Private dealer has an older volkswagon ex service manager on staff. I suspect this is how they get batches of them from volkswagon on a pretty continuous basis. Anyways this was the best of the 4 passats that arrived. In the last batch with some Audi SUVS plus some Jettas. Never see any diesel golfs arriving though.

Some time ago I thought about the possibility. They would modify the newer vehicles first as they would see the most return of dollars. As time moved along the earlier ones would get modified and appear. This batch was almost all 2012s. Anyways I selected a white with black leather interior Passat fully loaded pretty much but without navigation and perhaps a back up camera. Less than fifty thousand miles. Six speed triptonic transmission. A transmission designed by borg warner that looks like a conventional transmission internally but has two clutches and no torque converter. These clutches ran wet until 2015. Then went to running them dry. The volkswagon automatic transmissions where both problematic and expensive to replace. They became far less problematic in 2011 but remain expensive to replace. You have to change the fluid in them every 40k miles to stand a chance of durability. . The car continues to use add blue that you refill every 10k for about 9.00 here. I took the car for two whole days as per a previous agreement with this dealer. Other than a burnt out light bulb I found everything still good. Milage does not seem to have been impacted much with the change to less polluting. Since on this one it was a software change I might have it turned back. We will see. It will void the additional warranty though that extends to about 110K miles or until 2022. Provided free by volkswagon on these. Ten years after the date of the original delivery of the car.

It is heavier and larger than my other older diesel jetta five speed. Plus has wider 17 inch tires on mag wheels. Yet on the testing seems to be getting about 51-53 Miles per imperial gallon and does not lack for power. It is quite a bit faster in fact. Cost as I tend to get good prices from this dealership? I paid about 7K American and they are putting a new safety certificate on the car and changing the oil and filter before I pick it up on Tuesday for the wife.

He will sell her current car on consignment for me. I might try to sell it privately for a week before taking it in. The reality today unfortunately is if you are not in a position to provide financing on a car sale today. You are unlikely to move it.

How good or bad are things in the real world out there? Selling the cars is not the issue today this dealer claims. Getting far too many of the people financed is the real issue. So many people out there are essentially underwater today.

They move volume by selling on the internet today. Personally I think his prices are fair in general as well. He treats me a little betterl.

I am not sure but his staff wanted a little more money out of the car. Actually when I left to get a bank draft. One of them passed me a card with the amount on it. It was a couple of thousand higher than what the owner of the dealership and myself had agreed on.

I send him customers because of a simple fact. If a vehicle is not up to his standards. He sends it to auction. He does not unload it on to his customers. Plus he is fair to his customers pricewise. He knows I do this so he seems to treat me well pricewise without me asking. Actually I am glad I have the bill of sale in my pocket. That sold car is in his front line this morning and is truly in stunning condition. With no sold sign on it. just the price removed from the windshield. It is a holiday weekend and the Audi 2013 diesel SUV sitting there for under 10k American will probably be history first thing Tues morning if it is as good as it looks.

Tom a member purchased something somewhat similar but newer. A buyback that they could not sort out the pollution conversion probably so it was throwing a code. They were unable to eliminate. So they took it back.

I guess if I could find something to complain about on that car. There was a fair amount of tread left before the wear bars are reached on those Goodyear eagle tires. Could these be the original tires? I forgot to check the date codes. They are 7 1/2 years old if they are. I think these cars came with those brand tires originally.

Most importantly after the wife drove it and stated she really liked it with the power seat and all. The way it drives and handles. Plus the huge trunk space for shopping.. Only then I told her it was a diesel. Plus not to slide the transmission lever to the right as that puts you into the triptonic mode of manual shifting with all the odd gear speed limiters .

Addition to this post. I went back and checked the date code on the good year eagles. They have to be the original tires. Still a substantial amount of tread as well. I had looked at the tires carefully before for any evidence of any alignment issues. Saw none. Never bothered to look at the date codes then because I thought a 215/55 17 inch low profile tire would wear out at lower miles and I would be looking at their replacements.

In any event I estimate they are about half way to their wear bars. Maybe more or less. Another reason I went back was to do a quick check of the last Audii diesel SUV. I think it has the original continental tires on it as well. Not wore that bad either. I just may check out that vehicle more early Tues morning.

