Please why don't you get a Camry or an Accord? *sigh* I always cringe when people on a tight budget and tight finances want to buy a Passat.

This car requires a paradigm shift to understand how bad life can get. This is like no other car you have bought or driven in before. when you are buying a Passat that is 11-13yrs old you are asking to get into an abusive relationship. The car will breakdown every 2 months.

Granted a Camry or Accord which is 10-13 yrs old may have some quirks from time to time but fixing those will be nowhere near the frequency and cost of the Passat breakdowns.

Having owned an 02 Passat for the last 10 yrs (bought new) I am speaking from experience. I do love my Passat and I have learnt a lot from it BUT on the otherhand, if i was in an abusive relationship for 10yrs with a toothless crack addict who had to be taken to the hospital every few months, I would have learnt a lot from her and grown to love her too.

Please step away from this vehicle, you have no idea what you are getting into. You think you know but you don't. This car is guaranteed to leave you stranded on the road many times over, may be in the middle of the night.

I haven't even started on the sludge and timing belt issues on a 3000$ Passat.

There is no benefit to buying this car. You may have to spend a little bit more upfront when you are buying a Camry or Accord (more than 3000$) but this will save you time and money in the long run and the car will not govern your life, it will just be an afterthought.

Jessica, let me put it this way, its like the difference between marrying a plain scientist with no fashion style (but who has a stable job, comes home everyday and loves his kids) versus marrying a wannabe rapper who is a crack addict, has numerous drug overdoses, can't hold a job even at McDonalds and is never home for the kids. When you are young the rapper may look more popular from a distance but then you don't know at the time what you are getting into. Capiche?

 

Uh... I wouldn't be go quite that far. But I've owned a Camry, and in 152,000 miles it required exactly ONE piece of non-scheduled maintenance - a starter solenoid. OTOH, my recently-departed 2000 Passat (purchased used from a VW dealer, with a warranty) required $2500 in warranty repairs, and another $1500 in paid repairs in the first six months - despite having been checked out as "requiring nothing" at purchase.

Thereafter, it sucked up an average of $2200/yr for the several additional years I owned it. Granted, when I sold it at over 240,000 miles it was a better car than it started out, and the new owner is loving it - but the money is gone nonetheless.

Don't get me wrong, it's a blast to drive, and overall a very satisfying car; but if you have to use the word "budget" in the same sentence as "B5" (or to be fair, ANY older German car) you're having the wrong conversation. So, what did I replace my 2000 with? A 2004 Passat, of course...

 

Actually, I have had 9 BMWs and 2 Passats as daily drivers. The Passat is an out and out bargain compared to the Bimmers. That being said, all cost a fair bit to run...

 

I agree that a 10+ year-old Passat is a potential money pit, but it isn't a guaranteed money pit. If (and only if) you are competent at DIY repairs, it can be a reasonable investment. But if you will need to go to a mechanic (or God forbid - a dealership) whenever a problem arises, it is unlikely that you will be happy at ongoing operating costs for these vehicles. $1000 timing belt changes every 75k miles are just the start.

I wouldn't say run away, but know what you're getting into.

 

...but nothing that would cost more than one or two hundred dollers

Also, note that a broken cup holder at dealership prices will exhaust this entire repair budget.

 

try owning a range rover. talk about a money pit. the passat is cheap compared to it and the Mercedes i used to own.

 

Thanks for replying to my thread.

 

picked my passat up for $750

2000 Passat GLS V6 FWD, 137K miles

BROKEN: transmission control unit, ABS Module, Wheel Speed Sensor, Bald Tires, Motor Mount, Motor mount to body connector bracket, Oil Cooler Gasket, Rear Brake Pads (rotors still within spec), Misc interior trim

Replaced with junkyard parts:
ABS Module: $50
Transmission Module: $25
Motor Mount Body Connector Bracket: $25
Audi A6 Wheels and new tires: $200
Trim: $10

Found on EBay or other dealers:
ABS Wheel Speed Sensor: $12
Oil Cooler Gasket: $3.95
Brake Pads: $17.00
Head light bulbs: $22
Vag Com Connector: $14

Recycled aluminum wheels: +$75

$1053.95 including cost of the vehicle

I still have a bit more to do. The paint on the hood sucks, tons of rock chips. But after i fix it it should be worth close to $3500 in my market. The interior is in mint condition. The previous owner didn't have any clue how to fix all the problems it was presenting.

if you can, buy good junkyard parts.

