Ken,

Take a closer look at the warranties.  VW's standard 2 year/24K warranty
would probably be insufficient for such a high-mileage driver.  VW's
also tend to be somewhat temperamental and parts are expensive.  My last
Honda Civic, with 3 year/36K warranty, I drove to 96k with NO problems
whatsoever, save for those resulting from an accident I was in.  For
dependability, it's hard to beat a Honda.  On the other hand, Jettas are
so much more fun to drive, are eminently tweakable, and a friend of mine
has 400K on his TDI with few problems.

Just a few thoughts,
Marc Perdue
'87 Westfalia
'00 Passat Variant, 1.8T

KENWILFY@AOL.COM wrote:

> My friend is a long distance daily driver (commutes three hours or
> more every
> day each way to work and back!).  I have grown weary of fixing his 15
> year
> old Hondas every weekend so I am trying to talk him into buying a new
> car
> with a warranty plan, etc.
> So last night I spent a few hours at www.autobytel.com.  I went there
> thinking that there was no way that my friend could afford a VW since
> they
> were higher priced than the other cars in their class and for no good
> reason.
>  So I checked out Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and just for the
> heck of
> it, Jetta and Golf as well.  What I found was very surprising to me.
> The
> Hyundai, which is the cheapest cars to buy, actually worked out to be
> almost
> identical to the Jetta and Golf (the Elantra was more expensive) to
> buy and
> own for five years!  The Toyota Corrola (the most boring car ever
> concieved
> by mankind) was similarly expensive and on par with the Jetta or Golf
> when
> you added little things like Air Conditioning, and Power Steering
> (Hello
> automakers, these are no longer options!).
>
> The only two cars I found that seemed cheaper and a good value to buy
> over
> the Jetta or Golf were the Nissan Sentra and the Honda Civic.  Both
> were
> rated very high, they got good fuel mileage and came with a lot of
> standard
> equipment.  However the make or break it might be in the warranty.  I
> know
> VWs 100k mile drive train warranty is good, but I don't know what kind
> of
> warranty Honda or Nissan offer.  The Jetta and Golf I looked at were
> the TDI
> model and got 49 mpg highway burning the now cheaper diesel fuel, so
> factoring this in the Jetta and Golf may still come out cheaper in the
> long
> haul than the other two.
>
> Conclusion, even though I went into this research with the bias
> opinion
> against the VWs, I was so impressed by the price and option comparison
> that
> now I am leaning heavily in that direction for my friend.  Any input
> from TDI
> Jetta or Golf owners is welcome.
>
> Thanks,
> Ken Wilford
> John 3:16
> www.vanagain.com
> Phone: (856)-765-1583
> Fax: (856)-327-2242