Ownership Review : Passat 1.9 TDI PD130

[twoblacklines]

Thought I would help out a bit here, first ever review, will keep it short and sweet.

I bought this car for £2200 14 months ago. It had no service history and it shows, its not been looked after well. It had 89k on it when i got it and now has nearly 130k, but in all honesty i think it had done more like 180k, ie clocked. The only modification I have done to it is to fit a pair of HID 6500k lights into the dipped projectors. Being projecters they "project" the light very well with no dazzling to other drivers. Never once have I been flashed for them by another driver, or pulled. They dont have a self level function so technically illegal, although the rules on this are as clear as mud.

Service wise its had one service, on longlife oil, 2 front tyres. Thats it. It goes through sidelights every other month, which is a pain as i cant fit my big hands down there to change them, so i just leave them off, they seem pretty useless anyway as the HID's are right next to them and i never sit in the car with the ignition off to actually use them.

However I think the merits of the car grossly outweigh any of the issues I have had, for £2k the cars been a bargain, heres a list of positives.

1. Performance - not bad at all, a bit laggy, not remapped it, 130hp, 225lb/ft, dont really need to go over 3krpm before changing gears. I always use vpower diesel so no idea what effect this has.

2. Comfort - car is comfy, im 6ft 8 and 22 stone and i only get stretch / back trouble after around 550 miles of constant driving, which ironically is usually fill up time.

3. Diesel consumption - Ive seen 650 miles to a tank before when i drove from plym - aberystwith and back pretty much none stop, not bad for a 55 litre tank, doing 80mph+ on the motorways and caining it round Wales' lovely roads! Regulary see 50mpg average, computer seems pretty accurate. When you think its nearly a 2 tonne car and i have a massive 4 cuft sub box in the boot, a load of camera gear, and sometimes 4 fully grown males with luggage, thats quite amazing. I get better overall mpg than a friend does in her 1.0 fiat thing, and not only is my car more refined (in both our opinions), hers wont go up hill in anything higher than third whilst i stay in fifth

Personally I hate diesels, i hate the noise they make, and whilst i wish i wouldnt have another one again, when looking at say, an a3 2.0tfsi vs the tdi equivalent, the tdi makes much more sense.

I can only think of one disadvantage and thats traffic, my clutch foot seizes up sometimes and the clutch is quite heavy with the biting point quite a way in, in stop start traffic the car is a nightmare, something thats really making me consider a DSG gearbox in my next car!

For £2k its an utter bargain, and its not even worth that now, im probably looking at selling it for around £1k when the time comes.

Please excuse the useless pics. Was new to photography when i took them, went mad with the contrast. The last one is latest.

[meninblack]

You are lucky you fit it. I find the Passat desperately uncomfortable, and I loathe the cheap Eastern-block-style interior. And yes, the clutch is horrid. Our hard-used fleet ones are also prone to sending huge clouds of black smoke out the back at the slightest hint of throttle. Big furore in our company at the moment: a number of the UK/French sales force have said that the Passat is just not good enough to be a sensible business car. Our German masters are not happy.

[hifiwigwam]

Thought I would help out a bit here, first ever review, will keep it short and sweet.

I bought this car for £2200 14 months ago. It had no service history and it shows, its not been looked after well. It had 89k on it when i got it and now has nearly 130k, but in all honesty i think it had done more like 180k, ie clocked. The only modification I have done to it is to fit a pair of HID 6500k lights into the dipped projectors. Being projecters they "project" the light very well with no dazzling to other drivers. Never once have I been flashed for them by another driver, or pulled. They dont have a self level function so technically illegal, although the rules on this are as clear as mud.

Service wise its had one service, on longlife oil, 2 front tyres. Thats it. It goes through sidelights every other month, which is a pain as i cant fit my big hands down there to change them, so i just leave them off, they seem pretty useless anyway as the HID's are right next to them and i never sit in the car with the ignition off to actually use them.

However I think the merits of the car grossly outweigh any of the issues I have had, for £2k the cars been a bargain, heres a list of positives.

1. Performance - not bad at all, a bit laggy, not remapped it, 130hp, 225lb/ft, dont really need to go over 3krpm before changing gears. I always use vpower diesel so no idea what effect this has.

2. Comfort - car is comfy, im 6ft 8 and 22 stone and i only get stretch / back trouble after around 550 miles of constant driving, which ironically is usually fill up time.

