Thanks PW, it has been a great place. My 2004 is total loss :o(

As I mentioned earlier this week, my youngest son crashed into the back of a bus with the old Passat. He's fine, nobody injured at all.

Just found out this morning that the insurance company declared the Passat a total loss. I don't have the value of settlement as yet. The Canadian Black Book Total Loss value for this car is $ 4132 CAD based on kilometres alone (187,000km). The car was in excellent shape, and God knows I plowed far too much $CAD into the thing in the last 30,000km.

I want to thank all those who have helped me with the various problems, general maintenance tips & tricks, over the years. This place has saved me thousands of dollars over the years and certainly expanded my capabilities ~ and my tool box ~ for money saving repairs.

This Passat was kept the longest of any car I've owned to this point. I had a 1991 Honda Accord Coupe that I kept 13 years, but this one went 0.7 years longer ~ if not accumulating as many Km as the Honda (307,000km). Going forward, not certain if I want to repeat this replacement interval?

I kept track of my operating expenses since June 8, 2004 for this car:

Maintenance: $ 6993 CAD
Repairs: $6995 CAD
Investments: $3890 CAD (Thule Cross Bars, Mudflaps, APR Chip, 3 sets of snows on steel rims, wood dash kit, replacement Blaupunkt double din)
Depreciation: $33,000 CAD approximately - depends on cheque from Insurance Company for total loss. I paid $36,580 CAD for car in 2004.

Once again, thanks for being the most fun car forum of my experience! so much combined knowledge with an impressive willingness to share.
Take care,
Ken