Thoughts please.....

[Possu]

Test drove an S-plate 110bhp 1.9 TDI estate today, 94,000 miles on the clock. Very nice car, everything works but there a couple of issues that prevented me from placing a deposit:

1. Looking through the passenger door window, I could see a sheet of brown paper on the passenger footwell carpet to kep it clean. There was a damp stain on the paper, close to the transmission tunnel. Carpet was damp in places, drivers side was noticeably drier - blocked pollen filter etc? Salesman professed to have never heard or come across this issue before despite being related to & sourcing a lot of his cars from his fathers VW dealership.....

2. Didn't have a chance to check for smoke on cold startup, car ws backed up against a fence & the Salesman started it up quicker than expected.

3. Once started, a whining noise at idle appeared after a few seconds - normal? Turbo? On driving the car, noise was absent.

4. Service book is missing. There's only a small computer printout detailing dealer services up to about 55,000 miles although there is statement handwritten in permanent marker pen in the engine bay stating that the cambelt swas changed at 62,000 miles. Apparently they've tried to obtain the service book but no luck.

Apart from that, everything works, it drove & braked well, the Climate Control blew hot & cold on command, the engine bay was pretty clean, no sign of emulsion on the dipstick or oil filler, all tyres had 3-4mm on them, had new front pads, spare tyre was full size with plenty of tread

Best avoided? Cars on sale @ £2,995, offered it for £2,895.

[pete]

Hi

I got a T reg 110bph Feb last year for £2600, so very similar cars.

The problems i have had are the "leaky pollen filter housing" - have read lots of the forums about this problem and it stumped me for ages. Its a simple job but i believe the ECM can be affected which plays about with the electrics. SO check the electrics for any funny business and i would advise gemming up on the pollen filter housing leak threads.

My car doesn’t whine in anyway, so what you are hearing is probably abnormal, but i stand to be corrected if anyone has any other experiences.

You should drive a few to get a feel for the acceleration etc as i got mine thinking that the power drop was a "diesel" thing, which turned out to be an air mass meter problem. It should kick in with turbo at 3-3.5K and feel punchy at all but the lowest revs (an it’s not that bad there either)

All in all I would be a bit wary of a dealer who has never heard of the pollen filter leak as he doesn’t sound too experienced or honest to me. The mileage and age are nothing to worry about as mine has 110000 on the clock and runs great.

I would worry about the lack of service history, but im picky about that. You ideally want to know how the cars been looked after. I was fortunate enough once to see a passat before it was valeted and i probably would have got it after they had spruced it up but wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole having seen it before its makeover. ( I like to buy form private sales as you get to meet the owner and can gauge a bit more about how they are as drivers etc)

There are LOADS of passats on the market at the moment and you can get a really nice example for the money you are looking at so i wouldn’t compromise on much. If it doesn’t feel right or you have reservations about the dealer/history, I would walk away.

The passats (and VW's) are expensive when they need to be fixed. I’d find as good as an example as you can afford and don’t compromise.

Hope this helps

[pete]

If you do consider buying the car I would recommend factoring the lack of service history into the equation.

At 94K you are looking at:

10K serviceables (oil filter, oil change)
20K serviceables (pollen filter)
40K (air filter and fuel filter)
brake and coolant fluids ( every 2 yrs)
timing belt 4 yrs

Maybe he could offer to get those done for 'piece of mind' in lieu of the lack of documentation? Once they are done you know what you are dealing with and you know you have a reasonable engine (minus any previous wear and tear).

If hes convinced its been looked after it shouldn’t cost him much to get those jobs done at trade prices - maybe £60 for the service parts and the labour on top? timing belt is probably ok but check the condition yourself.

you also have to consider the resale value with limited service history, which may be another bargaining tool.

good luck

[Eshrules]

whilst i agree with all of the above, if it were me id be steering WELL clear. a vw dealer who claims to not know about a common fault is either lying or just plain stupid. secondly, no service history for half the cars life is another bad point, nobody loses service history if theyve bothered to keep it up to date. the timing belt may well have been changed, but without a garage name or date on which it was done, that info is meaningless.

the market is not exactly short of passats and i suspect this is one lemon you could do with not biting into. you do, however, have the 3 month statutory warranty on side, but honestly, how many faults would you want to try and rectify. if the car is already demonstrating the dampness (which can lead to electrical faults galore) and there is no service history, what else is the car hiding, that would be my main concern

[Possu]

Thanks for the responses, all appreciated.

