As per title, my brother is looking for a cheap (ish) runabout until his finances improve, he is the victim of the pandemic and redundancies having lost his employment as a courier driver. He doesnt have a great deal of spare cash at the moment so looking to spend up to £1500, he has owned a couple of Passat's in the past so ideally looking for similar or Golf, maybe even a Merc, anything considered in fact. But Passat is really his preferred choice due their tank like build quality and reliability. We are based near Uxbridge, happy to travel couple of hundred miles. Ideally a diesel. Look forward to seeing whats on offer. By the way, im paying for the car, so be kind. 07866 431883 if anyone wants to contact me directly.
We have owned 3 and never had any problems with any of them, sold a 1998 model Passat with just under 200,000 miles.
I bought a one owner 13 plate TDi Bluemotion with full VW dealer service history, in (apparent) fantastic condition, all the stamps & 55k miles for one purpose only: get me to my new job & back every day for a couple of years. Spent the first month back at the dealer more often than not with engine mounts replaced, wheel speed sensors & repeated EML problems. Finally fixed it all, just worked long enough to get out of warranty & the ECU gave up. £1500 no other options, made it a very expensive £7K car.
Shogun Elegance, 3.2 DID, 5 door on a 55 reg, 140k miles almost full service history, had it five years, starts, goes and stops exactly as it should, totally reliable, only thing that does not work is the air con as the pipe has a leak over the rear axle, not mint but then again what is, no dents though. Mot September 2021. Oxford, £1500
Try and buy a 1.9 PDTDI..those engines are very good. Avoid the 2.0 PDTDI (especially the first generation) Don't limit the search to Passat/Golf, there are brands using the same parts. Seat Leon, Skoda Octavia, Superb.
Thanks for the advice. Appreciated. I’ve heard the same about 1.9 and 2.0 engines from my mechanic mate.
One like this with good service history should be good for another 200k miles with minimal maintenance. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202011136084981?sort=price-asc&maximum-mileage=150000&model=OCTAVIA&minimum-badge-engine-size=1.9&price-from=1500&include-delivery-option=on&radius=1500&make=SKODA&postcode=da163es&maximum-badge-engine-size=1.9&price-to=2000&onesearchad=New&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=Used&year-from=2005&advertising-location=at_cars&page=1 There is actually one for sale on autotrader with 339k miles.
Thanks Alexko, I will run it by him, still checking other options and still looking, What you all got?
The 52 plate 3.2 LWB Shogun I had was/is the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. I brought it with @14K miles on it at 1yr old, and sold it 6yrs later with 169Kmiles on it. The only non-service part it ever needed was a Duel Mass Flywheel when the clutch went at @140K miles. But considering I'd used it to tow a 2.5Tn trailer several times a month I didn't mind. I've had Discoveries ever since, which is an entirely different story. I agree with the advise to go for the VW 1.9TDi over the 2.0TDI. My son had a really nice 2.0TDI 4motionTiguan that was wonderful, except for several bouts of trouble with the EGR cooler. We were told at the time the 1.9 is better. As an aside, my son lives and works on a farm in the middle of nowhere in the Cotswolds, and what the Tiguan was capable of off road really surprised me. Nasher.
