Hayabusa Rider
Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
- Jan 26, 2000
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I like the looks of the B5.5 better. A turbo 300 hp V6 is sweet too. Yes there are bum Passats, but as a whole they are pretty good. As I alluded to in another thread, models that suck (and there is no excuse for that) bring down good ones. The New Beetle did not exactly have a great track record. Hard to tell from the pics, but it looks smaller to me. Not a good thing if true.
i noticed that too.
and it's not only the lights. i know some owners whose various electrical components are having problems.
I know a guy whose brand new passat had a transmission problem where it was stuck in 4th gear. One time we had to drive somewhere on the weekend before he got it fixed and it took us 5 mins to get to 35, and then boom, there is a red light, here we go again 
Also, I went to stinson beach on highway 1, and what do I see in the parking lot, a brand spanking new A6 with a huge pool of oil underneath it, and a mighty pissed owner. Sucks to get stuck up there.
But the light problem is really obvious and stands out. I frankly like the design of VW's and their interiors, but there is no way in hell I would buy one with these horror stories.
Also, I went to stinson beach on highway 1, and what do I see in the parking lot, a brand spanking new A6 with a huge pool of oil underneath it, and a mighty pissed owner. Sucks to get stuck up there.
But the light problem is really obvious and stands out. I frankly like the design of VW's and their interiors, but there is no way in hell I would buy one with these horror stories.
And that means what? 2 cars with 50K miles on them does not make a statistical sample. Maybe you got lucky, maybe not.
WOW, 50,000 miles on not ONE but TWO of them????
that must be some sort of new world record.
please direct urself to the JD power reliability thread/link where you will see VW/audi getting their asses handed to them on a gold platter by even domestics.
oh, and you can STFU while you're on your way over there. thank you very much.
Hayabusa Rider
Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
- Jan 26, 2000
- 50,879
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I don't know which was more shocking.... the fact that they both made it to 50k, or that he was dumb enough to buy a 2nd VW.
If they're anything like the POS passat I drive right now, I'll be the first one to aim a nuke at the passat plant, and do the world a favor.
How about the fact that the two VW's that I've had experience both have needed complete overhauls after 60,000 well maintained miles? How about the fact that the engine designs are about the most service-unfriendly available. How about the fact that hardly any mechanics (outside of dealerships) will touch a VW, and if they will, they charge a high premium?
VW sucks donkey nuts. End of discussion.
N8Magic
Lifer
- Dec 12, 2000
- 11,624
- 1
- 81
I'm sorry to hear that, but people get lemons from any car manufacturer, not only VW. Was the problem fixed to your satisfaction? (I hope so.)
Regarding the serviceability of the engines, perhaps that would just be a local thing? One has to consider that VW's are imports, and a great number of mechanics don't like dealing with imports or vice versa. As for the huge premium, if one has specialized knowledge who is anyone to say he/she can't charge a premium for it?
nonono... It's just VW's that they won't service. All other imports are fine. Their reason was that VW has used proprietary computer/codes that require specialized equipment to deal with, and that (as I mentioned) their engines have a history of being very difficult to service: poor placement of certain components, expensive parts, etc. The ones that will service a VW (at least that I've found) charge a higher fee to service VW than any other car they work on.
BTW, I ditched my first VW onto the MS Society. Unfortunately, my fiance has a Passat, and we're still trying to work out all the problems.
N8Magic
Lifer
- Dec 12, 2000
- 11,624
- 1
- 81
Weird.
The equipment needed to do all of the computer diagnostics (Link) called a VAG-COM is not all that expensive. I know of a few people that own them. As for poor placement of certain components i've never run into trouble, and i've worked on my 02 TDI and also my roommates 92 Passat (2.0L) and 95 Golf (1.8L). All three were easy enough to work on and I never ran into any major hassles.
Sorry to hear of your bad expeience.
Beau,
Sorry to hear that you had problems with your vehicles, what version of the Passat did/do you and your fiance own? If it was the original version (B4), then yes that was a very poorly executed platform which was manufactured in Mexico. The newer, post '98 versions (B5 and B5.5), are nearly identical cousins to the Audi A4 and are a significant improvement over the previous platform. Granted no car is without faults and VW is not at the top of the reliability list but when you compare the Passat (and not the other VW A4 platforms) to other European brands it generally fairs pretty well.
Now, for those who made the blanket statement that VW trails the American brands, you can believe what you want. I got rid of my '97 Explorer because of CONSTANT problems, it had less than 50k miles and the second I got one thing fixed something else would go wrong 2 days later. It took 6 trips to the dealer to diagnose a broken transmission mount because they refused to do a road test, nope, they knew what to do, leave it up to them, blah blah blah. Check Edmunds or the NTSB and check out how many TSB's there are for a typical American car; my Explorer had over 370 TSB's!!! while my Passat has about 9 (if I remember correctly). TSB's can be generalized as engineering/design problems which aren't enough of a safety hazzard to warrant a full recall yet crop up often enough to have special repair procedures created just to fix them.
Again, I have to say that VW does not sit atop the JD Powers initial satisfaction list (last time I looked, it was frickin' Jaguar, go figure?!?!), but for me there is more to a vehicle than just saying "it never has anything wrong with it". I purchased a used '01 Passat because it was fun to drive, solid, and I didn't see the exact same thing at every stop light (*cough* Civic *cough*). On top of those qualities, there was also the ability to add significant power with relative ease. I spent $350 on a Wetterauer chip which gave me a documented 35% power increase. Now I can light up the traction control light in second gear on dry pavement, I can obliterate slower traffic on the highway without downshifting, it will pull to about 135 - 140 mph, and it still gets 28 mpg at 75 mph. All with a 10 minute upgrade.
So say what you will about a particular vehicle, but unless you actually own/owned one, don't bother jumping into a thread just to blindly rehash ad nauseum what magazines have written; we can read also.
The W8 was the dumbest idea on earth......who wants a 40k VW? Any smart person would get an audi and get pure luxury.
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