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My dad bought a '96 Golf GL 2.0 5-speed new, and has hardly put anything into it. The normal wear stuff has worn out (tires, brakes, belts, hoses, filters, still has original but worn out exhaust), but nothing major has broken and the car has always run reasonably well during the 85K miles it now has. Gets 26mpg no matter how hard he drives it (up to 32mpg at steady low speed highway driving). With a totally stock suspension on the Golf, the handling isn't too bad, and not far off from my modified 240. With some H&R coilovers, front/rear strut bars, 25mm/28mm sway bars, and some good tires on 15" wheels, it would out handle my 240. The Golf also does 125mph with no engine mods.
What year Jetta are you considering? A late MkIII 2.0 ('96-'98) probably won't cost too much to buy and maintain if the mileage is low. The VR6 is a sweet engine, but I'd be concerned about longevity (headgasket), and watch out for the 2nd gear crunch on the VR6 manual trans. My mom had a '93 Passat VR6 5-spd that was pretty good, but the car felt worn out at only 80K. It was replaced with a '00 Jetta VR6 5-spd just a few months ago, so I can't say much about it yet (I've never even driven it). Overall, the MkIII and later VW's are generally good cars, but they will wear out sooner than a Volvo in many cases. If you're looking at newer VW's, the 1.8T is a really nice engine, and would be my choice ahead of the VR6/V6.
I just read a post at vwVortex.com today where someone posted some pictures of his odometer at 200,000 miles. Most of the people who responded were surprised at the mileage, asking how the car was doing at 200K. That's a major difference between a RWD Volvo and a VW, 200K in a Volvo isn't surprising, nor is it rare. If you don't want to fix and upgrade the Volvo, then VW isn't a bad choice, however, you should be able to make your car handle well with IPD sway bars, bilstein shocks, a strut tower brace, and improved tires/wheels. I know I'd have a hard time giving up a Volvo turbo for any VW (except maybe a Corrado). 10-11psi and a 2.5" exhaust would be a nice improvement too if you're running stock boost/exhaust.
Good luck.
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