3. Diesel consumption - Ive seen 650 miles to a tank before when i drove from plym - aberystwith and back pretty much none stop, not bad for a 55 litre tank, doing 80mph+ on the motorways and caining it round Wales' lovely roads! Regulary see 50mpg average, computer seems pretty accurate. When you think its nearly a 2 tonne car and i have a massive 4 cuft sub box in the boot, a load of camera gear, and sometimes 4 fully grown males with luggage, thats quite amazing. I get better overall mpg than a friend does in her 1.0 fiat thing, and not only is my car more refined (in both our opinions), hers wont go up hill in anything higher than third whilst i stay in fifth

Personally I hate diesels, i hate the noise they make, and whilst i wish i wouldnt have another one again, when looking at say, an a3 2.0tfsi vs the tdi equivalent, the tdi makes much more sense.

I can only think of one disadvantage and thats traffic, my clutch foot seizes up sometimes and the clutch is quite heavy with the biting point quite a way in, in stop start traffic the car is a nightmare, something thats really making me consider a DSG gearbox in my next car!

For £2k its an utter bargain, and its not even worth that now, im probably looking at selling it for around £1k when the time comes.

Please excuse the useless pics. Was new to photography when i took them, went mad with the contrast. The last one is latest.

Nice write up.

The big question is, will you be at Scalford? Because, you (same size as me) me and Jack are doing the door work

[Tel]

Nice write up.

The big question is, will you be at Scalford? Because, you (same size as me) me and Jack are doing the door work

If the three of you stand next to each other no one will get through the door

[johnniebaby]

If the three of you stand next to each other no one will get through the door

If the three of them stand next to each other no one will get on the car park

[hifiwigwam]

We would make sure the event broke even though.

[Ian Sampson]

We would make sure the event broke even though.

I think the bloody hotel would break

[twoblacklines]

Little update. Had this remapped, for £360 with evolution chips.

Car now much better to drive, not just the extra power (between 170-180hp, 280lb/ft) but theres no lag anymore, foot down car surges forward all the way to around 4000rpm before power trails off. Can drive around in 5th at 40mph with no issues, whereas before it would stall.

Wierdly the same day it was remapped and 300 miles later, engine management light came on, car lost all power. Oh dear i thought, but it seems to be a simple brake light issue which is getting sorted tommorow.

No idea if economy has been improved as ive been too busy embarresing saxo vts' and 106 gti's.

Car is awesome on the motorway for overtaking. Sit at 70, need to go past something, foot down in 5th and its at 90 pretty much instantly (or so it feels), foot off and back to 70 again. Wish i had cruise control!

I really want to drive a remapped 1.8t version now to see if it feels the same, if it does then all that power without the clatter is only a good thing!

[earlofsodbury]

Sorry to preach - but trust you've notified your insurers, otherwise tis invalidated, upon which a court of law will not smile, much less the insurer pay-out if the worst should happen...

[johnniebaby]

Little update. Had this remapped, for £360 with evolution chips.

Car now much better to drive, not just the extra power (between 170-180hp, 280lb/ft) but theres no lag anymore, foot down car surges forward all the way to around 4000rpm before power trails off. Can drive around in 5th at 40mph with no issues, whereas before it would stall.

Wierdly the same day it was remapped and 300 miles later, engine management light came on, car lost all power. Oh dear i thought, but it seems to be a simple brake light issue which is getting sorted tommorow.

No idea if economy has been improved as ive been too busy embarresing saxo vts' and 106 gti's.

Car is awesome on the motorway for overtaking. Sit at 70, need to go past something, foot down in 5th and its at 90 pretty much instantly (or so it feels), foot off and back to 70 again. Wish i had cruise control!

I really want to drive a remapped 1.8t version now to see if it feels the same, if it does then all that power without the clatter is only a good thing!

A brake light failure causing loss of engine power ?????????????? That's a new one.

[blackholesun]

I really want to drive a remapped 1.8t version now to see if it feels the same, if it does then all that power without the clatter is only a good thing!

My neighbour has a remapped 1.8t, which i drove. The power is great, however... 19 MPG!!!
BTW I drive the same 1.9 as you do, it's ok because you don't have to worry about fuel costs too much, but that horrid diesel sound...

[Samantha]

A brake light failure causing loss of engine power ?????????????? That's a new one.

No idea with that particular car, but it isn't too unusual - a lot of cars just have far too many sensors and often it is the sensors that create the problem rather than what they are trying to detect - in this case, it could just be it has detected a voltage change or suchlike due to the light and since it doesn't know what is the fault, it goes into 'safty mode' where you can get home but no revs and restricted power.

