Where's all the real Passats??

**PassatB6** · 15-08-2010, 03:56 PM

Nice video! In Australia the single headlight were all 1300cc L, the twin headlights were TS 1600cc and the rectangular headlights the most common 1500cc LS.

In comparison:
My Mk 1 Passat:
40kw
950kg
approx 7.0 l/100km
0-100 11-12 secs

My B6 Passat:
147 kw
1600kg
approx 8.0 l/100km
0-100 7.8 secs

**Peter Jones** · 15-08-2010, 05:56 PM

The very last B1s imported were the facelift model that came out just before the B2.

A lot of them were diesels.

Here's ours. Link to resto thread is in my sig below.

**Golf Houso** · 15-08-2010, 06:12 PM

I had a 76 LS for about a month, fun car. It was virtually rust free bar the trunk lid!!!

**brad** · 27-08-2010, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by Phat Bug

Where's all the early Passats???

probably turned into tincans.

I had a few customers with them in the early '80s. At the time I was getting ~$300 a week & it wasn't uncommon for me to hand them a quote for $1000 for repairs. IIRC, the brakes (pads, rotors, sensors) were very expensive. Was there a pressure limiting valve in the brake system? And the radiator had plastic tanks which nobody could fix.

Most of them would ask me to do a cheap job & go straight up to the local Holden dealer & buy a Gemini.

Back then, there were a lot better cars you could choose from. (sorry for the -ve sentiment)

**PassatB6** · 27-08-2010, 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by brad

probably turned into tincans.

I had a few customers with them in the early '80s. At the time I was getting ~$300 a week & it wasn't uncommon for me to hand them a quote for $1000 for repairs. IIRC, the brakes (pads, rotors, sensors) were very expensive. Was there a pressure limiting valve in the brake system? And the radiator had plastic tanks which nobody could fix.

Most of them would ask me to do a cheap job & go straight up to the local Holden dealer & buy a Gemini.

Back then, there were a lot better cars you could choose from. (sorry for the -ve sentiment)

If there were, the Gemini wasn't one of them!! They were complete rubbish. $1000? Are you sure?!. The car only cost $3,500 to buy new in 1974!

**brad** · 28-08-2010, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by PassatB6

If there were, the Gemini wasn't one of them!! They were complete rubbish. $1000? Are you sure?!. The car only cost $3,500 to buy new in 1974!

yep.
AUD was crap against the DM. Any parts had import duty on them. Dealers were trying to make all their money on spares. Almost nobody was bringing in aftermarket parts, so it was Genuine OEM only. I'm pretty sure that OEM rotors were up near $250 each. I had a woman kiss me once when I hunted down some aftermarket units for <$50. Wear sensor wires were $25-$35 on top of the disc pad price. Compared to a Jap car, they were a lot more expensive to maintain once they got a few years on them. Renault, Puegeot & Fiat were just as bad and we refused to let Citroen in the workshop.

Geminis rubbish? They didn't do anything spectacular but they were reasonably reliable once you got the front end sorted & had a stainless rear muffler fitted. For most people, they were a good city A to B car & affordable.

I haven't got my rose coloured glasses on. FWD VWs in the late 70s were badly put together, had overcomplicated design & were expensive to maintain compared to the other small car offerings from Japan (or Jap sourced Aussie cars). Don't forget, that was the transition period from the beetle to the "modern era". People thought that the new models were supposed to be a replacement for the bug & therefore would be cheap to run & not require any servicing.

IMO, in the last 30 years, the Europeans have made great strides & the Jap cars have stood still.

Sorry for the thread hijack. All those Passats are really nice & it's good to see the old dungers preserved.

**PassatB6** · 29-08-2010, 09:08 PM

Originally Posted by brad

yep.
AUD was crap against the DM. Any parts had import duty on them. Dealers were trying to make all their money on spares. Almost nobody was bringing in aftermarket parts, so it was Genuine OEM only. I'm pretty sure that OEM rotors were up near $250 each. I had a woman kiss me once when I hunted down some aftermarket units for <$50. Wear sensor wires were $25-$35 on top of the disc pad price. Compared to a Jap car, they were a lot more expensive to maintain once they got a few years on them. Renault, Puegeot & Fiat were just as bad and we refused to let Citroen in the workshop.

Geminis rubbish? They didn't do anything spectacular but they were reasonably reliable once you got the front end sorted & had a stainless rear muffler fitted. For most people, they were a good city A to B car & affordable.

I haven't got my rose coloured glasses on. FWD VWs in the late 70s were badly put together, had overcomplicated design & were expensive to maintain compared to the other small car offerings from Japan (or Jap sourced Aussie cars). Don't forget, that was the transition period from the beetle to the "modern era". People thought that the new models were supposed to be a replacement for the bug & therefore would be cheap to run & not require any servicing.

IMO, in the last 30 years, the Europeans have made great strides & the Jap cars have stood still.

Sorry for the thread hijack. All those Passats are really nice & it's good to see the old dungers preserved.

Yeah the exchange rate was a problem but I didn't recall them being too expensive to fix. Might be because I did a lot myself then. I remember replacing a broken clutch cable myself once while on hols in the main street of Coffs Harbour!. The main problem was everyone expected them to be like the Beetle but they weren't. Some of the early Passats were basic because the Aust importer brought in the lowest spec models.

I think a lot of aussie mechanics were spooked by overseas cars then but they were just put together different. Peugeot built some of the toughest cars you could buy then. Won rallies all round the world.

You say Euro has improved but I think australia has become a bit more open minded. It wasn't so long ago that buying Euro was considered a bit strange. I lived in a country town and I think I had one of just two Passats!