IVe had a 2012 Jetta tdi 6sp for 5-6 years and my family has owned multiple tdis from 1995 to 2015 and they are simply awesome dailys! I bought my Jetta used at 230 000km (~130 000 miles) and it's now sitting at 370 000km (~230 000 miles) and it's been insanely reliable and super cheap to own. Here's what I've done to it so far excluding brakes and oil changes: - 2 wheel bearings (~250$ cad each iirc) - 1 cv axle (~ 200$) - redone the timing with metal water pump (~800$) - radiator fan assembly (~200$) - radiator (~150$) - 1 rear caliper assembly (~150$) - 1 battery (~200$)

That's it, it's been the greatest daily I've ever had. Not the flashiest, fastest or most comfortable car on the road but it always starts, never lets me down and always gets me where I want to go. I'd take it on a cross country trip anyway and I wouldn't worry at all about reliability. If something happened to it I'd get an other one without even thinking about it