Anyone have a Passat?

fred funk }{

Im thinking of buying a passat, maybe four to five years old. Does anyone know of any problems with these cars or tell me about the good things.

I have an Astra at the moment and have liked the Passats for a while so any info is appreciated,

Lyre61

personally I do not like them but I have two friends, one is on her third passat and she does really big mileage. The other guy is waiting for delivery on his fourth..so something is right with them. There can be problems with the early cars and the drive shafts, but it does not put people off as it is only the high mileage cars that seem to suffer.

SouperComputer

i have a 97....... things to look out for:

* Squeaky suspension struts (expensive to repair)

* ALWAYS run fully synth oil. Change oil regularly otherwise you may suffer a surge problem leading to engine failure. It occurs most commonly with castor and semi-syth oils.

* Some ignition problems related to poor coils.

That said, touch wood, I havent had a single problem with the car. After 90,000miles still feels strong. Very comfortable car, good stopping power with disks all round.

Only problem is that the 1.6 is woefully underpowered, a measly 90BHP.

Depending on your budget though, you may want to consider an Octavia.........

murphaph

I had a 98 TDI 90bhp, AHU engine.

Problems I had;

MAF failed, common enough problem on all VAG TDIs of that era.

Anti-roll bar drop link failed. VAG upgraded the design from a ball-joint type to a bushing type. I replaced both sides with the upgraded part-bought spurious from GSF of course. The job is quite straightforward if you DIY.

Front driver's side wheel bearing failed.

No other non-routine maintenance was required on this car which I had from 28k to 65k miles. The timing belt is a PITA compared to transverse engined cars and so it can be expensive to get it done. I did mine myself and it does take time. Parts are inexpensive.

The car is on 90k miles now (I know the bloke I sold it to) and hasn't had any other issues.

Problems that I'm aware of but didn't encounter are all to do with the front suspension. It has a very complex setup (8 control arms!) designed by Audi for the A4 and when things go wrong it can be difficult to correctly diagnose what's failed and expensive to replace bits, even spuriously.

VAG redesigned the suspension (tweaked lots of dimensions to take pressure off the various ball joints and bushings) on the 2001.5 model (different light clusters on the rear easily identify) and supposedly these give no trouble. VAG never formally admitted a problem with the original setup yet curiously recalled their cars in Germany only!

synchro

got a 1.6 passat comfrotline
absolutely fantastic car
be prepared to have some trouble with it
just make sure you find yourself a good mechanic
stay away rom the 1.6 petrol
make sure u get comfortline spec or higher
ideally go for the facelifted model from 2001 onwards
the passat diesels are best for both performance, economy and longevity
make sure you find yourself a good mechanic, most of the trouble i experienced with my passat was as a direct result of my mechanics incompetence-even though i went to a vw dealership for servicing

unkel

Colleague has a '00 1.6 petrol, 85k miles. It's a POS, he's dying to get rid of it after recently having spent more than €2k on it. Think he was offered a couple of grand as p/ex recently...

Cucullan

I was thinking of getting one these too, a mechanic I know has one and can't fault it. He did tell me though that the back struts (suspension thing I think) are common enough things to go on them other than that he's had no problems and he's on his second one. Maybe you'd like to buy my Octavia instead

bazz26

Also if going for a 1.8 version make sure the cylinder coils have been replaced. This was a problem with the VAG 1.8 20 valve unit a good couple of years ago but if your looking at 2001 models then this work should have already been carried out at this stage under the VAG recall.

As already mentioned the engine is mounted transversly so changing the timing belt is both time consuming and expensive.

As others have already mentioned too, there were alot of suspension problems with the 1997 to 2000 model but these seemed to have been redesigned in the facelifted model of 2001.

The pick of the range imo would have to be the 1.9 Tdi 110bhp or 130bhp version. The 130bhp version came with a 6 speed gear box from 2003.

daveg

I know a few people who have bought the TDI. Same Engine and suspension as the A4. Great car. One of the most spacious cars I've seen. Loads of room. Go for a 1.9 TDI 130 BPH if you can. The only problems these cars usually give are the arms/bearing issues (I hear the arms arn't as expensive as they used to be to replace - around €100 afaik) and the sensor to the air flow meter go on occasions. Great car imo.

Big Nelly

Bought a 00 Passat 1.9Tdi and havent had a problem yet.....milage is class on it.....full tank of diesel I get about 600 miles on long trips and at least 540-550 in town driving!!! which is some differnece than my old 1.6 which done abotu 350 max for the same tank full!!!

Only thing I have heard was from a taxi driver and he said to make sure the little tray under the hood that the water runs into doesnt get blocked because if it overflows it can cause serious damage! nothing else to report....I have a 90Bhp model and thought speed was ok but bro bought a 02 130Bhp one and she is a rocket.....going to chip now to get up to abotu 110bhp