1997 Volkswagen Passat

I purchased my Passat almost three years ago as my very first car. Even though I have replaced it as my daily driver with a new car, it is still sitting in my driveway. When I got myPassat , it was clear that it had not been well taken care of. It had almost 160,000 miles on it, and the suspension was falling a part. German engineering may be lovely when it's brand new, but when it gets old and worn it becomes a pain in neck.This car was the bane of my existence for the 2 years it was my daily driver! I really would not suggest getting this car as a first car, unless you are very good at working on Volkswagen's, or someone close to you is. If not, you will spend a fortune at the mechanics. Luckily, my dad is a mechanic, or i would have had to get rid of this car much earlier. With all the things wrong with it, my passat drove like it was "limping". Rocking side to side a little, the rocking getting worse the faster i went. Also, it always felt like i was driving on speed bumps. Even on smooth pavement. The replacement parts for this car are more expensive than for other makes. I set out to replace a blown axle, all four shocks and springs that were shot, a bad rack and pinion, and all four wheel bearings (yes they were all bad). I found myself facing almost $1000 just in parts that had to be replaced, just so i could drive safely. I cant imagine if I had to have mechanic install all of it! Not having a ton of money, i started replacing the bad parts one by one, and driving very carefully. This would have worked out fine, butevery time i fixed something, something else broke! The strongest point about this car though, is that even though all these things were going wrong with it, it still ran and got me were i needed to go. That's the worst part of this car, once it gets old and high in miles, you either need to replace all the old parts or scrap the car. Besides the suspension problems, the heater core and radiator also kicked the bucket. The heater core is a about a $50 dollar part, but a shop was willing to give me a "discount", and only charge $800 to put it in. It also had a weird problem with the wiring that my friends with Passats also had. When I started my car, my windows would roll themselves up and down. Even if i pressed the switch to try to stop it, it wouldn't respond. The horn would honk at random times, and the alarm would go off randomly. Also, for whatever reason all the lights on the car and all the fuses would blow regularly. Another problem I had is when my right rear tire popped, i guess the heat from it melted a hole in the fuel tank! Even though the motor ran, it never felt or sounded right either. All in all, I think if you were to buy this car new it would be a wonderful car. Since the car is older though, I definitely do not recommend this vehicle to anyone. The amount of problems with this car, paired with the high price to repair them, makes it unpractical. I now have a GM made vehicle that is older than myPassat. It generally runs much better than the Passat , but when things do go wrong, the parts for the GM are about half the price! If your gonna buy an older vehicle i would steer clear fromEuropean vehicles, and shoot for either a Honda or GM. The only reason I still have my Passat is i cannot find anyone to buy it off me!