It was locked of course as they are closed today and the holiday Monday.The white Audi SUV sold Saturday. It looked mint overall from me observing the purchasers examining it. I thought several years back when he sold me my current old diesel that the price was really good. They were asking for about 7500 at used car lots in comparable condition. He sold it to me for 3800. He knew it had been owned by a really old guy that was too sick to drive it for some years before he died. Yet had really kept it up. So far two calipers, tires, two headlight bulbs, and oil changes. Timing belt due about next spring I estimate. It went through an extensive safety check reciently with no wear or issues found anyplace as well. These are mandatory every two years and they are getting fussy now. Since the department of transportation is pulling their inspection licenses if they let things go.

If I knew what I do today perhaps I should have purchased the white audi SUV one as well. If it was basically a rebadged version of a volkswagon label product. You do not want to pay the price for Audi replacement parts over the period of ownership. They were brutal years ago.

Leave it to corporate Volkswagon to lie or make a misteak. The additional balance of the new 10 year warranty on anything that increases emissions. This includes more expensive components than one would expect. Warranty applies from the first date the car was delivered. The date codes on the tires are several weeks later than they claim the date of delivery was on this car. Perhaps they changed some problematic tires pretty much when the car was brand new. My gut thinks otherwise though with this company. Or the tire manufacturer is doctoring things a little. These cars may have been shipped into Canada without permanent tires as well because of regulations or economic issues. They do have the Canadian department of transport ratings on them. The car was manufactured in America on the Audi line. Or in the same plant.

.What I could have done at minimal expense. The resale of her Toyota will basically cover the Passat cost. If I was thinking and also purchased the white Audi SUV. My current diesel beater would have been easy to sell. We could have had both those vehicles for perhaps 3-4 thousand dollars more. Than the recovery from the two current vehicles. I do not really like the color of the grey SUV one that is left. I may wait and see what is in the next batch. I could have also had the white one if I had been thinking. Part of it may have been just my age. I had a hard time accepting the white passant was as good as it was. For the price. That white SUV probably was 60-70 thousand new. From what I saw it too really was a very low milage as almost a new vehicle basically just older. The best where returned with the rest as the payouts where more than even they were worth.

Sounds possible the tires are original.

Sounds like a nice car!

When I was looking, all the recall cars were for sale at prices near new.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Volkswagon dealers seem greedy to me and always have. I looked up a couple of dealers net postings as well in the last week. They appear not to be advertising the buy backs in their used inventory now. A year or two ago when these dealers did have some. They were on their websites. Plus as you mentioned seemed overpriced to me as well.


I also did not like the prices. I will try to get the private dealership to get the selling dealer when new from Volkswagon. Otherwise I will have to do a transmission oil change if I cannot find it was done. Difficult enough if done it was probably done by a dealer. Chances are with the pending buyback it was not done. It is just due now.


After reading up on how to change the fluid. I had to wonder. Transmission has to be drained at room temperature and filled at that temperature. Then you run the engine until the transmission temperature reaches 35C degrees. It will be self draining into a pan. You remove the plastic standpipe to drain it. Then you put the plug in. No dipstick or normal top filling port. The filter is mounted on top of the transmission.


You have to pull the battery and some other things to get to the filter. If a dealer did not let the car sit long enough for the transmission to cool all the way down. You might leave with the transmission not re filled properly. It appears you install about five liters of fluid and loose perhaps one. The ex service manager guy stated the cars built in the American plant this one comes from. Are still better than the Mexican ones in build quality. They could be running Audis and Passats on the same line as he mentioned they build audis there as well.


I am not sure why. The new car volkswagon dealers seem to have decent sales levels of the brand new Volkswagon gas powered products locally now. Volkswagon corporate has stated they were going to work on their part of customer relations. We have six dealers in our region. Reviews reciently posted state that only too are still only tolerable at best.


The ex servce manager stated anything you cannot handle yourself. Use a company called Euroworks 35 miles away. They are less brutal on pricing and really know what they are doing on Volkswagon products.


We use the place next door for the simpler stuff on incoming vehicles as they charge only 69.00 per hour and still have the right scanners etc. That is also only about half of the going local rates.

I bought a remediated 2015 Jetta SEL this past spring. I had thought they had only released the 2015's, but maybe they've gone deeper since I bought. DSG transmission, premium sound and seating, all the good stuff. The car has been flawless, just a joy to own. Despite remediation, it's still quick and delivers a reliable 45mpg. I've hit 50mpg on a long highway trip, and I think I will do even better in time. It takes about two gallons of DEF every 10K miles, no big deal. And the extended warranty is so sweet.

