I've been thinking of buying a new car. I have two cars I'm considering. Volskwagen 1999 Golf 1.9 TDI with 506 000km (1050€) and 2003 Passat 1.8T with 318000km (1250€) What do you think? Which one should I buy?
Unit conversion:
- '99 GOLF turbo-diesel 315,000 miles for $1,100
- '03 Passat turbo-petrol 197,000 miles for $1,300
Neither. In my opinion, the last good car that VW made was the 1972 Beetle.
Honestly neither. These cars are almost always abused and driven to death. Another issue is reliability. German cars are well built but they start to fail after 100,000 miles. The cars are getting old and German cars start to fall apart after 10 years. Turbo cars are the worst. They break and fail a lot sooner then naturally aspirated. There turbo diesel cars are a lot better and last longer but they still has alot of issues. I really cannot say a average they last since it varies greatly. Either way going by age and milage both cars are nearing the end of there lives.
Although I agree that "neither" is the correct answer, I'd sat the rest is NOT accurate.
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Old VWs are tanks.
As far as turbo engines, in this case, what you're saying is untrue - EA113 turbos regularly go over 200,000 miles, about as much as the MPi variant.
As far as them supposedly having "alot of issues", the turbocharger and coils are the only things that come to mind, and that's pretty much it.
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A reliable, long living, well built engine, on a reasonably well built car.
If saving up more and buying something newer is an option - I'd do that.
If it's not, then it's the one that's in better condition (regardless of the model)
