I have had a few Golf GTI's / V6 4Mo's in the past, and even a Polo, but this is my first Passat. And I'm almost impressed,
The reason I got the Passat was that my mother needed a cheap car, and quick. And had no coin to buy one herself. So I gave her my Polo. It was a 2000 plate SDI, slow as hell, but ran on vegetable oil, had a leaking exhaust, and was slow as hell. Did I mention it was slow as hell? Well it was. But it did me for my 100 mile a day commute, while keeping the miles off my BMW 335d, and cheaper than my P38 Range Rover V8 to run.
Anyway, so I gave her the Polo, and needed a car sharpish. Had to do 50 mpg or there abouts for the commute, and be cheap. I liked VW's and Audi's (Had a few A3's, A4's and S4's in the past too), but knew I couldn't stretch to a B6 A4, and was never a huge fan of the B5's.
Anyway, found this TDI S, on a 2003 plate, with 143k on her. Thought I'd give it a punt, and see what like the Passat is. I had a notion of replacing the P38 with a Passat Bluemotion (B7), so this would make a nice wee intro.
So, I got her home, with very little paperwork. Although the service book was there, and all stamped up to 124k. So either just missing a service, or it wasn't recorded. Didn't matter, first things first, service her. Thankfully the last timing belt was 3 years ago, and it still looks pretty good, so I might manage to leave it a year before I do that.
Next up was clean it. It was in no bad condition. Few rusty bits, as to be expected, but no major dings or scratches. Even had some polish left on it from previous owner. Not to shabby.
Anyway, I gave it a quick wash and polish myself, as I had recently bought a G220 V2 and needed to try it on something. Just used some Auto Glym SRP with it though, as I was just testing the water anyway.
Manky headlights though. Hit them with a quick blast of toothpaste, but had to stop before I used it all and the wife killed me for her not being able to brush her teeth in the morning. Minty...
Drivers side is worse for sure. Went to the 99p shop and bought a whole tube just for this. Might even try out an old electric toothbrush to help aid the polishing process. Really Minty....
Interior is standard affair. Trying to put in a BT head unit just now, PITA if I'm honest. Had an old MK4 dash pocket, but it wont fit, so ordered a cheapo one from ebay just now. Hopefully arrives soon. But that's about it.
Gonna run it for a couple months, until it's MOT in November, and see how she fairs. If all is still good then, I may give her a wee remap. Then fit Cruise Control and possible Comfort Indicators, as she will be a motorway terrorist. That'll be all though.
Thanks for looking.