any thoughts on these car,s1999-2000 1800cc auto,seem good buying, looking for well priced daily commute car for wife.was considering a primerabut the Passat look,s good for the money , are they dear to service etc, and do they have a belt or chain driven cam !
magnitude 6 I reckon, once those fingers start bashing the keyboard.
neo_psy,
Aug 23, 8:16am
It's quiet. Too quiet. Something's brewing.
cowlover,
Aug 23, 8:18am
He's out sticking Passat badges onto Primeras!
morrisman1,
Aug 23, 8:27am
thats one way to give some reliability to the Passat name
ceebee2,
Aug 23, 8:56am
When I worked in an Auto break down centre for 2 years, we would tow Passats at least x1 / week every week. (Not the same one either!) I rest my case. Personally would not touch any model as we would also tow the late model ones as well.They have a multitude of common faults.Most popular is fuel pumps at $720 each.
thejazzpianoma,
Aug 24, 8:55am
Shame you mostly just got trolling on this. They are actually a really decent car, if you do come back to this thread let us know, I am happy to fill you in on them and give you some clues on picking a good one. Parts are really inexpensive BTW you just don't want to order them through a prestige dealer and of course repco are a ripoff for most makes now. BNT stock a range of service parts and there are several genuine 3rd party importers like Qualitat that will supply you anything overnight for a good price. Fuel pump as mentioned above can be had brand new from about $120 delivered to your door last time I checked (online), that's good going for any car.
Reliability is very good for a properly equipped car, just keep the maintenance up to date and its hard to go wrong. (generally any score under 100 in this index is very acceptable) http://www.reliabilityindex.com/reliability/search/235
incar.,
Aug 24, 9:10am
Wrong wrong, stop giving people false information all the time; you??
thejazzpianoma,
Aug 24, 9:15am
More trolling. such a shame. I suggest you go and ask on some other forums OP. Its a pity, because unless you do some searching of these usernames you won't necessarily realise they are just trolls.
nzdoug,
Aug 24, 9:46am
Im with jaz
incar.,
Aug 24, 10:01am
So you??
thejazzpianoma,
Aug 24, 10:14am
Funny. I have owned, worked on, sourced parts and/or paid the running costs for most of the mainstream VW's and Audi's of that era.
Yet somehow I am not qualified!
Perhaps you have to have a nasty attitude towards European cars and their owners, and throw your hands in the air in a big girly tantrum while attempting simple tasks on them to be qualified!
incar.,
Aug 24, 10:44am
Trolling or pointing out facts, you??
incar.,
Aug 24, 10:45am
pump
johnf_456,
Aug 24, 10:47am
Good stuff incar
trdbzr,
Aug 24, 10:56am
If you can't beat them, start name calling and hope it works. No Jazz, all it shows is that you have lost that argument and are resorting to childish antics, throwing tantrums should be reserved for little kids, not 'adults'.
00quattro00,
Aug 24, 11:04am
Window regs, brake switch and ignition switches can be easily fixed at home and cost bugger all, cooling system is usualy down to neglect, most of the abs faults are caused by dry solder joints and if the trans has been servied it will last. General servivng is cheap, and if done will be quite reliable, just find someone who knows the models well and you will be sweet, If you were in the area I would take care of you
thejazzpianoma,
Aug 24, 12:25pm
+1 That has been very much my experience with them as well. They are an old car now but as far as old cars go they are a good proposition because the big expensive parts (engne/transmission) are exceptionally reliable so long as they are serviced.
Much better to have an old car that's known for breaking window regulators etc which are not end of the world to fix and won't leave you stranded. Rather than one that's known for cracking heads or blowing transmissions.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to find a decent mechanic who won't throw their toy's out of the cot because their capabilities start and end with a few basic shopping baskets. Likewise there are plenty of easy "how to's" online to assist with any small jobs you wish to undertake yourself along with easy to get inexpensive parts.
I have sat on both sides of the fence, having done my own servicing and when I got too busy with the business paying someone else to do it. Neither was any bother at all. I have done the window regulators, abs issues, cambelts and the like on VW's/Audi's of this era. Nothing hard about it and plenty of options to keep the prices down.