 

It all comes down to your mechanical abilities.
First, are you a good enough mechanic to check out the potential passat.
Second, are you good enough to work on it.
Your budget goals are possible if you buy a Passat that is in exceptionally good shape and had its scheduled maintenance done by someone who knows what they are doing.
You will be able to keep costs reasonable from there if you do the work yourself.

If you buy a Passat without having in checked out by someone who knows these cars, you could buy a good looking money pit very easily.
Any Passat is going to require some maintenance. A large part of the repairs are just figuring out what exactly is wrong with it.
I cant stress this enough: The cheap corner garage or Midas or other muffler
/tire shop WILL NOT BE ABLE TO WORK ON A PASSAT! They will say they can (maybe) but they will either do things wrong (needing to be corrected) or just plain break things and say they didnt do it. There are some specialty german shops that can handle it, but even people who know regular VWs might not hack it. Look for audi/bmw/ mercedes specialists. But guess what, those guys are usually expensive! Passats are unusual cars, things that work fine on hondas can destroy a Passat.
You may have a friend or relative that says they will work on it for you, same deal applies. If they work on Jettas and think thye can work on a Passat, they might be wrong. They might have to buy a lot of special tools that they will not be happy about. There might be a tow truck pulling your car to a VW dealer (insanely expensive).
Seriously, its not just passats, you have to be realistic about used cars and ones mechanical abilities. Or, dont be and we will all be happy here when we take the car from your driveway on a hauler for almost nothing to feed its insides to our Passats.

 

Well for $3K, if you can find a high mileage 1.8T with service records, you might get by with $400-$500 a year in maint./repair cost.

If the car you are buying doesn't have a documented service history, the repair/maint. costs could reach $1500 or more in a "rough" year (example: repl. suspension control arms and timing belt or clutch, etc.).

B5s are typically reliable, but upkeep ain't cheap. I'd say it's >$800/year for me (below avg.). Need to do headliner before next summer...

Also, have a competent mechanic check all electrical areas of the car for signs of Water damage.

 

I don't know where you are located. But up here in MN if you want a decent car that doesn't have massive problems (engine problems, rusted to all get out) and under 250,000 miles at the time of purchase you are going to be spending $8000-$9000 (blame cash for clunkers). My Passat (2002 1.8T) was $8k and was in relatively good shape, has had a couple of PVC pipes replaced which are expensive if done by the dealer. Overall, it was probably $1000 into to make it right. I has an "ugly" bumper where whomever was driving it before me must have scraped up against something and then had some ppl who didn't know what they were doing repair it, because the clear coat is peeling off.

My bro's Passat (also a 2002 1.8T) was $9700 or so and only had 27,000 miles on it (Grandma's car probably), so far it has been mechanically sound. (so he is still under sludge warranty) But the trunk (or boot) latch was damaged (only opens with key = PITA) and the interior smells like wet dog. Also his car has some crappy body work done to the right side so it had been in some sort of an accident (didn't show up on Carfax, so we assume it wasn't with another car at least).

Otherwise they are good cars. I'm at ~135,000 miles hopefully I have many more.

So if you find one for $3-4k it's probably going to be a 'problem' car.

Just my 2 cents...

 

I drive a 98 B5 that we bought for 1600 that had 188,000 miles at the time. The previous owner maintained the car meticulously and I have the service records, as well as the previous owners original receipt for purchasing the car in 98. It now has 199,000 miles and hasn't hiccuped once. Sure the car has a lot of rattles, quirks, a loud belt driven fan (not sure if its bearing or clutch yet), but it has not been a non-drivable. If you source a lot of maintenance parts online, and find replacement parts from part outs on forums, you probably will not be spending a ton of money keeping the car going. The amount of money I have spent on the car has exceeded the value of the car, but the parts I have been replacing are major and are purely for extending the life of the car (meaning nothing has failed yet you can think of it as a 200,000 mile service.

There exist some Passats that are not complete lemons, it takes a good amount of luck (which was the case for me,) or a great amount of research to find one.

 

I have learned a lot of practical things, thank you!