Auto Gearbox Question

[Kaiser2000]

Hi all,

I'm in the market for a diesel auto for my other half at the minute and I came across a 2000 reg (Irish car - I'm in Ireland myself) 1.9 TDI auto B5 Passat that seems in very good condition - save for one thing.. the reverse gear - the reverse lights come on, but 9 times out of 10 it won't catch. Otherwise its running well.

The guy who's selling it (in fairness to him) was very upfront about it and has been told it could just be a cable or rod - but there's been no proper diagnosis of it, and having a DSG box in my own 06 B6 Passat, I'm aware of the potentially expensive bills an auto box can cause. Could it need a whole new gearbox?

He's looking for less than €1000 though and automatics are hard to come by generally, particularly older ones in sub-2L diesel form over here (thanks to the government's scrappage scheme). Having owned both my current Passat and an older B5.5 version previously I know that they ARE good cars - but not as flawless as the marketing would have you believe.

Would I be mad to take a chance on it and hoping it's a easy fix? Even if she got half a year out of it, it would have paid for itself already. As we're on a tight budget spending 4/5k on a car isn't a runner.

Cheers for any insight!

[kenney]

buying a car with a defect auto box without knowing what is wrong,in my opinion would be very foolish

[kite]

Just park it where you have no need for reverse....(joke)

[johnloaderuk]

Why not find out how much a recon box is including fitting, and then make an offer on the car taking that figure into account. If you get the car for a good price then find out it doesn't need much doing to the gearbox you may have yourself a really good deal, if it turns out it does need a complete gearbox you shouldn't be out of pocket.

The only downside is if the recon box is worth more than the car, in which case walk away and find another car.