Hey Hattie -

My wife has a 1997 Jetta, the 2.0L Trek edition and it has been a fantastic car mechanically. Haven't had to do a thing to the engine. It needed a new tranny when we bought it, but in the 7 years or so we've owned it, it has been great.

VWs do suffer from a lot of small failures though. Door locks is one, window motors and regulators always fail. Alarm problems. Side moudling peels off the doors (too heavy). Etc.

Wife's sister has a newer Jetta with the VR6. It's a nice engine, it drives kind of like a subdued 3-series Bimmer. IIRC, it gets very good mileage. Fast as well. Not sure how it would feel in the Passat which is a bigger chassis I think.

Free is good though. Good luck.

__________________
Chris
2007 E550 4Matic - 61,000 Km - Iridium Silver, black leather, Sport package, Premium 2 package
2007 GL450 4Matic - 62,000 Km - Obsidian Black Metallic, black leather, all options
1998 E430 - sold
1989 300E - 333,000 Km - sold
1977 280E - sold
1971 250 - retired

"And a frign hat. They gave me a hat at the annual benefits meeting. I said. how does this benefit me. I dont have anything from the company.. So they gave me a hat." - TheDon