My only real negative is that like many recent cars, whoever designed the dash controls has never, ever driven a car. The radio and navigation are unworkable while driving. I finally have all the preselect buttons set up, and work them through the steering wheel controls. Adjusting the radio through the touch screen is too distracting, absolutely crazy dangerous.

I have to say that VW dealers are awful...absolutely the worst buying experience ever. The negotiation went on for hours, and I finally agreed to take a car loan only because it saved me an extra intolerable trip to the dealer. I paid the loan off as soon as the paperwork was finalized.

BTW, you can locate these cars quite easily using truecar dot com.

My bill of sale indicates car was from Volkswagon Canada to this private dealer. Release of cars by them may be different in both countries. I would say the ex service manager from Volkswagon is right. Change the transmission fluid every forty thousand miles. These transmissions are really expensive to replace.

Use only premium diesel as the sticker on my dash indicates. Well actually it states low sulfer only. The ex service manger states to use it. He also suggested not to go the 10K miles American between oil changes but to me there is a lot of conjecture about that.

I mentioned to the wife to consider not using the buttons on the steering wheel for the radio. I do not think she would anyways. Plus in her case forget about the triptronic function on the automatic.

I found it took some time to go through the owners manual as well.

Volkswagon planned to be the number one seller of cars in the world. They actually accomplished this just before the emissions issue. To obtain and hold that spot again. Will in my opinion require a change of corporate attitude. Plus in most of the dealers as well. Too many people will not buy their products again currently. The German government has many times asked volkswagon corporate to act better. They promise to but never do so far.

The Japanese are making an error though in my opinion. In lowering their quality . Unfortuantly a lot of the big threes production is almost garbage. You can only burn so many people so many times. Then even hype will not move their cars.

Hard to describe the difference between the Jetta and the Passat. It has the same power train basically. With perhaps longer front axles. A substantially larger trunk and more foot room in the back seat. They may have up scaled the interior a little more. The Jetta is pretty good interior wise as well.

Perhaps the Passat is a little wider but I am not certain. Jetta has increased some dimensions as well. You also got a 2015. So your warranty on many expensive parts is extended until 2025.

The Passat was seriously overpriced for some years and eventually the retail price was reduced substantially.

the passat looks wider but with styling it is hard to tell without measuring.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

love to have a tdi wagon,with manual trans.Ben looking

__________________
1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

Or checking the specs on line

It has to be wider. The wife put at least 400 miles on it today. You fill the tank it tells you the available driving range is 720 miles. Or 1200 kilometers. The tank takes 17 imperial gallons. This will slowly change almost constantly with your accumulated driving style. For example if you are travelling slower than you typically do on the highway. The range numbers increase.


The way this car runs it is really a shame the diesels in cars era seems over.

The dash MPG indicator is optimistic. I calculate about 4mpg less than the dash reading. When I say 45mpg, that's calculated fuel economy. I've actually squeezed out 700 miles on a full tank. VW really screwed the pooch on Diesel tech. Ruined it for everyone. I know this is going to be my last Diesel car, but what a fine finish.

Don't postpone joy:


https://www.truecar.com/used-cars-for-sale/listing/3VWML7AJ4EM623339/2014-volkswagen-jetta/


I guess they're releasing some of the older cars now. A 2014 with 12K miles is still a new car in my book.


Truecar is great for locating your particular unicorn.

It appears the 2012 Passat that is built with the Audi at their plant in America. Other than a different grill and perhaps some sheet metal changes at the rear for different taillights. Is in fact an Audi a4. The side profile is identical to the Audi a4. My guess is all the suspension and chassis components will cost more as a result. When they need replacement.

It also appears so far that premium diesel may not be available in America. It is not commonly available here but there is access. It costs little more and boosts fuel milage and runs a lot cleaner. Shells V power diesel fuel was the first followed by Esso and Mobil. It also is rich in detergents. North American fuel is not as good as in Europe. So the same cars get better fuel milage .I have not confirmed the initial milage estimates with the modification.

Actually I did not know they even sold premium diesel at one Shell garage in the local town. It costs less than ten cents more per gallon. I thought if the car got 50 miles per imperial gallon or slightly more I would be happy. First estimates are 56.28 miles per imperial gallon or 42 miles per American gallon. On highway service. On premium diesel fuel. It may also be a factor in the power this diesel has.

