I have owned my 99 VW Passat 1.8 T for about 2 years now. Bought it used (at 50K) under the VW Certified Preowned program.
I now have about 88K and am thinking about selling it to a relative, just because I am interested in getting something new.
It's actually been a good car -- just a very misunderstood one. Having owned Hondas before and older American cars -- owning a European car for the first time was a learning experience for me.....i think a lot of the reliability problems that surface on these boards (with the exception of bugs inherent in first model year releases) are due to lack of maintenance.....
With a Honda or Toyota, all you have to do is keep the oil changed and it will be trouble free until at at least 125K -- then even with repairs here and there, you can squeeze over 200K out of a properly maintained car. American cars are disposible -- we recently went to Cape Cod for a friends' wedding, rented a brand new Monte Carlo and drove it for the weekend.....when we came back to Atlanta, drove my old passat back from the airport and couldnt believe how much tighter it was than a brand new monte carlo.......
The only problems I have had with the car can all be attributed to the fact that the previous owner changed the oil every 7K (found this out a the dealer later, when I was having my car serviced):
*Two parts were clogged with oil sludge -- check engine light stayed on and car even shut down once*Replaced oil pump (had to pull some teeth for this one to get it covered under the VW Certified warranty)
*Catalytic converter went out at like 79,800 - barely covered under the 80K emissions control warrantySo -- this gets to my question. I want to get this car in good shape to sell to my relative. I would like to do the necessary repairs for the car to be trouble free.
# 1 -- what do i need to replace for preventative maintenance? anything other than the timing belt?
# 2 -- is 150K realistic for these cars? i always think used car ads are the best measuring stick as to how many miles you can realistically get out of a car...i see many 1.8T passats for sale with 140K plus...still with the original engines and transmissions......
# 3 -- i now know to .....always, always, always make sure the oil is changed at the dealer. It's the same price, offer saturday appointments and they have a nice cybercafe where you can wait. Ive made the mistake of taking it to Jiffy Lube -- they dont have the right filter and NEVER put enough oil in it.....which makes the valves tick...took me a while to figure out what the problem was.....
I also remember from childhood (im 30 now...so grew up in the
1980s).....having a couple of friends whose parents had VWs that they had for like 10 or 15 years......one had a Quantum wagon that she got in 1980 and was still driving when i was in high school, remember a lime green mid 70s Dasher wagon up the street was still around in the mid 80s, a Rabbit here and there......one friend had an Audi 4000 (about an 82 model..which i suppose wasnt that old in 87) and a VW Thing from the mid 70s......of course, not that this is a fair comparision, but I did have a neighbor with a 76 beetle that she drove until 1988....her husband got a new car every 3 years......I read a very apt quote recently off the BMW message board -- when comparing BMWs to Japanese cars... the Honda or Toyota will be more reliable, but the BMW will be more DURABLE.....I think of my Passat at
88K....steering is still tight, you can hear the doors thump when they shut, runs smoothly, it handles great......So, are these cars actually very durable -- but just not maintained properly by Americans?