You should do it on the Toyota, they are pretty simple to do. 143k isn't really much for a car like that either, no reason it won't pass 200k.
I hate VW's with a passion, so I'm not going to say anything because it won't be good. But I will say if I am ever forced to get a cheap car it will be a Honda or a Toyota, because at least it won't leak oil and have a billion electrical shorts, and be a total POS. They are actualy designed and built pretty well for cheap cars. I don't understand the point of buying a cheap German car, they have all the issues the good ones have, and none of the enjoyment when they are running right to make up for it. Its like wow I feel like I am driving a poorly designed Civic, wow there goes the speedo again!
Is that smoke! Wow I havn't seen a dashboard short like that since my Grandmothers old Lucus Jag!
I know the TDI guys were freaking over this ULSD thing because they have rotary pumps that burn out. Good riddence I rather drive a 40mpg gas Civic than one of these junks.
I got the pleasure to get up close in personal with a 97 Passat VR6 over the weekend, junk, junk, junk, I wish it was a V6 Camry. Everything is freaken plastic and breaks, all the door handles are broke, the wiring is all exposed and shorting out, all the coolant lines are cheap plastic and snapping. I touched the crank case vent and it snapped off, touched!
That car is a freaken joke, I wouldn't pay a $1 for it. You have to pull the freaken engine to change the chains, which supposidly need changing every 100k, and you almost need to pull the damn thing to change the serp belt. They seem to have used a similer T chain design that Jag did on their early V8's, so super crappy. Sure as heck makes me appreciate how the mount a V6 in a good car, like an E320. An E320 is about a million times simpler to service. Everything is right on top or in front and easy to get at, none of the plastic breaks, and you never have to mess with the T chains. Considering the Passat probably cost damn near what an E320 cost in 1997...all I have to say to the original owner is
sucka! 
Oh wow I kind of ranted a bit!
Sorry I got the pleasure of messing with a VR6 this weekend and it just reminded me oh how much I hate these things.