As as been mentiuoned, there's no shortage of decent used Passats about, I've found another two to look at already.

[Possu]

One of the other cars I'm interested is in good condition but lacks alloy wheels & Climate Control - how important are these two options re: future resale.

The remaining spec is good, has stamped Service book up to 73,000miles, cambelt was changed at 60k and a £498 receipt for MOT prep, MOT, oil, filter & discs from October 2006 when mileage was about 88 to 90k.

Thanks for the help!

[Eshrules]

One of the other cars I'm interested is in good condition but lacks alloy wheels & Climate Control - how important are these two options re: future resale.

The remaining spec is good, has stamped Service book up to 73,000miles, cambelt was changed at 60k and a £498 receipt for MOT prep, MOT, oil, filter & discs from October 2006 when mileage was about 88 to 90k.

Thanks for the help!

alloys are more or less expected on a vw nowadays, one without will suffer from depreciation quite badly. climate control is one of those options that a lot of people are happy to have, but wont be too put off without it. thats down to personal preference.

im a little concerned about the £500 mot prep, as its less than 6 months ago, the oil change would have been around £100, which leaves £400 worth of work which was needed to get the car through its MOT, this would worry me, id enquire as to what exactly needed doing...

the other thing being, you seem to have a gap from 73k to 90k in your service history, thats 15k,potentially without a service, not good

[Sam]

One of the other cars I'm interested is in good condition but lacks alloy wheels & Climate Control - how important are these two options re: future resale.

The remaining spec is good, has stamped Service book up to 73,000miles, cambelt was changed at 60k and a £498 receipt for MOT prep, MOT, oil, filter & discs from October 2006 when mileage was about 88 to 90k.

Thanks for the help!

alloys are more or less expected on a vw nowadays, one without will suffer from depreciation quite badly. climate control is one of those options that a lot of people are happy to have, but wont be too put off without it. thats down to personal preference.

im a little concerned about the £500 mot prep, as its less than 6 months ago, the oil change would have been around £100, which leaves £400 worth of work which was needed to get the car through its MOT, this would worry me, id enquire as to what exactly needed doing...

the other thing being, you seem to have a gap from 73k to 90k in your service history, thats 15k,potentially without a service, not good

Alloys can be added at little to no expense so to me that's not a big worry at all. Climate control (climatronic) again isn't important, I presume it has manual HVAC controls instead?

I'd have thought MOT prep work would be wandering round checking the bulbs, discs, pads, tyres and so on. £100ish for an oil change, £100ish for some discs, add their labour and some lovely VAT and so on that sounds about right.

As Esh says, 15k service gap is a little dubious but the cambelt change is a good point.

If it drive nicely and looks straight the only real things to check are dampness in the footwells, boot and battery plenum and make sure all the locks lock as they should when they are told to.

If you have access to VAG-COM or know of an independent with a scan tool get it checked for faults.

[Eshrules]

Alloys can be added at little to no expense so to me that's not a big worry at all. Climate control (climatronic) again isn't important, I presume it has manual HVAC controls instead?

I'd have thought MOT prep work would be wandering round checking the bulbs, discs, pads, tyres and so on. £100ish for an oil change, £100ish for some discs, add their labour and some lovely VAT and so on that sounds about right.

As Esh says, 15k service gap is a little dubious but the cambelt change is a good point.

If it drive nicely and looks straight the only real things to check are dampness in the footwells, boot and battery plenum and make sure all the locks lock as they should when they are told to.

If you have access to VAG-COM or know of an independent with a scan tool get it checked for faults.

hundred quidish for brakes i tend to forget how extortionate labour and the VAT can be, am i glad i've got a mech in the family LOL. as for the alloys point, granted you can get repros pretty cheap, but unless you go second hand, official alloys can be costly? we're splitting hairs there though

as yours is, my main worry would be the 15k service gap, theres a lot can go wrong in 15k, especially if the car hasnt even been serviced....

[Sam]

hundred quidish for brakes i tend to forget how extortionate labour and the VAT can be, am i glad i've got a mech in the family LOL. as for the alloys point, granted you can get repros pretty cheap, but unless you go second hand, official alloys can be costly? we're splitting hairs there though

as yours is, my main worry would be the 15k service gap, theres a lot can go wrong in 15k, especially if the car hasnt even been serviced....

I used to happily chuck away my cash to mechanics until I found t'internet (particularly www.clubb5.com) now I just DIY.

And agreed, we're splitting hairs on the wheels but...

Either way, if it's not the one, there are plenty more around.