Matt Marion from Michigan’s Jetta was approaching 500,000 miles, and called Volkswagen, probably to brag. They thought it was just as cool as he did, so they asked him to stop by his local VW of America’s office, located in Auburn Hills, Michigan; a suburb 33 miles from Detroit.
They agreed to go CSI on the auto to see how the miles had treated it. As you can see from the picture Matt was a careful motorist, or hit things only on the driver’s side, because the passenger side looks almost brand-new. Also looking brand-new were his pistons and cylinder walls. His intake and exhaust manifolds showed minimal carbonization, which is completely unavoidable. He did have to replace the catalytic converter a few times and he replaced the timing belt every 100,000 miles. He credits using synthetic 5w40, high grade sparkplugs, and premium gasoline. He also recommended using a fuel system cleaner every 10,000 miles. The foreman at the tech center and several other techs were blown away by the condition of the engine. They said it looked so good it could’ve ran another 500K
After the “auto autopsy” Matt sold the rest of the car to friend who restores Jettas to sell. Matt is eyeing the new Golf Turbo to replace his trusty companion.
One off Keffer’s employees has the non-turbo 2001 Jetta but has only racked up 134,000 on his. He has only had to do some minor work on the suspension, due to his driving it like he’s trying to qualify for a
Street Racing Championship, and he also had to replace both 02 sensors. He’s very excited that his Jetta has the potential to remain in service for a long, long time.
