My old car - 1999 Volkswagen Passat Sport Estate (2.3L VR5)
Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 3:55 am
From 2014 till 2018 I had a Volkswagen Passat VR5 Sport estate car :
At the time I had just sold the Suzuki Swift Sport, and so we needed something quickly that was cheap and practical.
Hettie was only a few months old, and the Swift being a 2-door hatchback with a small boot was quite far from that.
Unfortunately being both time and financially restricted, and technically needing two cars, choices were limited...
We ended up getting both a Golf and a Passat, both of which, in retrospective, were pretty shite to be honest, lol.
I really should have known better and just walked away from initially viewing of the car and it's problems that were blatently obvious... glowing red flags, like the fact that the guy was sat in the car reving the engine while he was waiting for me to turn up (yup, turns out that the car ran badly when the engine was cold), the Service INSP and ABS warning lights blinking (noted as minor on the MOT test paper and just a wheel sensor according to the guy... yet again, turned out not to be the case, it was the actual ABS block that costs more that the car itself to replace !), and also a few other things like an odd smell in the car, a couple of bits of trim missing along with the removable hitch (all of which he ended up providing, but still not reassuring in terms of general car maintenance). But yea, somehow I let the novilty of owning a cheap VR5, which is actually a pretty rare car these days, overshadow any reason that I should have had... shame on me !
Needless to say that the first problem didn't take long to show up, with a power steering hose that failed :
Over the 4 years that I owned the car, the problems and bills stacked up...
Replacing two tyres and anti-theft wheel nuts as the socket had been lost :
Engine cooling hose that split :
Replacing the lambda sensor :
Diagnostics, replacing TDC sensor, cleaning throtthe body, replacing dash fan/heater controls :
Diagnostics, replacing water temperature sensor :
Diagnostics, replacing spark leads and spark plugs, air flow sensor, checking timing and compression :
Outside of the excruciatingly expensive and ridiculous garage bills, I also had to call the assistance out twice.
Once for the car not starting whist out, and once for the battery being flat when at home... at least that's free !
Some things were also done outside of the dealership at some point (headunit, tyres, spark plugs and air filter) :
Needless to say this is the worst car that I've owned, and the Volkswagen dealership is the worst I've ever dealt with !
At the worst of it the car had to go in three times in a row, and then was stuck there for a whole month... !
I ended up getting a Lupo on lend for free by bitterly complaining in front of other customers.
Not the kind of car that you want to end up going on holiday in, and so much faff for nothing !
It's a shame really, as when the car worked properly it was actually a very nice car to drive, and extremely practical.
The VR5 10v engine in itself is supposed to give 148 hp and 154 lbft at 3200rpm... which is pleasent, if not that fast.
The VR5 does have a nice little burble to it when under load though, which makes a change from 4 cylinders...
In the end the MOT result was so bad that it was financially impossible to get it back on the road.
Suspension arms and bushings, brakes disks and pads, ABS block, fluid loss, sound deadning, and so on.
The car did have 238000 Km on the clock, but the lack of maintenance over the years was the real problem...
I suppose that means I only did 37500 Km in the car over the 4 years I had it, not all that much really, considering.
So anyway, it ended up getting sold with no MOT to some guys for 250 euros, I assume just for some parts that they needed...
At the time I had just sold the Suzuki Swift Sport, and so we needed something quickly that was cheap and practical.
Hettie was only a few months old, and the Swift being a 2-door hatchback with a small boot was quite far from that.
Unfortunately being both time and financially restricted, and technically needing two cars, choices were limited...
We ended up getting both a Golf and a Passat, both of which, in retrospective, were pretty shite to be honest, lol.
I really should have known better and just walked away from initially viewing of the car and it's problems that were blatently obvious... glowing red flags, like the fact that the guy was sat in the car reving the engine while he was waiting for me to turn up (yup, turns out that the car ran badly when the engine was cold), the Service INSP and ABS warning lights blinking (noted as minor on the MOT test paper and just a wheel sensor according to the guy... yet again, turned out not to be the case, it was the actual ABS block that costs more that the car itself to replace !), and also a few other things like an odd smell in the car, a couple of bits of trim missing along with the removable hitch (all of which he ended up providing, but still not reassuring in terms of general car maintenance). But yea, somehow I let the novilty of owning a cheap VR5, which is actually a pretty rare car these days, overshadow any reason that I should have had... shame on me !
Needless to say that the first problem didn't take long to show up, with a power steering hose that failed :
Over the 4 years that I owned the car, the problems and bills stacked up...
Replacing two tyres and anti-theft wheel nuts as the socket had been lost :
Engine cooling hose that split :
Replacing the lambda sensor :
Diagnostics, replacing TDC sensor, cleaning throtthe body, replacing dash fan/heater controls :
Diagnostics, replacing water temperature sensor :
Diagnostics, replacing spark leads and spark plugs, air flow sensor, checking timing and compression :
Outside of the excruciatingly expensive and ridiculous garage bills, I also had to call the assistance out twice.
Once for the car not starting whist out, and once for the battery being flat when at home... at least that's free !
Some things were also done outside of the dealership at some point (headunit, tyres, spark plugs and air filter) :
Needless to say this is the worst car that I've owned, and the Volkswagen dealership is the worst I've ever dealt with !
At the worst of it the car had to go in three times in a row, and then was stuck there for a whole month... !
I ended up getting a Lupo on lend for free by bitterly complaining in front of other customers.
Not the kind of car that you want to end up going on holiday in, and so much faff for nothing !
It's a shame really, as when the car worked properly it was actually a very nice car to drive, and extremely practical.
The VR5 10v engine in itself is supposed to give 148 hp and 154 lbft at 3200rpm... which is pleasent, if not that fast.
The VR5 does have a nice little burble to it when under load though, which makes a change from 4 cylinders...
In the end the MOT result was so bad that it was financially impossible to get it back on the road.
Suspension arms and bushings, brakes disks and pads, ABS block, fluid loss, sound deadning, and so on.
The car did have 238000 Km on the clock, but the lack of maintenance over the years was the real problem...
I suppose that means I only did 37500 Km in the car over the 4 years I had it, not all that much really, considering.
So anyway, it ended up getting sold with no MOT to some guys for 250 euros, I assume just for some parts that they needed...
