Looking at a Passat....any tips?

[vwdaun at yahoo.com (Daun Yeagley)]

--- Brian Haygood <haygood@myway.com> wrote:

> DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BUY AN
> AUTOMATIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would whole-heartedly agree with this statement.

Daun has
> had success repairing his, but then he got the car for
> $500, so it was worth doing.

That was the first Passat I had - a '91 B3 sedan.  It
turned out to be a strange electrical problem.  (On a VW? 
Nooooo.)  The second Passat was B3 wagon, and I started out
by swapping in a 5-speed.  Not an easy task but not
impossible either.
  
> Other than that, the B4 ('95 - '97) Passats are
> outstanding cars.  They are not big and boatlike like the
> later ones, but more refined than the earlier ones.

Yep, agreed.  The aforementioned B3 wagon died a painful
death (crank key sheared, bent all the intake valves) so I
dumped it and found my current B4 wagon in the Chicago
suburbs.  It's a great car, handles nice, very roomy
without the "boat" feel.  Hell, even my mom likes it, over
my dad's B5.

Currently mine is laid up with a dead waterpump.  I'll
probably not get to it for a couple weeks with all the
other stuff going on at the moment, but I'm anxious to get
it back on the road.  (Brad was daily driving it for two
months while his Golf TDI was in the bodyshop thanks to a
Jeep.)  I can't really think of too much in the way of
specifics to look for other than your typical used-car
stuff.  Stay clear of the automatics and you should be
fine.


Daun Yeagley - Wilmington Ohio
'81 Scirocco S               '85 Scirocco 8v
'86 Scirocco 8v              '88 Scirocco 16v
'88 Scirocco Slegato *coming soon*
'96 Passat GLX Wagon         '56 Cessna 172
The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts - Ehrlich's Law.


		
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