Should I keep my Passat?? What commonly goes wrong with them?

[Leadwings]

I'm trying to work out if I should keep our Passat as weve fixed so much. So I'm looking for others expereince on what goes wrong.

We have a 2008 Passat 125 TDI wagon. We purchased this second hand off the Justice Department, an ex magistrates car. Had 27k on the clock, 2 years old. I have met the magistrate who drove it and he had just retried, so the car had been well cared for and not thrashed (or at least I am assuming a 65 yo magistrate didn’t thrash the car and speed a lot).

We bought the car as we had twins on the way, and needed a car good for the kids (safe) and good for country driving (we have a farm 500 km away)

Since then the car has been a list of problems:

1. Gear box jerked around at low speeds. VW fixed mechatronics unit under warranty. (yet the 6 speed wasn’t subject to the recent 7 speed gearbox recall that had problems with the same mechatronics unit??)

2. Park brake would not disengage all the time. Park button got replaced under warranty.

3. Passenger side electric window works intermittently - still a problem

4. Car would refuse to start intermittently. Would turn over, but not start. Left my wife stuck on numerous occasions with 1 yo twins in the back. Wound up being a cam angle sensor. Car now out of warranty. VW quoted $1200, got it done at a European specialist mechanic for $500

5. Oil leak somewhere on the LHS of engine. Only minor leak, but oil hits hot manifold/muffler and smells. Had mechanic look at it, he replace rocker cover gasket. Leak still seems to be there, and have discussed with mechanic (he is good) and he said to find it would require a major disassemble - so probably not worth it, just live with the minor leak

6. Car died on my wife again. Got towed to mechanic, injector #3 short. After research, seems is common problem and VW have fixed out of warranty on other cars. Called VW Australia, girl says there is no recall on that. Ask for a manager to call me back. He confirms there is a “service order” on that, but not recall??? Get towed to authorized VW dealer. VW have agreed to replace all 4 injectors and wiring loom. I am still yet to see if they will pay for the towing and my mechanics time considering it has been subject to a “service order” but this was never done when I was getting it serviced by VW authorised service people.

For an expensive car that has done less than 55,000 km, I have been shocked and abhorred at how unreliable it has been. Trouble is the resale price on it has tanked due to the recent media about the gearbox recall and it will cost us at least $10,000 to change it over. I know others who have had no problems with their cars, so it seems they can be an OK car??

So the question is - should I dump it as too unreliable and costly, or keep it as $10k will pay for a lot of repairs and we have hit the main ones?

What are others experiences - what else commonly goes wrong with these, and how much to fix?

[passat08]

Mate I am same boat you I have 08 passat wagon tsi petrol, just got new intake manifold for it and now need ignition coils. Love the car though but waiting for what other things going to happen to it.

[vdubmotorworx]

Leadwings...all the things have been done to your passat that are the main issues! I personally would keep it....If someone asked me to list the main passat issues then I would have listed the above and nothing else......Keep it mate...VDUB...

[dubstyle]

Keep it. Trade in value on them is terrible. You'd be lucky to get 10k for it, never mind it costing that much to change over. To get into a new one you'd be looking at closer to $36-40k change over.

I had the injector and megatronics done on mine outside of warranty at no cost. Touch wood everything else has been fine and I love the car.

[Amalgam]

So the question is - should I dump it as too unreliable and costly, or keep it as $10k will pay for a lot of repairs and we have hit the main ones?

How important is reliability to you and your wife?

My wife is completely mechanically illiterate. She rang me at work when the Passat would not start. It needed the key to be taken out and the starting sequence restarted from the beginning. My guess is that she didn't press the brake hard enough the first time. She also rang me in a fluster because she couldn't find the fuel flap release lever inside the car. As we all know, the flap is spring loaded.

My Passat wagon MY12.5 125TDI with 15000 km, has been 100% reliable.

If it was my wife, I would trade in your Passat in a heart beat. Your wife may be diametrically opposed and be very mechanically astute and not mind waiting for roadside assist. $10-30K does buy an awful amount of repairs.

It is all about horses for courses and what you and your wife feel comfortable with. Predicting the future reliability of you Passat is pure statistical speculation and conjecture and not based on any scientific reasoning.

[Leadwings]

Amalgam, thank for the reply. My wife is pretty switched on, in fact she has a truck licence and knows how to do more than your average chick (and I suspect bloke). Her car we traded in for the Passat had done 300,000 km, so she gets that cars have things go wrong as they get old.

Yes predicting relaibility is speculation, but given most cars only have a few things go wrong with them, and ours has had heaps and weve fixed them, then we should hopefully have used our failure quota up.

From what I can tell (thanks VDUB) weve had the big things go wrong and fixed them - so I'm included to hang on to it and hopefully there should not be any more big nasty suprises.......

[Cossor]

As I am retired, and do around 15000K per year, AND have extended warranty, will keep my 130TDI for about another four years.
THEN, if I can afford it, trade in for Mercedes C class.
Only trouble is, Passat looks so much better, interior much better, features also better (Love the interactive reversing camera).
Bugger it. will trade in on next gen Passat, This time with ACC (Adaptive chassis suspension) AND Driver assist. (HID lights etc)

[nickpage]

Hi, IMHO it looks like you've been a bit unlucky. I think you've solved all the problems and now you should have trouble-free motoring. But I know how you'd be feeling. No one wants to keep pouring good money after bad. Who are you using for servicing? Independent or dealer? Could you get their honest opinion on whether there might be more to come?
I have Feb 07 103kw Tdi with, wait for it 204k on the clock an she is still going strong. Granted, a lot of the kms are long distance country use, but no mechanical issues. Getting good economy and i'll fit a new timing belt at 210k.

[Umai Naa!!]

Agreed that all the common problems have been mentioned, with the exception of the Electronic Steering Column lock, which does fail from time to timed.

Luckily, VW are very good at upgrading their parts over time, so usually, once you've replaced something, the likelihood of a re-occurring fault is minimal.

[Leadwings]

Were selling it. Whne they fixed it, somehow the timing belt was out by 2 teeth so it wouldn't start. Odd, the car was runninig fine till the injectors failed, including getting 6.5 l/100 on a long country trip just recently.

So were out $270 for towing, $220 for our mechanic and $330 for them to fix the mysterious timing belt issue. Have contacted VW Australia and theyre not interested in coming to the party.

Appreciate there are a lot of VW fans on this forum, but my recommmendation to anyone who asks (and some who haven't) is based on our expereince avoid VW's (and Audi and Skoda).