yes they look like ex rental cars (this is NOT a bad thing) and if they are not uk spec they can only be eire ex hire cars.

Seems they have some 1.9 TDI diesel variants too, again exactly the same non-UK spec, same age, same miles, sell tell-tale signs its an ex-rental car.

Found some high res pics here - http://bit.ly/dm69KJ

all of them are either on KN (Northampton), Sa (Glasgow) or RO (Reading) numberplates...

are Wayside affiliated with arnold clark in any way? In the link above they are selling one of the Jettas with arnold clark written on the numberplate.

So far arnold clark, Motorpoint & Wayside... wonder if anyone else has them.

eDIT: They are from Thrifty car rental, Wayside forgot to remove the rear window sticker in one of their pictures.... http://www.supercar.co.uk/HighResImage.aspx?DefaultImage=wayside&Id=600872293&Uc=2&View=3

Edited by Twincharged on 21/03/2010 at 17:40

old arnold has certainly imported irish cars before - they were flogging Nissan tiidas (not a model officially sold in the UK - bit of a giveaway that!) not so long ago. i take it the "59" registrations reflect the original date of registration in ireland, and not when they were re-registered here?

edit: that's weird - the new forum software seems to be taking exception to some of my capital letters in this post....?

Edited by Typ 8L on 22/03/2010 at 15:39

Just checked with VW ireland, they are definetely not eiRe spec. an 'ireland Jetta' would have different style alloys, leather steering wheel and eSP, which these ones don't.

i'm also still intrigued as to why Wayside are selling them, when they are very clearly imported ex-rental cars, and have arnold clark stamped on the numberplate.

Since you can buy this car brand new from DtD for £14,493, a year old ex rental import with 10,000 miles on the clock for £12,000 doesn't seem much of a bargain to me.

i guess that the 1.4tSi is much more sought after than the 1.6 (and for good reason in my experience) ?

these cars actually have a slightly higher spec in some respects than their UK equivalents e.g. front foglights. one could always put the proper UK wheels on and keep / sell the others for winter use ?

From the internal pictures the spec looks equivalent to the standard UK car - cruise (i think) and the same trim ?

the Jetta has much worse residuals than the hatch in the UK (for whatever reason), these cars are based on the MKV Golf (i know the platform is the same) and not the MK6 so perhaps have the supposed weaknesses (rattles, noise) of that car ? they're immediately dated too of course.

as someone else says, probably a good buy if you're going to keep it until it's a banger, a friend has one (1.9PD, gruff as anything) and they're very capacious / comfortable.