A friend of a friend was very short pressed for time to find a car and she ended up pulling the trigger on a 99 Passat 1.8t automatic. From what she told me, she is getting it for $4800 with about 95k on the clock and new turbo, tires and timing belt. Decent buy or ticking timebomb?
garbage. Utterly terrible. Almost anything in that price range is a better car.
If she can afford to maintain it with factory parts, and actually take care of it, it will probably be fine until the tranny dies. If its going to be a just change the oil appliance, thats not a good use of money at all. If its still around after 11 years it cant be to terrible, but who knows.
Horrible buy at half the price! 
Yeah, that is a bit expensive. A quick check of craigslist has 99 Passats in the $2-4k range max.
A 99 Passat is a car you should be selling, not buying.
I dumped my 2004 Passat 1.8T for an 07 Xterra. Damn thing had the oil pick up tube problem after all. Warning me every 1000 miles after oil changes to "STOP ENGINE NOW, LOW OIL PRESSURE" Hey at least it warned me. I'm not sure the older ones have that digital HUD in the dash. I'm glad the eurotrash is gone, and I have a miata tow vehicle now if it ever strands me.
I'm glad my wifes Passat is gone, that's all I can say. And this is from guy that USED to love VW's.
we used our 98 passat 1.8T wagon as my wifes daily for almost 5 years. put 80k on it. traded it for a 24' enclosed trailer worth at least $6k.
replaced one coil, a hood latch...thats all i can think of...no major compaints at all.
Marty! wrote: I'm glad my wifes Passat is gone, that's all I can say. And this is from guy that USED to love VW's.
Does anybody love VWs after owning one? I liked mine when I had it and now I am sure glad it's gone too after many mechanical woes.
Really? 4k?
I was looking up the value of W8 Passats a little while back* and found that front-drive 1.8t Passats have a book value of around $500-1000. Someone told me that the cylinder head is worth more than that, for VW power guys.
I have a 99 Passat and it has been pretty good to me. Make absolutely sure your friend does not cheap out and use dino oil. Synthetic only or she won't own that Passat for long.
I still love VW's and I have owned two of them. No cars the size of VW's fit guys my size (6'4" and about 325lbs.) comfortably.
However your friend got hosed. A 99 Passat with that kind of miles wouldn't even get $2500 Canadian.
$4800.00 SHOULD have gotten her a 95K mile 2002/2003 Passat.
Weak points of the car she go are: Front suspension, Timing belt (addressed), Water pump (unknown), Ignition coils (under recall), Valve cover/cam adjuster leaking (unknown), Oil sludge from long/improper oil services (unknown) among the expensive bits.
If it is very clean It "could" be worth the money, but I say that with the caveat that it has been dealer maintained and has had the oil sludge repaired (likely the cause of the bad turbo like mine was). I like the drive of a B5/B5.5 1.8t FWD Passat, they are confident on the road, comfortable and get decent fuel mileage.
I liked my VW's while I had them, but I love that they're gone.
1.8t Passat is notorious for sludge problems. I'd worry about the transmission (that's the ticking time bomb in my opinion). Control arms are a wear item on these cars and need replaced regularly.
On the plus side, the 1.8t has good power potential and responds well to a chip.
Good luck.
Have to agree on the transmission being on a short life span. VW just cannot make an auto box. She needs to have the transmission serviced ASAP regardless of any "lifetime" fluid BS.
WIth a rigorous maintenance schedule the car might be ok, but she will need to drive it for the next several years to get her money back. Drive it into the ground then part it out.
Feedyurhed wrote: Does anybody love VWs after owning one? I liked mine when I had it and now I am sure glad it's gone too after many mechanical woes.
I have a 2003 TDI wagon that I bought new and is about to turn 213K. So far, it's been the most reliable car I've ever owned (even compared to my '91 Acura). They do require some deligent regular maintenance which can bite you if not adhered to.
Turbo VW's must, MUST, MUST run VW-spec synthetic oil and VW coolant. Make sure your friend knows and understands this. Do I like paying $7/qt for oil? No, but the 10K change interval (on a TDI, at least), makes it tolerable.
And by god, whatever you do, don't put green crap in your coolant tank... That's another good way to eff up a modern VW engine, regardless of what the tv adverts say. I have only ever used distilled water and G12 coolant. My coolant tank still looks new and the coolant (now changed twice with TB service) looks the same as the day I bought the car.
That said... $4800 for a 99 Passat 1.8t auto sounds iffy... not that I've priced them recently.
Sounds like wayyy too much money to me.
My sister in law drives a 99 wagon and it's a cool car with lots of room... but... it's a berkeleying nightmare to maintain...
If you have one, get used to the CEL being on.
1slowcrx wrote: If you have one, get used to the CEL being on.
I wish... what's REALLY annoying is when the car runs like crap and the CEL isn't on... makes it real bear to diagnose... 
John Brown wrote: $4800.00 SHOULD have gotten her a 95K mile 2002/2003 Passat. Weak points of the car she go are: Front suspension,
I hear that a lot, but I've never seen any of those links go bad. I've done a few outer tie-rod ends, and we have a 230k A8 in our care that is going to need the upper links soon - the bushings are starting to get sloppy, ball joints are fine.
Ian F wrote: Turbo VW's must, MUST, MUST run VW-spec synthetic oil and VW coolant. Make sure your friend knows and understands this. Do I like paying $7/qt for oil? No, but the 10K change interval (on a TDI, at least), makes it tolerable.
The 10k oil change interval makes the engine sludgey, no matter what oil you use.
There's less than four quarts in there. I don't care if you're pouring in pure distilled awesomeness, it's not going to make 10k.
You can find the proper oil for less than $7/quart, you just have to shop around.
^ He DID say TDI.
They're fine with a 10k OCI.
This board had me run for my life 2 years ago when I looked at a '99 jetta for $4K. Some how I ended up back in a neon instead.
Knurled wrote:John Brown wrote: $4800.00 SHOULD have gotten her a 95K mile 2002/2003 Passat. Weak points of the car she go are: Front suspension,I hear that a lot, but I've never seen any of those links go bad. I've done a few outer tie-rod ends, and we have a 230k A8 in our care that is going to need the upper links soon - the bushings are starting to get sloppy, ball joints are fine.
I sell a dozen a week, I easily quote double that number. Must be Michigans suck ass roads then.
Oh my. A '98? 
(VW service manager during that era)
Knurled wrote:John Brown wrote: $4800.00 SHOULD have gotten her a 95K mile 2002/2003 Passat. Weak points of the car she go are: Front suspension,I hear that a lot, but I've never seen any of those links go bad. I've done a few outer tie-rod ends, and we have a 230k A8 in our care that is going to need the upper links soon - the bushings are starting to get sloppy, ball joints are fine.
I have rebuilt my entire front suspension TWICE. The car currently has 190K kms ( about 118 K miles) on it.
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