Ok, I need opinions on another car...

[TODD 2000 V6 CAMARO]

My wife decided she didn't like the Cobalt. Now we are looking at a 2002 VW Passat GLX with the V6. It is sort of a silvery blue with black leather interior. It is pretty loaded with a sunroof, all power options, cd, auto with tip-tronic type shifter, heated seats (great for Texas ) etc. It has 87K on the odometer, though. But from what I hear, that is not bad for a VW. The paint looks good on the internet, but I will get a better look tomorrow afternoon. They are asking $9995. They are a Dutch couple who are selling it cause they are moving back home. I think the blue book value is about $13,000, if it is as good condition as it looks online. Do you guys think this sounds like a good deal? Anyone know much about Passats or VW's in general? I think this may be the car we get, if it is all they say it is.

[Mark B]

Its all they say it is. Great cars. I used to have an Audi which is basically a VW with more gizmos. Best quality car I ever owned. Just be prepared if/when its breaks down. You cant really work on it yourself & parts/labor will knock your socks off.

[FroSSty]

The Quality is there but, like Mark said, the cost to repair them is a bit more expensive... Not to mention, when you order parts for them from the dealer, it seems like they send the order right to Germany and ship them by way of "man in canoe" across the ocean. So instead of ordering a hood and fender for your Cobalt which you could have the same day, it usually takes over a week to get the same hood and fender for any VW. Actually that is usually how that goes with most "imported" cars.(whether they are imported or not )

[Steel2686]

While shopping for my new car, I looked an the Audi A6 (basically a Passat). They are great cars. But I'll just repeat the last two responses... Careful when they do finally go down. Parts are twice what domestic or even Japanese can cost.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

Well I'm pretty turned off to VW products after my wife's Beetle. It broke the timing belt tensioner at 58k miles. OK that understandable. They replaced the tensioner under warrantee. They did not replace the belt even though it is scheduled to be changed at 60k. I would have split some cost with them to replace it then rather than bring it back in less than 2000 miles to get the belt replaced. That was pretty irritating. After we got it back I noticed an oil puddle in the carport. I opened the hood and found that it was leaking oil around the valve cover gasket. We took it back to get it fixed. We got it back and it still was leaking like a colander. So we called the 1-800 VW service because the dealership that fixed it the first time was 50 miles away and they screwed it up to see if we could bring it to a local shop. They said no. We had to take it back to the place that fixed it the first time. So if you live in Florida and you drive your car to Alaska and it breaks down and they fix it and your drive back to Florida and you find something wrong you have to take it back to Alaska to get it fixed. What a crock. So we took it back and they said they fixed it again. A couple of days later it was still leaking in the same place. So we took it and traded it on a PT Cruiser. It's been a much better car. So no more VWs for me.

One oddity about the Beetle that I'm not sure if it applies to other VW models is they still use wheel bolts rather than a stud and a nut. It's kind of a pain to put a wheel back on the car.

[Steel2686]

I've heard many complaints about the Beetle. Fortunately, it's a completely different animal from the rest of the VW line. The Passat and Jetta (from about 2002 up) are all around good cars. I know the earlier Jetta and Golf ('97 era) had bad transmission problems, but Audi helped design the new ones.

Still... Having an issue with a car, no matter the type, can turn you off an entire brand for life. Our '02 Exploder did it for me with Ford.