What do you know about the VW Passat?

[cantdrv55]

Looking at a VW Passat for a daily driver. It's a 2001.5 GLS wagon w/1.8 turbo engine. Nice looking car with all the amenities and safety features. Thing is it's got 106k miles and I've heard that VW has had problematic cars of late. It's pretty cheap though ($8k), looks nice, rides very well and quick. What are your thoughts?

[Moneyguy1]

Wife has a 1993 VR6.

When it runs, it is a joy to drive. When it breaks down, part$ are expensive. Don't know much about the 1.8 liter engine, though.

[sammyg2]

One of the most unreliable cars out there, based solely on the polls and ratings and not personal experience. Of course there is a reason i don't have personal experience with a modern VW.

[MattKellett]

We recently bought our Passat wagon, and I cannot say enough how much I enjoy driving this car. We got a pretty good deal on a car owned by a VW exec with only 8k. I think my only concern would be the miles on the car you are looking at. I would concider how long I intend to keep the car . The 1.8 engine has been around a while now, used in Golfs to Audi A4's, and certainly can easly be modified if this is something you desire. But I would think for maybe $12k, if you can stretch this far you would be able to find a car with many less miles.

My main reason for the Passat was space and utility. I looked at every other wagon on the market, and non have better interior space for the price. We needed a car for 4 adults to travel maybe 5 hours in comfort, with luggage. The only others that came close where either Audi A6, BMW 5, Volvo or MB E class, but the cost was too much for me. I didn't concider the Dodge Magnum! The Subarus , great performers as they are, were just too cramped in the back.

Hope this helps, although I have too few miles (20K) to give any idea of long term reliability.

[sprio]

I bought my Passat wagon new in January 2000. Now has 90k on the clock, and other than replacing tires and scheduled maintenance, I have had no problems with the vehicle. Its been on a number of long distance trips between Maine and Tennesee, and is comfortable to drive, responsive and good on gas (around 30-32 mpg highway with the 5 speed). I will keep it until it dies. As I recall, I paid around $20k new.

[URY914]

My wife drives our 2005 1.8 turbo wagen with a triptronic tranny. I love driving it. No problems that were't covered by the warrenty.

[NICKG]

Originally posted by sammyg2
One of the most unreliable cars out there, based solely on the polls and ratings and not personal experience. Of course there is a reason i don't have personal experience with a modern VW, IMO there is a good reason for that.

the polls lie. i worked a at dealer when they were new till 2 years ago. they are very reliable cars. most of the recurring problems have had fixes done by now..many of the problems are not from VW rather the owners tend to do stupid stuff. They have a sludge problem on the engines if they did not have regular oil changes...look at the oil cap and under the valve cover thru the oil fill hole...

[Harold_89_911]

The wife has a 2002 wagon with the 1.8T and 5-spd. It's a fantastic car for the money (even when we bought it new). I have done the maintenance myself and we have had no big problems. Parts are pretty easy to get. Make sure to use synthetic for oil and stick to the schedule. Also, the VW schedule for changing the TB is way too optimistic (105K). 60K to 80K seems to be a lot safer, especially since the TB failure is bad with the interfering engine. So it you take care of the oil and the TB, the engine is pretty much bullet proof and I would have no concerns with 106K.

Just yesterday, we finished driving ours from the LA area to Boulder CO (1100 miles). Car loaded down with family of four, cargo box on the roof, airco on most of the time, lots of mountains, and doing 80 on the speedometer (probably more like 75), we still got 29.9 mpg average. The best part was going on Vail pass and the Eisenhouer pass since a lot of engines loose power at high altitude but you don't have that problem with a turbo. We were leaving most cars in the dust on the climb.

My wife drives it fast enough as is, but if it were my car I would spend the $300 on a new chip to raise the turbo pressure from 0.7 to 1.1 bar which would bring the HP from about 170 to 217. The engines are very easy to mod and there are a lot of BBS on this car.

Have the car checked out and if it is a good one, they can be great cars.

[HardDrive]

Originally posted by NICKG
[B]the polls lie. i worked a at dealer when they were new till 2 years ago. they are very reliable cars. /B]

Polls lie?

Oh Puuuulease. There will be plenty of folks who drive VWs, and have no problems. But statistically , you are more likely to have problems.

VW is in deep ***** right now because they have totally alienated their key demographic: Middle age folks looking for their next car. People bought their cars when they were in school, or shortly there after, and went through worlds of crap. Now that they are moving into their 30s, they won't touch VW with a 10ft pole. I'm one of them.

I have a VW beetle with the 1.8. It was good car for about 50k, then.....yikes. Damn car started falling apart.

[jkarolyi]

I recommend against. Loved mine, until it committed suicide:



Fuel lines mounted over exhaust manifold...brilliant! Full story here:

Ever had your car catch on fire? My story w/pics.

[Hawktel]

Love my GF's.

