OT: Wife Thinking Of Purchasing VW Passat GLX

[wishihad50k]

Its a 2000 Passat GLX with the V6. Anyone had any experience with these vehicles? Anyone have an opinion on VWs?

[western99]

You either get a good one or a bad one. There is no in between. Fortuanately my fiance's family has had 2 of them for quite some time now (97 & 2002 Jettas) and they have run perfectly. On the other hand, I have other friends that just curse their cars. The VR6 engine is a strong engine, but it is the electricals that are the headaches. If you ask me, I would stay away from a used VW without records. In my opinion I would just get her a 3 series. At least you will have the board and people you know who could help you out with any issues. Chances are you already know what those issues would be with a 3 series anyways, being a 5 series owner. VWs are nice cars to drive, but they could be a constant nag if you do not get the right one. If you are adamant on getting a VW do your homework, or else you will get burned.

Just my 2c

Brian

[DaCan23]

I often get into it w/ friends who are VW fans, as I am not. Western makes some good points. VW's may run forever which is what most people say, but their maintenance can be mroe than our E34s. Electricals are a mess, b/c VW often outsources their electronics to whoevers cheapest at a given time. So it always changes and the reliability of some of the cheap asian stuff can be suspect. I think the 2000 Pasat may fall into that ignition coil failover range. Funny thing is... whenever I was single, an automatic disqualification for a girl was if she drove a VW/Audi. Its such a wanna be trendy car company, reaping the benefits of popularity w/ junk.

Interesting was some time ago there was a rumor VW was looking into establishing a US plant... I wondered why... was it to transfer operations from Mexico which build a lot of crap... or from Germany... but if from Germany then they might be producing more crap. Even BMW had a few bad years and still has some issues w/ South Carolina... To me VW will get away with whatever the can to make an extra buck.

Lately I hate VW even more because I cant stand companies that cross models over brands... Pasat = A4, TT = Boxster, Tourag = Cayenne.... Most engines cross between Audi & VW.... the cars have no identity... and it cheapens the brand... It's just as bad as Ford using buick parts in a Jaguar.... or Mercedes givin parts to Chrysler...

[bjl4776]

As far as performance goes, a buddy of mine had 2000 jetta VR6 5sp and we were always neck and neck in my '92 525i 5sp when it was stock. But im sure your wife doesnt care about that :)

[Bill R.]

shop that i worked at was a vw/porsche shop... I loved volkswagens then...
All of them that i work on now, since about the mid nineties are some of the worst cars that i have seen...and its a shame considering how good they used to be... Way too many problems with them now.. electrical glitches galore,transmission failures, engine ... I would not buy a volkswagen now. And my wife still likes them appearance wise but I make it a point to show her every time i have one come in with low miles and big problems....






Its a 2000 Passat GLX with the V6. Anyone had any experience with these vehicles? Anyone have an opinion on VWs?

[everest]

I had a 96 Jetta GL before my 93 525 and I was happy to get rid of it. Out of the many things that went wrong with it (engine problems, AC problems, oil leaks, etc., 2 burned out stereos & a burned out amp), the last and final thing was pretty retarded - the ignition switch just plain broke. I had to get a new one put in, but they didn't match the key to the door, thus, I had to use two keys. That was the final straw for me. Another thing that bugged the hell out of me was the fact that there was no light in the trunk. What were they thinking!! I won't ever buy VW again.

[Kalevera]

Dan...Ford doesn't own Buick, mate :) But I get your point, just being an ass :)

Best, whit

[everest]

I always knew that VW = Audi, but I never knew that Tourag = Cayenne. I just noticed on the freeway the other day how they look nearly identical. Is this really true?

[BobHarris]

I had a '91 Passat before my first bimmer.

They say "nothing in life is as reliable as a Volkswagon."

This may be true as I could rely on mine to go wrong at least once a week.

[wishihad50k]

Wow, thanks for the heads up. The whole story here is that my wife ran into someone who banks at one of the smaller credit unions in town and she told her that they had a bank repoed 2000 VW Passat. So we went and checked it out and it looked really nice inside and out and ran great. So we put a small bid in of $8200 (the car blue books for $12,000). The bank called us a few weeks latter and said that we had won the bid and that everyone else who bid on it after us backed out because they had no records of things like gen. stuff and timing belt etc. So I ran a quick carfax and found out where it was orig. purchased. I called the only VW dealer in that town, gave them the vin # and they looked it up. They had all the records of all the oil changes and the regular stuff and they also had records of the timing belt, water pump, and all the other big stuff. So I had it checked out by my local guy and he told me the car is tip top. So thats where we are...

