Mondeo petrol for passat diesel?

heyjay14

Right I currently own a 1.8L petrol 2005 mondeo, 11 months left on NCT. Im sick of it costing me a fortune on petrol so I done abit of shopping. One garage has offered me a straight swap for a 1999 VW passat 1.9 TDI, just NCT'd.

Just looking for opinions on this as I dont know what to do?

Theres 126000 kms on my mondeo and 116000 miles on the passat.

Dr.Rieux

No dealer will give you a fair swap, will always be in his favour. Just nct'd on a 99 car means it only get one year so will be due around the same time as your mondeo.

How many miles do you do a year?

heyjay14

Dr.Rieux wrote: »

No dealer will give you a fair swap, will always be in his favour. Just nct'd on a 99 car means it only get one year so will be due around the same time as your mondeo.

How many miles do you do a year?

About 19000 ish

166man

heyjay14 wrote: »

About 19000 ish

With 19k miles a year, that sounds a very good deal in your favour. I'd be a bit wary tbh..

andyseadog

well a big dealer is never going to retail a 99 pisshat on his forecourt is her, whereas if he takes in a 05 mondeo, albeit petrol at least it has a fresh enough reg to be presented on a forecourt.

would i swap? at 19k miles per year, probably. a bit disheartening to downgrade 6 years to an (undoubtably) lesser spec'd vag. get him to put a bit of warranty on it and then its a good deal.

heyjay14

Im going to test drive it this afternoon anyway and ill see how she drives. To be honest I just need to start saving afew bob on fuel. At the moment im spending about 300 a month on petrol. Love the mondeo and I really dont like the idea of stepping back 6 years but needs must and it does seem to be a decent deal.

Schorpio

Are '99 diesel Passats really equal in value to 05 petrol Mondeos?! I would have thought the Passat would be worth somewhere between €1-1.5k and the Mondeo could fetch up to €3.5k, depending on spec.

Personally I wouldn't go for it. I'd try and shift my Mondeo privately and shop around for a daysul. As other posters have said, a garage will always swap in their favour.

Schorpio

'99 diesel Passat on DD looking for straight swap of 1.8 or higher petrol car. Coincidence? Probably. :pac: Linky.

heyjay14

Schorpio wrote: »

Are '99 diesel Passats really equal in value to 05 petrol Mondeos?! I would have thought the Passat would be worth somewhere between €1-1.5k and the Mondeo could fetch up to €3.5k, depending on spec.

Personally I wouldn't go for it. I'd try and shift my Mondeo privately and shop around for a daysul. As other posters have said, a garage will always swap in their favour.

Iv had the mondeo on donedeal for almost a month now at 2500 and not so much as a phone call.

Dr.Rieux

Is your ad well written? If you look at MetzgerMeister's ad for an example of a good ad http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/3571681

Schorpio

heyjay14 wrote: »

Iv had the mondeo on donedeal for almost a month now at 2500 and not so much as a phone call.

Ah. It's really a diesel market out there at the moment. A lot people looking at that size car aren't even considering the petrol engines, regardless of the mileage they'd be doing. I reckon it's still a value mismatch though, and I would find 6 years a big leap backwards in terms of a swap. €300 is a big monthly petrol bill. I presume you're getting mid-30s mpg from the Ford at the moment. The VW would likely return high 40s or low 50s.

Tea 1000

I'd be wary of a 13 year old Passat pretending to only have 116,000 miles!

166man

Tea 1000 wrote: »

I'd be wary of a 13 year old Passat pretending to only have 116,000 miles!

Yep I'd be motorchecking the sh1t out of a '99 Passat TDI with 116k miles.

macshadow

heyjay14 wrote: »

Right I currently own a 1.8L petrol 2005 mondeo, 11 months left on NCT. Im sick of it costing me a fortune on petrol so I done abit of shopping. One garage has offered me a straight swap for a 1999 VW passat 1.9 TDI, just NCT'd.

Just looking for opinions on this as I dont know what to do?

Theres 126000 kms on my mondeo and 116000 miles on the passat.

Would you consider an LPG conversion OP?
There was a thread here on motors about a boards member having the conversion done.
He seemed very happy with it, i can't seem to find the thread using the search.

heyjay14

Well i went and viewed it and took it for a test drive. Was happy apart from one thing, there appears to be rust in the coolant system. Has me abit worried

Dr.Rieux

Have you a link to it?

heyjay14

Dr.Rieux wrote: »

Have you a link to it?

No afraid not. The guy doesnt have a website and i cant even think of the name of it now for the life of me

heyjay14

Anyone know if the rust is something to worry about? Iv tryed used car expert etc and theres nothing to say this is a common problem with the passat. Iv seen it once before with an MG. Turned out the head was gone but then again it was an MG

The dealer said hed give it a flush and put new coolant in for me as the problem could be with the previous owner topping up the coolant with water. Could it be this simple or should i just walk away?

Dr.Rieux

Your best bet would be to ask someone on here like George Dalton about that, he knows his VAG stuff

Senna

It could just be discoloured from circulating around the inside of the radiator and never being flushed after 100k+. If its creamy coloured or there is mayo in the oil cap, then that would indicate a definite problem.
Get the car checked out by a mechanic to put your mind at rest.

heyjay14

heyjay14 wrote: »

............

The dealer said hed give it a flush and put new coolant in for me as the problem could be with the previous owner topping up the coolant with water. Could it be this simple or should i just walk away?

Impossible to know how bad or not the corrosion in the coolant system is, no one here can really offer the answer you need. A coolant system on a car is a closed system that doesn't need topping up (unless it's leaking coolant) so the garages suggestion isn't overly reassuring if they are correct.

It would be worth measuring the protection provided by the existing coolant mix temp wise, the results are crude enough but if there's a decent lash of antifreeze in there the inhibitor level should be ok too.

If there's just water in there or close to it than the garage are correct.

I can appreciate it's not easy to flog a 2005 petrol Mondeo but swapping for a 99 Passat seems looney to me.

If the Passat is an Irish car too online mileage checks are often not overly informative.

maidhc

Dont forget a Passat will probably reduce fuel costs, but it still won't run on air! You will save maybe €75 or €900 a year, which is noteworthy, but could be wiped out very quickly if the passat is not perfect in every way.

heyjay14

After thinking on it over night I think I might leave the passat. However I have been looking at a 01 1.4L petrol golf too. Need to look into the MPG of it however but it will have to be more eco then the mondeo.

maidhc

heyjay14 wrote: »

After thinking on it over night I think I might leave the passat. However I have been looking at a 01 1.4L petrol golf too. Need to look into the MPG of it however but it will have to be more eco then the mondeo.

The 1.4 Golf doesn't havew a great reputation for reliability. It does about 40mpg in Skoda Octavia form.

WitAce

Guys,

Don't sell your petrol cars or swap them for diesels. LPG is back. Conor Pope wrote a quite interesting article on it in Irish Times.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0724/1224320699978.html

He did mention this website on the radio as well:

www.lpg.ie

Francie Barrett

Tea 1000 wrote: »

I'd be wary of a 13 year old Passat pretending to only have 116,000 miles!

That kind of mileage screams of clocking.