The only fault I have had on one personally has been a window regulator the other repairs I have done for others in past (like when I was doing some relief work at a Garage).We also bought in several damaged VW/Audi's of that series which we did major rebuilds on, they were all a pleasure to work on.
I just checked where you are situated OP. Whakatane is only 1/2 hour from me, I am more than happy to give you advice anytime you need. I have excellent contacts in the motor industry in Whakatane so can help you suss out who's best in town to work on oneif you need. Even better, if doing a major service there is the great place near me (40 min from you) who does a great job of looking after Passat's.
Happy shopping.
thejazzpianoma,
Aug 24, 12:36pm
One more thing. What is far more important than the badge on the front is how a vehicle has been treated and how you treat it. Like 00quatro00 eluded to, most of the problems with Passat's are caused by people neglecting scheduled servicing.
If you go ahead with one come back and I can give you some clues as to what to look for in a good one, and what should be done if anything to bring any you are looking at up to scratch.
BTW, here is a link the the reliability index score for the Primera of the age. as you can see it scores almost exactly the same as the Passat (technically slightly worse).
The numbers are what really counts and no amount of silly trolling can change those.
(The reliability index gets its data from one of the worlds biggest warranty companies, I am yet to find a better source of this kind of information)
incar.,
Aug 24, 2:52pm
And the New Zealand reliability index for European imports from Japan is where! sorry you can??
slarty45,
Aug 24, 5:33pm
no mech would leave dirty oil in motor for 30,000 k's
thejazzpianoma,
Aug 24, 10:11pm
Its funny. For all your supposed qualifications you seem to get your knickers in a big knot about cars that I have absolutely no problem sourcing reasonable priced parts for (in NZ for as well as overseas) and servicing/repairing.
These cars are not some how magically unreliable if they come from Japan, and there are NZ new ones as well. They are by and large the same cars as the reliability index has surveyed, and if anything the ones in the survey have been subjected to a wider range of extreme conditions. Even if data from NZ was available it wouldn't be very useful because we don't have enough numbers of any make/model to give the kind of reliable trends you get from the reliability index.
It's weird getting so worked up about parts when VW you are talking about one of the most popular cars from the worlds second largest manufacturer. Big volume means cheap parts and in terms of importers/suppliers VW is one of the best catered makes in NZ.
I hope the pressure of running your business is not getting to you incar, you seem to have been up late and sound awfully stressed out over nothing. (genuine concern not being nasty).
thejazzpianoma,
Aug 24, 10:20pm
!
Not sure what this is getting at but plenty of vehicles have 30'000 and even 40'000km oil change intervals now. That is what the manufacturers designed them to do and their service agents follow those guidelines. Some of these vehicles have been around long enough now to be running happily the other side of a million km's. Those that understand the engine and lubricant technology have no issue with this.
But I don't know how those vehicles relate back to the Passat in question! It dosn't have long service interval's and the 1.8T especially goes best when serviced as recommended with the appropriate lubricants. My preference is 12 month's/15'000km and always fully synthetic as they are known to sludge up if neglected and run on mineral oil.
splinter67,
Aug 24, 10:26pm
I think the mechanics that service vws in fact I know the mechs from vw do and yup when I was in the service center for vw in napier yesterday there where some trade cert certificates on the wall Oil has changed it dosent loose its viscosity as quickly as it used to
thejazzpianoma,
Aug 24, 10:41pm
Yip, as well as engines and fuel technology changing too.
You have a three fold effect.
In a diesel for example, good common rail engines burn far more efficiently as you can see from the massive increase in fuel economy. The cleaner they burn the less they leave to contaminate the oil. This is particularly noticeable during changes in acceleration, as the direct electronically controlled metering and high pressure injection reacts quicker and more precisely while deliveringa better spray pattern. The late high pressure delivery of fuel massively reduces the opportunity for raw fuel to make its way past the rings as piston compresses the mixture too, this is a big factor with direct injection petrol's too and allows them to use low friction rings even.
Then you have the new low sulpher diesel that produces far less soot and dosn't contaminate the oil anywhere as badly.
Lastly the new synthetic oil's hold the contaminants in suspension far better and as said above don't degrade with time anywhere near as quickly as traditional mineral and semi synthetics.
These three things in concert not only mean long service intervals but mean significantly less oil is required in the sump and massive filters are not required while engine wear is reduced.
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