[winfred]

they don't make the one i would want, 3 door rear wheel drive diesel golf with a 6 speed and manual everything, then crank about another 50-75 hp outta the motor, that would be a fun turd to knock around in while getting 40+ mpg

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

with plastic parts in the engine...wait till ya see what VW does with plastic.


I still want a 73 VW Type 181 Thing...now that's a car you live with.

[LuF]

DONT DO IT,I BOUGHT ONE (2000 PASSAT V6) one of the worst vehicles ever made, it is in consumer reports for used vehicles to avoid. I had it for one day and the defroster never turned off,engine lurched. Took it back the next day and settled for a 2002 Volvo S60. It doesnt matter how well it was cared for it will be garbage,there are problems in that car that even VW mechanics cant figure out. Do a Google search. I hope you read this in time..

[TheDuke]

A buddy of mine had a 2000 WV passat VR6 manual. Haven't complained much about it, till the day he tried to sell it. No one wnnned to buy it. He went as low as $8500, with no luck. WVs simply don't hold their value. Fortunately for him someone had vandalized the passat, and he got insurance money from it.

[niall]

i think they are good cars
not a bmw, but still good cars

[TheDuke]

I think it depends where they made at. Geramny=good, Mexico=you figure. I think that all VR6s come from Gernany.

[DueyT]

Electricals on B5 Passats were know problems in the late 90's-early 2000, until the B5.5 Passat came in as a 2000.5 model. That said, if the dealer records show no major items other than oil changes and replacing the crappy little plastic window regulator clips that break and let the windows drop (also a problem on my 2K1 Jetta). You already have the gotchas, like the timing belt (definitely an issue on interference fit engines like the TDIs or VR6 engine) taken care of so you could actually be good to go! Hope it works out.

p.s. Duke, I'm not sure I buy into the Mexico/Germany thing...my (Mexico) Jetta has been stellar...except for the (German) P.O.S. Bosch thin-film MAF! >:-(

Cheers,
Duey

[winfred]

in the last few years since bosch has started outsorcing their parts to eastern block and south american countrys the quality has fallen in the shitter IMHO, i blame auto zone, before auto zone started selling bosch, bosch was german and good and now i figure in a effort to lower costs they are subbing out to cheep labor and lost the quality control they once had. but what are you going to do buy french and italian crap valeo/marelli


except for the (German) P.O.S. Bosch thin-film MAF! >:-(

Cheers,
Duey

[SharkmanBMW]

I had a 95 jetta vr6 and put 70k miles on it.... most shifts were at redline, the car was tracked, abused and driven so hard I never thought it would last the 4 year lease!
But it wqas stolen 3 1/2 years later, and I had never had a problem! I did have the tranny replaced after 2 years, but other than that warranty,
the car was so strong, it took 1 hour of track racing every week and with nothing more than routine maintenance, it was a winner!

My friend has a 2000 jetta VR6, his seems to be also good, more little things, flasher relay...
but the motor kicks ass!
the VR6 was one of the best built engines ever.
I see it as you are getting an audi for less money, it is NOT a BMW, but the price also reflects that significantly.

[Jose]

If had these cars on a daily basis when I worked at the Audi/VW dealershiip two years ago. The V6 is a nice torque engine with good a sound. That's all the good things I have to say. Waterpump, spanners, rollers, distribution, electrics, engine mounts, cooling, all very poor quality. It looks like a solid car and the body really is, the mechanicals are to be ashamed of. Buy another bimmer,and if youre thing of a 6 cilinder,buy a 99 or 2000 328i, a lot faster, same fuel consumption and a whole lot more fun and cheaper to repair, how crazy it may even sound.

[Beemr750]

The Passats are only build in Germany,Jettas only in Mexico.Golfs are build or assembled in 10 different countries in the world.Jettas are only available in this hemisphere,actually they are nothing but a Golf instead of fastback they have the conventional trunk.

It's true since Bosch is going global and outsourcing partsproduction they wrestle big time with their quality liability.For example: Not to long ago M-B anb BMW had to stop production for a whole week and recall 100 thousends of cars with diesel pump problems.It turned out certain plastic inner pump components made by Dupont in the States were of inferior quality.It got so bad that lately some cars would quit running on the assemlby line.Right now there is a big squabble with Dupont of taking responsibility.

There is talk of Audi starting up a factory in the States.VW learned their lesson with the Rabbit production in Penna some 30 years ago.They had to shut it down they were never able to get the quality under control,the Unions had much to do with the kill.

All the foreign producers are now Union free,because
their not getting voted in anymore.

Btw Just read that Jetta/Golf are the safest compact cars on the market.Better than Honda Acc.,Toyota Camry etc.