the Jetta. You don't even have to buy them new; you can just go disassemble them off an old car in the junk yard for free. Besides, the taurus is well documented and much more common than the jetta (although mechanics are pretty much identical).

you could do what we do, have a family car and only do 5,000 miles a year in it.

talking about brand reliability vs particular car/particular model reliabilty is about useless as you can get.

Statistics are fun to play with, but when you get down to one specific example, the statistics don't tell you much. I could tell you that taurus' are famous for being high maintenance, and its true. But that doesn't mean that I haven't seen them go 200K miles with nothing beyond necessary maintenance.

Just one example.

Lot of it has to do with how the vehicle was cared for upto this point of its life. I don't care who made it or what model it is, if its got over 100K miles on it and its been severely abused, it'll most likely have more issues than otherwise.

Throw-away cars seem to get abused more on avereage, and because of that, they get a bad reputation. A really good example is a Geo Prizm, with is actually a rebadged Toyota Corolla, but the stigmatism is the Geo is cheaper, so it a) has less resale value, and b) is considered less reliable, even though its the same exact car.

Just some general observations.

But for your specific question, brake lines can be repaired, but depending on why its leaking (such as severe rust) you're much better off replacing the entire section....assuming you like brakes working all the time :)

Well, of course there are generalizations. I never expected my post to be taken as absolute fact in every example. I just get tired of those prejudices making people skew their opinions about what car to buy.

BMW is a perfect example. Its generally a rock-solid, well-engineered car. the other assumption is that its insanely expensive to maintain. Owners expect $100 oil changes and $50 air filters. Truth is, they are a normal car that is actually easier in most cases to work on than most of the American RWD stuff I tend to buy. The expensive repairs and maintenance that people associate with BMW is a marketing ploy and it works well because (according to BMW) 92% of their new-car buyers have ALL of their maintenance performed at a BMW dealer, regardless of whether or not its covered under the maintenance policy. That's huge. So huge that places like Quicky Lube places try to charge you a $30 premium on BMW oil changes, even though the filter is $5 just like any other car. Its a very carefully executed marketing strategy and other european makes have capitolized on it, including VW.

I was shocked to find that VW parts were cheaper than Chevy parts at my local parts warehouse, but I wish people would check that before they say blanket statements like "european cars are expensive." Its just not true.

Although this is a one-man experience and can't be translated to generalization, I carefully document all maintenance on all of my vehicles. I have 6 American cars ranging from 65 to 96, one 97 Japanese car, an 87 VW and an 87 BMW. The highest mileage I have on my American cars is 98,000. The BMW has 233,000 miles. By FAR, the BMW has the least maintenance cost of ALL of my vehicles. It rarely breaks something and when it does, the parts are cheap and supremely easy to replace.

Sometime compare the time it takes you to replace an alternator on a Saturn versus one on a BMW. Its the little things that impress me.

But... UncleBob, you're right... we're hacking on the difference between generalization versus individual experience. Any car can be a lemon. :)

so ive decided to stick with my dads old taurus.. that i got for free! hehe
he told me that theres a leak in the brake line and that it because it is rusted...
are there anyways i can fix this without replacing the whole set up?
and my dad said that the gears dont switch too well....:lol:
like when it gets to the certain speed it should switch but sometimes it doesnt..
any way i could fix this? or is it best to just replace the whole thing?

But... UncleBob, you're right... we're hacking on the difference between generalization versus individual experience. Any car can be a lemon. :)

won't argue with that

any way i could fix this? or is it best to just replace the whole thing?

you can buy brake lines by the foot, bend them to fit and its not too spendy. If the entire brake line is rusted out, you will probably end up replacing the entire thing either way, because they have a tendency to crumble once they rust up enough, makes them rather hard to flare/repair