FAO: DragonballZ

“	Originally Posted By: DragonballZ I have owned a Passat and a Jetta. My friend has owned 3 Golfs. If you get a VW, be prepared to spend A LOT to replace any engine parts, to have it be almost impossible to do it yourself with out a lot of VW specialty tools, and to have to wait up to 3 weeks for a part to be imported. Also, even with the best ones, prepare for a lot of small, expensive, cheaply made plastic parts on the interior to break (door handles, radio buttons, plastic panels, window handles, etc. All of my friends who have owned VWs agree with me that we will never buy another one. It's too much of a headache, and the only real positive is that young women think they are "cute."	”

I learned to work on cars working on VW's!! I'm a mechanic by NO MEANS, and have done quite a bit of repair on mine and (good thing or bad) but they aren't that bad! Yes parts are expensive (some parts are same parts on Porche's), and yes some of the interior pieces are cheap, but most interior pieces are in any car but those don't effect how the car runs! I belong to a couple of VW car clubs and a lot of "shade tree" mechanics and a lot who do it professionaly as well. Everyone will have bad experiences with cars (and everything else in life), hell, I will NEVER own a ford because of the problems I've seen with them by family and friends!! To each their own I guess!!

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http://www.haywardmartialarts.net

<<I had no idea Volvo was a nationality.......>.

yes, they conquered Sweden

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“	Originally Posted By: chief108 as a former passat owner I second that.... damn car was like a pit where I could throw all my cash into and never saw something coming back... now I'm trying an English car... A Rover.... oh well... my dad used to like 'em... so far, so good Chief108	”

Rover Prepare for some surprises. BMW made lots of losses for the poor quality of the making. Maybe, you get lucky...

As for the VWs, it depends on the model, the age, etc. A beetle of course looks cool, but is a car of the 70s. Some simple made cars run long mileages, but you ALWAYS have to care for some parts. German cars always need some makeover once you hit every 70,000 km (~50,000 miles). You need to replace often the water pump, definetly the steering ribbons (Zahnriemen, Keilriemen) of cars who don't have a steering chain like BMW. You HAVE to watch oil and water closely, using the right quality of oil (there are norms provided by VW, you cannot just take a cheaper one), add specified cooling additives to the water. Etc. It's not careless stuff that runs as long as you put gas in.
Next problem is that, for example for the mileage / gallon and smooth running, you have to make sure that the parameters for ignition, and the spark plugs used are the right ones. Todays computer controlled engines are fallible to bad programming and little parts failures. Less qualified garages often tell you they can make any car, in fact they barely get it to run. Small mistakes can have large consequences to the mileage and damage the engine. Even in germany you have so many fools telling you they can do this and that, and then make horrible mistakes to the car a trainee should know better. You never know if a previous owner had such a "service".

As for door handles etc. breaking, of course this is cheap plastic stuff designed for germans who handle the car with love. If you plan to throw your kitchen sink into the car not looking what it hits, try the german model "Leopard". Will take any abuse, but maybe consume a little bit much gas. Also, 10 years put quite some aging on the parts, they will go loose and some day fall off if touched hard.

My 2000 VW 1.9 TDI does not smoke, is a small turbo charged diesel with a HUGE acceleration once you hit the turbo range (more than my previous 200HP BMW), and consumes less than 6 litres at 100 km (~40MPG). It's behaviour on driving is although not that of my old 93' BMW (E36), it's a different league to have a racing suspension and rear wheel drive with a long wheelbase. I always have to laugh when I see car pursuits in US movies with US cars swimming through turns staying behind a Porsche, BMW or Mercedes power car. In reality, I made 200 metres between me and the guys behind me at the traffic lights in a few seconds.

If all you want is a car you can throw anything into, is easy to repair and can take some abuse, buy an elder US pickup with a simple engine. German hightech cars ARE problematic to repair, especially VW. They do this to prevent people from doing things themselves and make revenue from the service.


P.S.: If you have strange problems with door handles and windows not opening or closing, think of someone having tried to break in and steal the car or the interior during the night, having damaged it. The other idea would be, mounting of the window mechanics in the US or Mexico ...

