My Other Volkswagens

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This is my newest VW... a 2003 Passat GLS.  My old Jetta TDI is a great car.  But I didn't have children in mind when I purchased it.  We had our eyes on minivans for a while.  But I just couldn't justify the expense of a minivan when we'd only use two or three of the seven seats 99% of the time.  Instead, we went with a VW Passat.  The Passat is less expensive, quicker, more agile, and gets better gas mileage than a minivan.  It's longer and has more rear seat room than my Jetta.  I couldn't get one in DIESEL flavor (Passat TDIs did not return to the U.S. until 2004).  So I settled for a 1.8T, a turbocharged four cylinder that puts out 170-hp and still nets 31-mpg on the highway.  The V6 is $2000 more.  For $400, I can reprogram the 1.8T and get more power than a reprogrammed V6.   :-D   Since I already have the VW diagnostic software, keeping the Passat running for a decade shouldn't be a big problem.  The fit, finish, and attention to detail on this car is amazing!  One thing I don't like about driving this car is that even my beloved Jetta feels old and worn out by comparison.  I'll keep the miles on it low, then fix it up when the warranty is expired... sort of like what I did with the Jetta; but with fewer miles.  Click the photo for more details.

My first Volkswagen was a red 1974 Beetle.  I used to drive that thing silly.  I really loved the car, but knew nothing about how to take care of it other than changing the oil.  Once I joined the Coast Guard my step father started driving it.  He wasn't taking very good care of it, so I sold it to him.  He gave me what I paid for it.  Within a few months the brakes failed, the steering creaked, the gas tank was dirty (resulting in lots of plugged fuel filters), and the battery had eaten its way through the floorboard and dragged a 1/4-mile down the freeway.

     My next VW was a 1989 Golf GL.  I bought it second hand in 1995 from a doctor who had used it through medical school.  It was lots of fun to drive, but his years of neglect really surfaced fast.  I had already replaced the shocks, brakes, motor mounts, and idle stabilizer; but other things kept creeping up.  The most annoying was that just about every door and window leaked.  I finally had to make a choice.  Joanne had been left stranded by each car (both times I was at sea).  I needed to know that she would have reliable transportation while I was at sea.  We agreed that it was time to buy a NEW car.  So I went to EDMUND'S ONLINE and investigated the 1998 VW Jetta TDI.  By the time I traded the poor Golf in, it had no muffler (it fell off somewhere in Houston), water inside, and something ugly was about fall off in the front suspension area (in addition to the surface rust and poor paint that it had when I first got it).

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