The MK2 Volkswagen Jetta can be called the people’s car of China, its success together with the Santana in the Chinese market from the early 90s till well into the millennium the reason that Volkswagen is currently the most popular-selling car brand in China…although with the way ID4 sales are going this might be at risk in the future.
Anyways, the Jetta was also for a long time the most popular taxi-model in mainland China, and I remember very well often getting rides in examples pushing over 800,000km (600k miles)!
Taxi drivers loved them for their mechanical simplicity and robustness, but due to various reasons including up-coming stricter emissions requirements and pressure from Volkswagen AG for it’s Joint-Ventures in China to modernize their line-ups (somewhat to the company’s detriment, as you will read later below), FAW-Volkswagen ended production of the MK2 Jetta in 2012.
That didn’t stop some dedicated taxi-drivers from keeping these legends in-service for a couple more years, including this beautifully-tweaked example that I had the privilege to ride in back in 2015 in it’s hometown of Changchun, China’s Motorcity equivalent to Detroit, and where the Jetta was produced for over 20 years. This final-edition example had a striking custom body-kit (check out how it blends into the rear wheelarch!), sporty alloy-wheels, and a GT-Wing spoiler to top off the exterior treatment.
It was the interior, however, that took the cake:
Firstly, check out that Momo racing wheel and faux-crystal gear-knob!
And the custom-made leather headliner with red-stitching, and the crazy chandelier-like interior light!
And finally, checkout the beautifully-crafted leather door-cards with matching red stitching!
In all honestly, it was a fantastic experience to ride in this customized Jetta, and speaking with the owner it was clear he really loved his car. At the time, I was working at Volkswagen, and he also gave me some candid feedback that the new Jetta wasn’t a patch on the original MK2 in terms of durability, a point that was felt by the company fairly soon afterwards when Jetta fleet/ commercial sales fell off a cliff – many taxi companies turned to the SAIC-Volkswagen produced Lavida and other Korean and Japanese models instead.
The MK2 Jetta, however, was and will always remain a legend in the Chinese taxi world.
There was still a large number of these Jettas in service in Chengdu (where they were also built) and Dujiangyan in late 2017 when I was there, alongside newer local Jettas and a few C-Elysee. A lot of very dangerous driving.
Very cool that they kept on being used until recently, and100% agree – I really don’t miss putting my life in the hands of some of those taxi-drivers after they had a bad day/ a bottle of Baijiu 😉