[Vwdiesel] Opinions on '96 Passat TDI

[Shawn Wright]

Just had a look, but the owner was called in to work so I couldn't drive it.
Body is mostly good, except for a few dings and some rust on front left
fender lip. Red paint is surprisingly shiny and unfaded, so could be a
re-paint, although not recent. Some clear coat coming off on the trunk.
Cloth seats look good except for loose fabric on driver seat. Has stock 14"
steel wheels with crap tires, so I would swap my 14" alloys from Jetta for
now, which have new tires. Has belly pan, but it appears steel oil pan
sticks through it? I saw drips of oil on oil pan, but none on ground. Yuck.
I was hoping to avoid oil leaks, as my Jetta leaks like a seive. To be
expected with mileage I guess, unless seals have been done. I will probably
drive it tomorrow and offer $2k if it drives ok. Seeing state of tires make
wonder what else might be wrong, bearings, CVs, etc. Owner say brakes were
all done recently. Are brakes same as Jetta or larger?

The '03 I drove this morning was nice, but not perfect, and $8500 is more
than I have to spend. I like the looks of the '03 body, but for some reason,
every one I've driven has failed to inspire me.

The '96 may serve the purpose for a few years, and isn't as embarrassing to
look at as the Jetta (ours is pretty rough inside), and who knows, I could
scrap it and rebuild the TDI for my Westy in a few years.... :-)

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 4:00 PM, brian hoeft <qweblog at gmail.com> wrote:

> I would much rather have a 96 TDI than the00-03. Without going the
> Mechanical TDI route it can still be quite dependable and torque happy. I
> just got a friend to pick up a poor running jetta of the same type ?ALH for
> a grand. If you found a clean body with soot under the hood but nothing
> major, i say 2500 starts sounding good and below there expect to need work,
> but can be worth it. Neither of the choices you propose sound like a
> warranty would be soo either way its going to be something once in a while.
>
> -brian
>
> On Sat, Aug 21, 2010 at 3:08 PM, Shawn Wright <vwdiesels at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I've been looking for a 2000-03 Jetta TDI with no luck for quite a while,
>> and
>> came across a '96 Passat TDI with 270k, looks to be in nice shape. Asking
>> price
>> is $2700, but it's been sitting a while, so I can probably get it for
>> less.
>> I'd
>> appreciate hearing opinions on this car, as I know little about them,
>> aside
>> from
>> having driven the first TDI to land here in '96 at the dealer.
>>
>> Eventually I'd like to get an '09 Jetta once used ones drop in price in a
>> few
>> years, so I'm thinking the Passat would hold me until then.
>>
>> I'm replacing an '85 Jetta 1.6NA, so anything is an upgrade...
>>
>> Shawn
>> '85 Jetta 1.6
>> '88 Westy 1.6TD
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>>
>
>
>
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>



-- 
Shawn Wright