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“	P.S.: If you have strange problems with door handles and windows not opening or closing, think of someone trying to break in and steal the car or the interior during the night.	”

that's it.. our old audi 80 (rest in peace, smoking piece of metal) had door opening-protection built in

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Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not "Every man for himself." And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up.

Rover Chief! You must be mad. Maybe you'll be their one satisfied customer.

I'm glad some one else noticed the inequality of tv car chases Nick

I've nursed one ford through 160,000 miles and it was a nightmare of replacing gaskets at the side of the motorway and waiting for repair guys when it really fell apart. All you could say for it was it was perfectly average. Average price, average reliability, average ease of maintenance.

VW seem to make different cars for different markets and then sell them under the same name. The golf you buy in croatia is not the golf you buy in the uk. Maybe VW looked at US cars and figured build quality wasn't important, given the competition it wouldn't be hard to shine.

My mate paid less than £12,000 for his golf, it keeps up with £60,000 plus BMW's when 'racing' on back roads, he slings his bike in the back and drives it to races all over the country, and he's never had any problems, not even a rattle from the door trim. Another mate has done over 200,000 km in his, driving from East Germany across to the uk regularly, all maintenance done in back yards.

I drive a little a3 (audi but a golf under another name). It can give my 996cc Ducati a run for its money performance wise, it does a steady 85 mph all day with two kayaks and paddles on the roof. I've had a few complaints but they were definitely of the 'for this kind of money it'd better be perfect' kind.

The worst thing about travel in the states is being hired some 'sport' car that wallows like a pig and falls apart if you sneeze. That's still worth it rather than end up borrowing a friends explorer. I mean, why why would any one want to wallow around on a giant bean bag just because it has four wheel drive and says 'extreme' on the side

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“	Originally Posted By: john100 I mean, why why would any one want to wallow around on a giant bean bag just because it has four wheel drive and says 'extreme' on the side	”

Hahaha, wollowing around on a giant bean bag is exactly what it feels like.

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“	Originally Posted By: john100 Rover Chief! You must be mad. Maybe you'll be their one satisfied customer.	”

nope, I wasn't
the car sucked big time

(just saw this thread again, so...)

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“	Question Authority. Question Society. Question Reality. Question Yourself. Question your conclusions, your judgments, your answers. Question this. If you question everything thoroughly enough, the truth will eventually hit you upside the head and you will know. But here’s a warning: It won’t be what you imagined. It won’t be even close.	”

all hail Martyr Fakka

After 4 years?

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Oh THAT'S how that works!

“	Originally Posted By: john100 VW seem to make different cars for different markets and then sell them under the same name. The golf you buy in croatia is not the golf you buy in the uk. Maybe VW looked at US cars and figured build quality wasn't important, given the competition it wouldn't be hard to shine.	”

Modern American release VW's have GM electronics/ ac etc. instead of Bosch..
Mystery solved...

ps, I have a '64 VW Crew-cab in my garage right now

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"It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought the fool, than to open it and prove it so." KungFuTze
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“	VW agreed in principle to pay G.M. $100 million, to buy at least $1 billion worth of G.M. parts in the next seven years...	”

..from G.M. Never Wavered in Its 4-Year Fight Over Executive Who Defected to VW - New York Times

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"It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought the fool, than to open it and prove it so." KungFuTze
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." T. Geisel

“	Originally Posted By: Mei Hua After 4 years?	”

nah, the car broke down way faster than that
been driving an old, beat up VW golf for about 3 years allready
you do the math...

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“	Question Authority. Question Society. Question Reality. Question Yourself. Question your conclusions, your judgments, your answers. Question this. If you question everything thoroughly enough, the truth will eventually hit you upside the head and you will know. But here’s a warning: It won’t be what you imagined. It won’t be even close.	”

all hail Martyr Fakka

“	been driving an old, beat up VW golf for about 3 years allready	”

The cool thing about those cars is sometimes if you beat them with a big stick they come back to life.

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