Peppy Driver: 1992 VW Jetta GLI 16-Valve
With its fender flares and BBS wheels, the GLI package added a bit of extra spunk outside to the Volkswagen Jetta, but you also got some cool seating inside and a more spirited powerplant under the hood than the standard GL. This 1992 VW Jetta GLI isn’t perfect but seems like it’s probably fun to drive, and at $8,500 it’s not going to break the bank either. We’d like to thank Barn Finds reader ToddK for spotting this one here on Craigslist out in South Reno, Nevada, and bringing it to our attention!
While the standard 1.8-liter Jetta motor was only good for 100 horsepower in 1992, stepping up to the GLI raised the size to 2.0 plus it was equipped with 16 valves making 134 HP instead, and being paired with a 5-speed stick-shift transmission I’m envisioning there’s some driving excitement to be experienced here. The seller says he obtained the VW back in 2021 with 114k miles on the odometer and since then he’s done a considerable amount of work, including new motor mounts, fuel injectors, a tune-up, and more, leaving an engine oil leak as one issue that the future owner may want to address. The sedan now has an additional 7k miles with the owner telling us it’s now running and driving great.
From a distance, the exterior appears to be in fine condition but upon a closer inspection, a few flaws can be spotted, such as some rock chips and scratches with a ding on the front part of the driver’s side front fender probably the most serious body issue outside. But even with these flaws the appearance is still more than decent enough for a driver if you ask me, so I’d probably just get behind the wheel and enjoy going through the gears and just live with the blemishes, at least for a while.
Some cracks in the dash are kind of an eyesore, but otherwise, the interior still seems pretty good overall with those Recaros looking comfortable and inviting. There’s also a sunroof up above for a little extra enjoyment on nice days, which shows no corrosion or other damage hiding inside the crevices, and the seller also states that his VW is a rust-free example. This one seems like it would be a fun car to own and operate, and other than a few cosmetic issues to deal with at some point down the road, for $8,500 I’m not finding a whole lot here to complain about. How about you?
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Comments
The listed price is a steal for a low mileage GLI 16V with Recaro seats in good condition. This won’t last long!
These added credence to the expression, its more fun to drive a slow car fast, than a fast car slow 🐌
Ah, but they’re not slow! My mum had an 8-V Gti that she bought new in 1990 and I spent a lot of time running around the Borders in it.
VW has always made great cars, but never seemed to make it past the Rabbit. The Bug was history, the Rabbit was the car of the future, yet the Jetta never seemed to get there. When I rented a car last summer, the ad said “VW Jetta, or equivalent”. When I got there, their “equivalent” was a Kia Soul, that I hated, and was disappointed it wasn’t the VW. I guarantee, that trip would have been much better with the VW. This time period was kind of the beginning of the “see dealer for service”, and I’m not sure I’d want to mess with a car like this, your mechanic will put another level on their house, thanks to you. Try as they might, they just can’t compete with the Asians, and I hear VW is scaling back, with layoffs as the car is no longer deemed competitive. I just don’t get it. Asian cars are so popular, yet the VW, I consider twice the car falls short. I just don’t get it.
The Golf GTI now lists for over $40k, and the Type R, lists at $48.5k with a DSG gearbox. So much for the Golf and Jetta as “econoboxes”! No other Golfs are for sale in the USA, now that everybody is buying “crossovers” and SUV’s. I wonder how much longer the Jetta will hang on, since it costs almost as much as the larger Passat. My brother was shopping for a Jetta, and saw a special deal on the larger and more luxurious Passat, and bought a 2022 Passat instead.
Back in the day, I had a GTI and the wife had a Jetta of this vintage… Fantastic cars… comfortable, reliable, competent chassis, entertaining to drive… …and easily serviced by mere mortals with basic tools. Fast forward 30 something years. Wife has a Passat, I have an Audi… Both competent vehicles, but massively over complicated… what are car manufacturers thinking?… With the tech available today, things should be easier to maintain, not harder. Had to go buy new tools to handle the “triple square” fasteners… normal nuts and bolts wouldn’t do VW?.. With the Audi one can’t even change the battery without a fairly sophisticated OBD debug tool to “adapt” the car… And no oil dip stick!!… Ridiculous… Rant over…
It’s not entirely the automaker’s fault. Blame the “Gubmint”! Between the triple bogeys of emissions, fuel economy and safety, much of that complexity is mandated by law! The Government is essentially saying to the automakers” “Follow the rules, and we’ll get along. Break the rules, and I can make your life VERY, VERY UNPLEASANT!” How unpleasant? Just ask VW after Dieselgate, LOL!
Loved these cars! My cousin had a red one like this and we were reminiscing about it a few evenings ago over dinner. The BBS wheels and Recaro seats were awesome. Unfortunately it had some reliability issues and she had to get rid of it.
I had an 1985 example with the eight-valve motors as my first brand-new car out of college. Making payments on a four-year auto loan meant that when the 16V version came out in 1986, I couldn’t afford to trade it in for the 16V version. I ordered it with the radio prep package and bought a single-DIN mount aftermarket AM-FM-CD player for it. The installers had to fabricate mounts for the door speakers, because the factory didn’t provide any door speaker mounts until the 1986 version, in the form of speaker mounts with door pockets, which I promptly ordered and installed through the parts counter.
Starting in late 1986, I took a job with a 125 mile round-trip commute, and was putting 45k miles a year on the car, which had a serious Achilles Heel. The GLI’s got a different transaxle than the base Jetta’s, to handle the extra power and torque, but the beancounters forced the engineers to delete a ten-cent circlip from one of the transaxle’s intermediate shafts. The only thing holding the intermediate shaft in place was a machined “lip” at the end of the shaft. When that lip wore down enough, the shaft would punch a hole into the transmission case, and all of the gear oil would leak out, destroying the transaxle! Base Jettas and Golfs did NOT have this problem! I still had six months of payments to go on a four-year loan when the first transaxle died at 90k miles in 1989. My mechanic replaced the transaxle with one from a wrecked Golf GTI that had only 15k miles on it. That transaxle lasted about 60k miles before it self destructed at 150k miles. The next transaxle made it to about 210k miles, before I finally got smart, and had the third (3rd) replacement transaxle rebuilt before installing it in the car. There replacement transaxle #3 remained until I gave the car to my sister-in-law with the odometer broken and stuck at 285k miles. Just as an FYI, I insisted that the transmission shop replace the circlip that the factory beancounters had removed as part of the rebuild. Salvaged transmissions were less than half the cost of factory rebuilt replacements from the VW parts counter, with no guarantee that the factory units wouldn’t have the same problem. Brand new replacement transmissions from VW weren’t available at any price, and again, even if you could get a brand-new unit from VW, there wasn’t any guarantee that the new unit would contain the offending circlip.
The Jetta also had some wiring issues, most notably that the forty-pin master connector melted under the dash because the wires and connector pins for the Rear Window Defroster were too small to handle the current. Being newly-minted electrical engineers, we bypassed the connector with heavier-gage wire, “fast-on” terminals and heat shrink tubing, but the wiring wasn’t up to the usual standards I had come to expect from German engineering.