Was a common thing with the old Preludes with electronic 4ws (4th gen, 3rd gen had mechanical 4ws so no problems) - if someone had a 4ws problem, I would advise they check for a blown bulb - it was almost always the fault as the electronics switched off the 4ws as a safety measure due to the sensor not knowing what was wrong.

[Samantha]

Incidentally - I had the 1.9 TDi 130 some years back ..... bought it with 8,500 miles, sold it with 96,000 miles and I never had any issues with lag, no stalling if in 6th gear at 40mph and it was certainly a lot quicker than the 2.0 TDi Golf that I had driven before it - and more frugel (I averaged over 50mpg all the time)

Some of the failings that you decribe that were fixed by the 'chip' may well have in truth been fixed by a simple service and set-up as they are faults I certainly didn't have with mine over a lot of miles.
I used to get between 600 and 650 to a tank most fills, though I almost saw 700 miles from a tank - never quite made that though.

[johnniebaby]

Incidentally - I had the 1.9 TDi 130 some years back ..... bought it with 8,500 miles, sold it with 96,000 miles and I never had any issues with lag, no stalling if in 6th gear at 40mph and it was certainly a lot quicker than the 2.0 TDi Golf that I had driven before it - and more frugel (I averaged over 50mpg all the time)

Some of the failings that you decribe that were fixed by the 'chip' may well have in truth been fixed by a simple service and set-up as they are faults I certainly didn't have with mine over a lot of miles.
I used to get between 600 and 650 to a tank most fills, though I almost saw 700 miles from a tank - never quite made that though.

Well Sam, you learn something new every day

[karlinamillion]

...a lot of cars just have far too many sensors...

At the risk of being over nostalgic, car electrics now are so damn complex/complicated. Just look at the 12 or more pages in a Haynes manual that a typical modern cars circuit diagram covers, WTF is all this for?
I rememberthe circuit on my Herald; Battery->Fuse->Switch->Light->Earth. (And that was after I fitted a fuse box!)

[Samantha]

Well Sam, you learn something new every day

I assume you meant to quote my first post regarding the light

[johnniebaby]

I assume you meant to quote my first post regarding the light

Yes Sam, if a garage had told me that I would have thought they were taking the mick

[earlofsodbury]

At the risk of being over nostalgic, car electrics now are so damn complex/complicated. Just look at the 12 or more pages in a Haynes manual that a typical modern cars circuit diagram covers, WTF is all this for?
I rememberthe circuit on my Herald; Battery->Fuse->Switch->Light->Earth. (And that was after I fitted a fuse box!)

couldn't agree more, modern cars are oversized, overweight, and stuffed to the gizzard with pointless reptoys like mobile budgie cages. Even the much-vaunted safety and driving aid features to my mind cause as many problems as they alleviate - not just (e.g.) traction-sensing which makes them *harder* to drive in snow, but all the myriad "safety" features that merely lull the average fuckwit into a false sense of security and so a commensurately reckless or careless driving style...

And all of it just more to go wrong!

[Leonard Smalls]

I have a slightly rose tinted memory of old time motoring too... Anything could be fixed with a spanner and some chewing gum, empty roads etc.
But being realistic I also remember that you were never sure if you'd actually finish any journey, or in many cases even start it wot with the general unreliability of many motors.
Cars are, on the whole, much more reliable these days IME!
Admitedly, they can be a bugger to fix if they go wrong, and can be horrendously over-complicated (frinstance, don't buy any Land Rover after the TD300!), but airborne particulate emissions are right down
and you can now mine your own platinum by sweeping the roads...

[earlofsodbury]

I have a slightly rose tinted memory of old time motoring too... Anything could be fixed with a spanner and some chewing gum, empty roads etc.
But being realistic I also remember that you were never sure if you'd actually finish any journey, or in many cases even start it wot with the general unreliability of many motors.
Cars are, on the whole, much more reliable these days IME!
Admitedly, they can be a bugger to fix if they go wrong, and can be horrendously over-complicated (frinstance, don't buy any Land Rover after the TD300!), but airborne particulate emissions are right down
and you can now mine your own platinum by sweeping the roads...

Yep, I'll buy that there's been improvement in some areas, only Mercs rust-out in three years these days for instance I only wish that there was more of a trend to retain the best of the old and only the truly worthwhile from the new, but I do know it's all about the compromises demanded by the mass-market, so know all too well that I'm pissing into the wind with this!