Jazz - would value your comments

Any good!What's it worth! Anything that should be done at that milage and likely costs!Thanks muchly.

ps the anti-jazz brigade can keep quite please.lol

It's called Sharan, and is ugly - what more could you possibly need to know.
You would be better off buying a Toyota Estima (just baiting Jazz here - I already have an Estima).Hate to admit it, but I have this on my watchlist too - these things seem to often go for a cheap price, and I would like (well need, not like) another van that can fit everyone in.Will be interested to hear what Jazz has to say. K's looked good to me, but I know very little about VW's like this.

Hey if you can get it for up to $2k, and it lasts more tan two years who cares.

Didn't this model come dead last in the Top Gear reliability survey!

Transmissions are weak, or should I say, can't quite cope with the torque of the 2.8 litre V6.

Hi cowlover,

I have not owned one but know a bit about the mechanicals they run. They are supposed to be really lovely to drive and travel in, and apparently blew everything else out of the water in terms of comfort and power until the new Espace came along around 2001.

Those engines are really good units, sure you get the odd minor thing like plug leads or coils needing attention but that's to be expected with anything of the age. The important thing is they are fundamentally sound so you don't tend to get cracked heads and other major issues like you do with certain other people movers of the day.

Transmissions are the only major issue with them as mugenb20b has pointed out. However I disagree with it being due to the torque of the engine. Its a maintenance issue IMO, supposedly the transmissions were "sealed for life"but they do actually need servicing. This was a very common issue of the day and affected many brands including some Japanese cars, unfortunately they didn't discover "sealed for life" didn't really work until years later. So, if its shifting O.K I would suggest a fluid and filter change and unless it was on its last legs anyway you should get a good run out of it.

I am pretty sure it will be running a JATCO JF506E 5 speed auto, as used in the Mondeo and some other VW's etc. Not to be confused with the Aisin Warner which despite being a different transmission had the same maintenance issue.

Don't expect great fuel economy but you will at least be rewarded with good performance, unlike some of the other people movers of the age which were both gutless and thirsty at the same time. Also, in the price range you are unlikely to find anything significantly more economical than the VW anyway.

Thats about all I know really, I would rather a Multipla myself due to the mega economy and maneuverabilityhowever these often go much cheaper than the Multipla and offer more seats.

If the price is right and you are comfortable with it being a repo and an older vehicle I would say go for gold. It would certainly be my pick of the cheaper than Multipla people movers.

If you miss out on that one and don't mind spending the price you do see the odd 1.8T and diesel version around, even occasionally in manual which would be an even better option. But they are few and far between.

Those VR6 Engines are chain drive BTW and quite capable of big mileage without much work. VW parts are plentiful and very reasonable cost wise too both in NZ and on the net.

Best of luck, I think you could be on to a good thing.

Just had another look at the link.

Not sure about the Sharan but there were some VW/Audi vehicles of the time that when they leaked in the front (often due to drains blocked with leaves) would end up with water causing trouble with ECU's and other electronics.

I havn't heard of this with a Sharan before but it might be worth some questions to check there is no check engine light on.

BTW, you know they made these for about 15 years, only discontinuing them quite recently. That's pretty amazing to think that they came out during the heyday of the first generation Toyota Previa yet were advanced enough to hold their ground against the third generation Previa as well.

Not surprising that they were regarded as the bees knees when they came out!

Just had another thought. (its late and brain is slow).
The JATCO JF506E I think is the one that you can't drop the pan on (splits in two sideways) so disregard the bit about changing the filter. I don't think there will be a dipstick but there should be a fill plug which is usually red. There is a technique to removing the fill plug without breaking it.

If doing this yourself and the transmission has not been leaking its common practice just to do several drain and fills until the fluid that comes out looks nice and clean. You measure what comes out each time carefully and replace exactly the same amount.

Make sure you use the correct fluid too, likely available from Ford as well as VW given they both used this transmission.

Someone else may be able to tell you more. Remember I havn't owned one just making educated assumptions here, but fairly sure I am right.

Personally I'd be steering clear of a car that has been reposessed AND the dealer only wants to auction off.
Simple logic being .If the "owner" can't afford to make the car payments what do you think they have spent on even the most basic maintainence!
If it was still in reasonable condition the deqaler would be looking to retail sell it

Thats what I thought too, so would need to purchase very cheap and be prepared to do all the maintenance.

Can you do a retail sell!To comply with the Credit Repo Act dont you have to make your best effort to obtain the best possible price for a repo.

Given its plate history it might be that owner has only had it a few months anyway so if thats right to be a repo this soon he/she musta defaulted at just about the first payment.

Whilst i agree with you that maybe it is a POS it could also be that dealer just wants it gone without having to worry about comebacks.

What gets me is auction not closing for 12 days and already 17 bids.Why do people bid so early!And as usual some toss pot has to up the anti from $50 to $500 in one step.(Another autobid fail)

With regard to possible lack of maintenance. meh. you just need to check it out well. Fair enough rasing the point and being wary but pretty premature to rule it out sight unseen. They are actually a pretty low maintenance engine. If the oil looks good and you can't see any sign of scunge under the filler and the coolant looks good its likely O.K. if its running well.

ALL cars in that age bracket (really all cars full stop) should be checked out thoroughly anyway. Given this one may go cheap and has fairly low km's for the age I wouldn't rule anything out until I saw it.

It may not have been owned by the previous owner long enough to need a service anyway.

Hornett, may I suggest that when choosing a new username because you have been banned, that you don't pick one that effectively means the same thing.

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/reliability/search/242

Why does this even matter! It's clear this car isn't going to sell for $500. it's a game of who is prepared to pay the most money for the car not who can put the last bid in the very last second. Why mess around bidding in $5 increments from $50 to $500 also! It's just a waste of time. I always bid 50-80% of what I think it's worth to *me* straight off the bat to show I mean business (and perhaps scare people like you away) and then continue bidding in the last hour or so.

pw that takes all of the fun out of it :-)
I'm a last minute bidder (assuming the $$$ hasn't already got too high, which they usually have).

Run

At the end of the day its the last man standing so i can see littlepoint in bidding until about an hour out unless the reserve is met in which case set an autobid and just forget it.