Never buy a Volkswagen

[Gaolee]

There's a reason for some of those things, but I think I'll just stick to Hondas for my wife. It's not the paying for it which concerns me, although I prefer not to. It's the idea she would get stranded somewhere. She wouldn't take it very well.

Our Civic is a 1995 with close to 200K on the clock, and we change the oil. It's probably going to need a half shaft, since it shakes a bit, and one of the brake rotors is a little warped. Otherwise, it needs a timing belt and water pump, just as precautions, and then it will probably last at least another hundred thousand. All the electric doo-dads still work, all the locks still work, the seats look practically new when we actually get them clean, and even the carpet is wearing very well. I'm not sure what kind of unobtanium it's made of, but wearing out doesn't seem to be in its list of things to do.

The only problem with it is how big a person will fit. I'm less than six feet tall, and my wife is just over five feet. We fit fine, but I put the seat back as far as it will go. Anybody any taller is out of luck.

[UberGoober]

Well the guy at the base repair shop hemmed and hawed about it for a while and finally told me he thought he had someone who could handle it. he was concerned about the head being warped and told me that when they send other car's heads out for work it costs a couple of thousand dollars.

I told him I would get the parts, but that he could skip all the fancy head work - I just need it to run for another 10 months and them I'm back to the States (without the car since they will only ship it to my onward assignment, and I'm probably going to need a 4X4 where we are going - if I get my choice assignment)

He said they'd do it but wouldn't warranty the work and I said good enough, its either you or me doing the work and if I do it I get scraped knuckles and no warranty anyhow. I'd rather pay and up the odds of getting it done right.

I'm going to take it back over tomorrow and talk to the actual mechanic about it, but after looking it over again today, I'm convinced I probably could do it myself if I wanted to.

[Builtgypsy]

I had a 2001 Beetle TDI, 90-something thousand miles when I got rid of it. The only problems I ever had with it, the front and rear left light bulbs went out, and there was a touchy relay somewhere that kept the check-engine light on (typical problem for the last-gen beetles). Other than that, I'd never had a single problem with it, even after a 2 day blitz driving 3,000 miles across the country.

I beat the hell out of that car and it kept being awesome. Maybe yours was built on a Friday.

[UberGoober]

Do they have Fridays in the third world places to which VW has outsourced all its production?

[Builtgypsy]

Mexico has weekends too. They found out about them when the college students invaded.

[UberGoober]

I met with the mechanic yesterday and he did a chemical test on the radiator to see if combustion gasses were in the water. After less than a minute he told me I was right - there was a small leak somewhere.

He told me he had a lot of experience working on TDIs when he was based in Germany and that he could fix it. He also told me there is a chance the block could be cracked and we might have to shitcan the car - oh well, I guess we'll see...

[not2slow]

UG you won my respect many times over BEFORE this thread. But since I do maintainance & repair on all makes/models of cars I am so sorry you learned this the hard way. Car & Driver has had many VW cars that have racked up hugh repair bills in their 30K "long term" tests. We even had a 06 Passat today with 40k on it today that failed its Emission test today because it had 3 codes in it that had to do with the MAF/EVAP and one other I forget but you could see the bill being 1500 plus lol. I will just say if I was ever on a game show that I won a VW I would sell it to the lowest bidder in a heartbeat.

[TheTon]

One of my friends just bought a brand new VW rabbit a few months ago. 2 days later the gearbox exploded.

[bzb]

Wow. I thought VW were pretty decent cars. Oops.

Kenny, I might need you to check out my Tahoe I actually have to warm it up in the mornings before driving it... it's like it's a 70's Silverado instead of a 2000's Tahoe.

Makes a ticking noise when it's cold started. If I drive it right away, it ticks louder with the RPMs. After about 4-5 minutes of idling, it roars like normal.

[UberGoober]

The car is in the shop now. I guess we'll know within the next week or so if it can be fixed...