She has a 01. 5 speed, with the 1.8 Turbo. Its been very reliable. We had 2 faults. 1 the check engine light went on, Reset the code, and hasn't came on from that time. Additionally a light came on because there was a airbag fault. Covered under warrenty.

She bought it with 40K on it. We are at 60 K. I have done most of the maintence myself. I don't have the computer to do the stuff with the codes, so it goes to a trusted local shop.

Its the most comfortable car for a big person I've ever had. At 6'8, 350 pounds, I can run the seat back on its rails to the fullest, and have plenty of leg room. It drives well, no problem cruising at 120. The 1.8 turbo is peppy for the car, and it can get out of its own way when driving it around. You do need to get use to the turbolag a bit I found. We have driven it from here in SLC to vegas several times, LA, San Francisco, and will be going to Oregon here at the end of the month. We get 29-30 mpg from it.

[NICKG]

Originally posted by HardDrive
Polls lie?

Oh Puuuulease. There will be plenty of folks who drive VWs, and have no problems. But statistically , you are more likely to have problems.

VW is in deep ***** right now because they have totally alienated their key demographic: Middle age folks looking for their next car. People bought their cars when they were in school, or shortly there after, and went through worlds of crap. Now that they are moving into their 30s, they won't touch VW with a 10ft pole. I'm one of them.

I have a VW beetle with the 1.8. It was good car for about 50k, then.....yikes. Damn car started falling apart.

I wrote my thesis on lying with statistics...I know what I am saying. Having worked a a vw dealer 80% of the time the problems were defective owners...no oil changes= bad turbo. Jiffy lube tranny service = burned up tranny(vw used special oils in there) where is that VW's fault? The later passats were as bulletproof as any honda is.
did you gat all the recalls done on your car? coils, window regs, door panels, window switchs? fuse box, battery wires, gas door release etc? I just bought a new gti , I am 35. I have always owned vw's and have had every generation Gti there was so far. I am somewhat dismayed by your comments, but io do understand them. condiers this...my daily driver is a 96 mexican a3 golf. 2.0 5 speed. it has 448k miles on it as of yesterday and has only used 1 clutch and 2 sets of brake rotors...it gets 38 mpg highway and travels everydayt with no complaints..sure it is rusty as heck and ugly, but the ac is 38 degrees and the heat is great in the winter...4 snows and I can go anywhere.

[Ronbo]

Wife has a 2001.5 sedan with the 1.8T and 5-speed. It's got about 90K miles and the only problem other than routine mantenance was a failed coil pack at around 20K miles, which was replaced under warranty.

[HardDrive]

Nick, I understand where you are coming from, and there are certianly instances where statistics do not tell the whole story. If you look at how low Mercedes quality ratings are currently, is this a function of their cars being bad, or do Mercedes owners represent a demographics that is not going to put up with even the smallest problem? Not to stereotype, but I'm thinking Mercedes owners are more quality concious than hyundai (SP?) owners.

[Dave L]

I had a 2000 GTI VR6, the car was in the shop longer than any other car i have ever owned, twice for a week at a time. When traded in at 27months, 3 months after the warranty expired, the alarm would randomly go off and the locks would work intermitintly and the rear wiper washer would spray all over the car. I hear somepeople love VW's and I have to admit the GTI was a really really nice car but I have never had a worse car.

As my first new car i looked after it very well and only had it serviced at an Audi VW Porsche dealer. the car when traded in had just over 50,000KM. I guess I got a bad one

[coldstart]

A co-worker had one with the 1.8T. It was in the shop regularly and then it broke down during a funeral procession and that was the last straw for him.

Personally, I think that VW makes great looking but overpriced and unreliable cars. I can't understand why anyone would pay $20K+ for a Jetta built in Mexico. At least the Passat is built in Germany so hopefully it is of better quality.

[Dave L]

My GTI was build in Germany, it didnt seem to help much.

[BlueSideUp]

I have owned a '99 Passat 1.8t and a 2002 Jetta 1.8T. The Passat was the most reliable car I have ever owned. It never had one problem. The Jetta was the biggest piece of crap car I have ever owned. The Jetta was a wagon so it was also built in Germany.

I maintained the Passat myself and followed the maintenance schedule exactly. Always use synthetic oil and good oil filters or you'll have sludge issues (have you seen the size of the turbo?). Always bleed the brakes at 20K or 2 years or you'll be buying an expensive ABS pump at some point. Always make sure the front control arms are correctly installed, many were installed incorrectly by the factory and subsequently by the dealers. The front control arms will fail within 10K if not correctly installed, mine were perfect after 75K and that included three track sessions.

The Jetta was dealer maintained and I'd say around 50% of the crap that went wrong was the dealer's fault. The techs just didn't know how to work on the car properly. The car ended up being returned under lemon law, we purchased it as Certified Pre-Owned.

I loved my Passat as it was very roomy and gave great gas mileage. With the original 195/65R15s it got about 35mpg on the highway and with 225/45R17s it was more like 32mpg.

I think they are great cars but the early reliability was poor because of a combination of bad parts suppliers and poor dealer service.