Triptronic reliability

[jammy86]

Well it looks like my b5 has been killed by a drunk driver so I'll be after another. I'm thinking about getting a triptronic next time but I've got no knowlege of them.

How reliable are they? Should you stay away from them once they reach XXXk miles? Are there any tests you can do to one if I test drive it which show up problems/noises to look for? I'll be planning new fluids all round on the new car unless I get some kind of service history that suggests it's been done recently.

Is the fuel economy much different from Manual? as long as I'm near 50mpg I'll be happy, but if it's drastically worse than the manual then I'll give it a miss.

Thanks

[yaman]

If i ever need (by some disability) to own an automatic, it
wont be a VAG, they are hopeless. Cant even top them up.
Honda or Toyota are a better bet.

You wont get anywhere near 50mpg, on overall consumption,
from a manual or auto Passat, or any other similar-sized car.

Regards
Jim

[jammy86]

I get 50mpg from my current Passat which isn't PD. The PD was a good improvement on the older system....

[PeteK]

If i ever need (by some disability) to own an automatic, it
wont be a VAG, they are hopeless. Cant even top them up.
Honda or Toyota are a better bet.

You wont get anywhere near 50mpg, on overall consumption,
from a manual or auto Passat, or any other similar-sized car.

Regards
Jim

I've averaged 47.5 mpg from my 130 TDi manual over the last 65k miles so you can certainly get close to 50mpg. For most of that time, it has been remapped to 170bhp also. It just depends on the type of journeys you do.

[sdevine]

i have a tiptronic tdi 130. 131k (2001)
40 mpg on average, but longer on runs.
the best car i have owned
no problems with tiptronic (touch wood)