Hi Scotty,
Happy New Year. I hope you are well. I am shopping around for a car. I'd like to ask your opinion about the two vehicles above. Which one is more reliable. Which one requires more maintenance or repairs. Whatever information you can give me will be appreciated. More power to you. Thank you.
The Acura. It is a part of Honda.
The Passat would be harder to repair and more expensive because of German engineering. The Acura is basically a Honda and if you take care of it or get the small stuff done it could last a very very long time. Between those definetly the Acura. Just make sure to have a mechanic do a pre-purchase inspection and check out the automatic transmission as that is the weakest part of the vehicle. By no means is the Passat's transmissions almost half as good as the Acuras usually the engine blows up when it is 7 8 years old.
The 2017 Acura ILX with 8K miles that I'm looking at has an open recall about driveshaft separation. It's in the Carmax inventory. They claim to do 125+ inspection. In your opinion, are they reliable when it comes to inspecting used cars?
On their website it says that they do a 125+ point mechanical inspection BUT do not adress safety recalls. You could get that fixed through Acura. also, I would not trust their inspection they probably don't know what they are doing either way have your own trusted mechanic check it out and do a pre-purchase inspection on it.
I would vote for the Acura in terms of Honda reliability. In terms of recalls, the dealer is responsible for taking care of this when parts are available. You can take a VIN and ask a Acura dealer to check of the work was completed - the dealer will keep a database of this.
The Passat does have more interior room as it is a larger car - bigger back seat and trunk.
