VW Passat .... if you ever consider owning one ....

[Samw]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

This is rediculous.

I had a 1991 Passat that I absolutely adored for several years until a little old lady driving on the highway decided to cross the double line and drive into me head-on. At highway speeds we were both lucky to live through that accident.

I mean ... what is this? Did my car suddenly turn into a Chrysler? I have to replace my tranny???!! Who ever heard of replacing a STANDARD transmission?! It's not an automatic for crying out loud!

Wow. Highway head-on?? Horrific but glad to know you both walked away from it.

Replacing the entire transmission is also standard procedure for my Dodge Stealth R/T Turbo (Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 rebadged). If you look up the shop manual under transmissions, its says that they are not serviceable. Neither Dodge nor Mitsubishi sells parts for them. Neither of them will even open up the Getrag tranny. A new tranny costs $10,000. Luckily, I found a rebuilt one for $2,500 from California. The driveshaft U-Joints are also not serviceable and repair requires a complete replacement at $2,000. Luckily, I got an aftermarket carbon fiber one with serviceable U-Joints for only $1,500. This is only since summer. I too have sunk about $8k-$10k in repairs on my car but over 4 years.

Oh, get this. Dodge sells spark plugs for my car at $50 per plug (not the entire set). A rubber air conditioning hose (about 3") was about $250. Good thing I had an extended warranty at that time otherwise, my repair total would have been >$15,000.