A VW 1.8T making it that far is nothing short of a miracle. I had a 99 Passat and at 176K km it was done. Even after babying the thing on synthetic oil religiously at specified intervals, the thing sludged up, starved the main bearings, and well... I'll never own another VW because of the bath I took on depreciation. Do some googles on "class action 1.8" (as in law suit) and you'll see several hits...

Benz knows how to build an engine to last, VW only hopes they can do something just as good.

Oh, congrats on 300K ! I had fully the same intentions when I bought my 99. I wholesaled it and walked across the street to Subaru and got myself a Legacy wagon, to replace the Passat wagon. That was in 2006, and it's a better lasting car - one bearing, on warranty, this year. By the same amount of time my list of repair on the Passat was into the thousands.

The ODO on my daily driver 300D says 660K km on it. And it's had zero replacement timing chains. Chains mind you, not belts. It's just getting to the stretch mark now to be worthy of a replacement. Less than $200 later, and 2 hour job and it's done. What did a belt change cost for the Passat? I can't read the tiny type in the post.

__________________
Cheers!
Scott McPhee

1987 300D