WTB: MkIV Jetta TDI

In the market for one quickly, as I think my BMW Touring is sold.

Needs to be a manual, not concerned with exterior appearance (dents, scratched paint, etc), as the car will eventually get cut up (literally) during a Smyth G3F build. Would prefer one with at least reasonable maintenance records. My plan is to DD it for now, until my kit shows up later this year. Given that timeframe and that I live in North Florida, working A/C is a must.

New to TDIs, so advice welcomed.

From a quick CL scan, I hope to cap the purchase price at $5k. Ready to buy quickly.

Most likely to find a car with records on tdiclub.com, although cars posted there tend to get a premium.

Did you put a deposit down on one of the beta kits?

Working A/C is nice. It works very well.

Ian F wrote: Most likely to find a car with records on tdiclub.com, although cars posted there tend to get a premium.

Agreed. Those folks need to lay off the drugs!

Did you put a deposit down on one of the beta kits?

Yes I did!

Working A/C is nice. It works very well.

It's a must here in sunny old Florida.

Yeah.. it's a catch-22. The prices are high, but there's a better chance the car will have been maintained properly by a tdiclub forum member. And proper maintenance is EVERYTHING when buying a TDI. Otherwise, it's a crap-shoot.

IMO, the cars are very DIYer friendly, but at the same time, you can't be cheap about it and have accept $7/qt for oil and $15/gal coolant from the dealer. But if you've come from a BMW, this shouldn't be a surprise.

I'm looking forward to hearing how the beta-kits look. From what I've seen thus far, he is a looooong way from that point. But Mark is nothing if not dedicated, so hopefully I'll be wrong.

In the area where I live, a running engine+wiring harness from that year of car would be a good deal at $1500, and more like $5500 from an auto recyclers. Deals are out there though if you don't mind high mileage, my friend got a 98 tdi beetle with 225k on it for $1800 that drove home (it was rather scary though). Not to say that you wont find a good one under $5k, but its really more like a $7500 car, so when you find one for a good price act accordingly.

Ian F wrote: Yeah.. it's a catch-22. The prices are high, but there's a better chance the car will have been maintained properly by a tdiclub forum member. And proper maintenance is EVERYTHING when buying a TDI. Otherwise, it's a crap-shoot. IMO, the cars are very DIYer friendly, but at the same time, you can't be cheap about it and have accept $7/qt for oil and $15/gal coolant from the dealer. But if you've come from a BMW, this shouldn't be a surprise. I'm looking forward to hearing how the beta-kits look. From what I've seen thus far, he is a looooong way from that point. But Mark is nothing if not dedicated, so hopefully I'll be wrong.

Agreed. Enthusiast cars are more expensive, but often worth it. It just seems like the TDI club takes that to a new level.

I too am interested in seeing how the beta cars end up. I'm way down the beta list and my friend is beta builder #1, so I'll have plenty of time to decide how to proceed. Mark was generous enough to make our beta deposits fully refundable, so I'm not worried about losing it. And you're right, Mark seems totally dedicated to the effort. So much so, in fact, that he mentioned yesterday that he is selling all of his "toys" (cars, motorcycles, his Scarab) to fund the establishment of Smyth Performance as a legitimate manufacturer.

Forgot to ask...should I find a TDI with an automatic transmission, how problematic (and expensive) would it be to swap in a manual?

There have been auto-5sp conversions done on TDIclub. I think there's a current/long thread about one, although I haven't paid much attention to it.

IMHO, the car would have to be really, really cheap to consider it, since the cost of the conversion parts can easily exceed the cost of buying a good 5spd car in the first place.

Yeah... I saw on FB that he's selling his toys.

I suppose as I watch the construction process, the part that concerns me is all of the "measure twice, cut once" trimming required to the donor shell. It seems like there are an incredible amount of gut-wrenching pit-falls facing the builder during the process. Enough to make me think a more traditional kit (something like a compact GTM) that uses the Mk IV drivetrain, dash and wiring harness would be considerably more consistent and straight-forward to build, if a little more expensive as a kit.