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The 2001 to 2003 jetta, manual transmission cars are the MPG masters. I bought my 2001, 5sp in May of 2005 with 78,000 on it; it was stock. Today, I have 205,000 on it and it has been a wonderful car. Right after I got it, I had bigger injectors matched and installed, put a fueling box on it, had the EGR deleted, and had a flywheel/clutch upgrade to the VR6 Volkswagen parts - the stock clutch would not come close to holding 250+ ft.lbs. The car runs better than when I bought it and really didn't hook up well until third gear with stock size tires - now, I have 215/60R15s on it (wider but about the same diameter as stock) and it hooks up much better. I'm getting 46 to 49.5 mpg consistently. There are mpg geeks that use all the tricks (in a fun way) and do get incredible results. I just drive mine, with some spirit in my foot, and get the above results. And it's powerband is "in the meat" at 65 to 80 mph - lots of fun. One other trick that is done is to replace the fifth gear in the manual tranny with one with more overdrive ratio - these guys are getting 55mpg and a little more consistently on the highway with "normal" driving and no other tricks.
The stock venting on the 15 or so gallon tank is inconsistent for the average person filling up the tank. I manually vent my tank and fill to the top of the fuel neck tube each time and have done so since I had the car so I'm accurate to within an ounce or so of fuel. The venting on this small tank can actually and very easily add more than 1.5 gallons to a fill up after the fuel nozzle kicks off. You can see how this can really throw off the mpg calculations for those that don't understand how it works.
dieselgeek.com has a 100k mile upgrade kit for the 2001, 2002 cars for the timing belt. Water pumps are often and sensibly replaced when timing belts are changed because the belt drives the water pump.
If my engine died tomorrow, I'd buy another tdi jetta and rebuild mine. I think I'll get at least a couple hundred thousand more miles though. I use Amsoil exclusively and change oil about every 8 to 10k miles.
regards - redleg
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