2005 Volkswagen Jetta
This year drew an ordinary 248 complaints for a Volkswagen Jetta — the model's median is 190. What they were about is the unusual part: 15.3% of them mention trunk, against 5.8% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Volkswagen Jetta was redesigned for 2005. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 248 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 190 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 14 |
| Recalls | 7 |
| EPA combined | 24 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- trunk — 15.3% of this year's complaints, against 5.8% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: trunk, window, closed, release.
- new jetta — 6% of this year's complaints, against 0.6% across the other years of this generation (10.9×). Owners wrote it as: new jetta, 2005 new, volkswagen new.
- valve — 8.9% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: valve, body, valve body.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHILE IDLE CAR RUMBLES AND SHAKES, WHILE ACCELERATING OR DECELERATING CAR SHAKES (FRONT END). MY FUELING SYSTEM IS TERRIBLE IT SEEMS AS IF GAS SOMETIMES DOESN'T GET TO MY CAR IT STALES VERY OFTEN WHILE DRIVING OR BRAKING AND ACCELERATING AGAIN. TERRIBLE ELECTR…
WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 35 MPH, THE VEHICLE FAILED TO SHIFT GEARS. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO A DEALER. THE TECHNICIAN DIAGNOSED THAT THE VALVE BODY NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED; HOWEVER, THE FAILURE RECURRED. THE [VIN] WAS NOTIFIED OF THE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20E064000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 14E007000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 07V063000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 07V442000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING
- 05V305000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
- 04V586000 FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL
- 07E023000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen Jetta was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta? What happened to yours?
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