Milage subject to correction with some more time. It will not be upward. Possibly lower. Again part of it is the fuel I expect. As the service manager told me to only buy this fuel and the milage gain alone would justified it. As for miles per tankful. The fuel tank may be larger than Jettas, golfs etc I suspect. Or perhaps not.

The car also has things like front and back stabilizer bars and handles really well. Yes it is wider than the Jettas. With an inferior trunk hinge system in comparison to them. The simple trunk hinges on this car do substantially intrude into the very large trunk. Where the Jettas are a work of art in comparison. With no intrusion.

About the only thing that has stood out so far. They have separated the Volkswagon and audi dealers. I can see this as comparison to each other and the sticker prices would hurt Audi sales. So a Passat for 2012 and newer is fundamentally an Audi A4 with detail changes in the interior and externally to differentiate it. The diesel is the same across the complete lineup of brands and models owned by Volkswagon.

The Passat was originally way overpriced and problematic. Volkswagon stated they would clean up the issues in the 2012 models and they got most of them it seems. Especially improving the tiptronic automatic transmissions sometime in 2011. They changed the twin clutch system inside it from wet to a dry one in 2015.

To me it still remains the reason to stay away from their automatic transmission cars. . They are so expensive to deal with it should control the price you pay for a product of theirs that has one. Their manual transmissions have historically been really good..

I am just pretty sure but not totally positive. The door sticker states built in America. Where I do not think there is a dedicated Passat production line. There is an Audi assembly plant though. The ex service manager said the Passats where built there with the Audis and it makes sense.

There were and perhaps always will be some serious issues with the Mexican built Volkswagons. The possibly have a dip bath system that electro plates a layer of sacrificial metal on the body. This layer is usually quite thick at perhaps 1/16 of an inch.

For reasons not known this is one process with a poor approach to quality control in Mexico So some cars are done well and others not so well. By now they may have rectified that issue but no way of knowing. So some Mexican built Volkswagons seriously rust out and others do not.

Their production facilities in Mexico are not happy places. On the electro plating it may be a bottleneck area of production. It does take time to build up a thick layer by this method. The process did allow them to give a 12 year warranty against rust through.

They have honored that warranty over the years at least. They could also just be hot dipping the bodies. I suspect not though as there are issues with that. You would have to have a long line of heated metal tanks to get the thickness I observed. Wait for the last application cooled off before dipping again and again.

My last thought in general. If you are on a fixed budget with very limited disposable income. A volkswagon like a newer Mercedes can generate some unexpected higher than average repair costs. There are brands that are Japanese that can spare you this stress if it arises. Volkswagon dealers as Mercedes dealers generally present high repair costs to their customers.

As hard as it is to swallow.Some people are better off with so much per month and a warranty. Replacing the car when the warranty expires. A gerbil on a wheel is a better scenario than dealing with unaffordable maintenance costs in a really tight budget. Those that can address most issues themselves in cheaper cars can be ahead of the game.

We solve car costs with keeping them on expense accounts. We have accumulated about 900.00 in millage expense fees so far with the Passat. Three quarters of that negates that portion of what we paid for it. So in a relatively short time the car will have returned the cost with a lot more miles left on the odometer. Just a lot less millage required than with a forty thousand dollar car with the heavy depreciation going on.

Then the car starts to pay us to own it to some extent. Less the repairs and limited depreciation factor of this one. . Although I have made it clear to the wife after last winter. If the roads are not perfectly clear basically between here and wherever she is going and back. She is not going.

The tax free millage rate we get is based on using brand new cars. Quickly acquired substantial millage on the highways seems to do less overall wear and tear than normal service. Tomorrow morning the car goes with me along with the wife this time on a paid for venture. I was surprised how hard it was to book a motel room for Monday night. There must be something major going on there as tourist season is over. I will also take a little time to find a set of 17 inch rims and snow tires for it there. As that is the largest city in the Canadian maritimes.

VW Jetta is a badge-engineered Audi A3, with a only few changes: the overall styling is different, and the length is 4" longer. The extra length is mostly foot room for rear passengers. The Audi interiors are generally a bit more upscale and they have more electronic doo-dads.

I think the DSG transmission is fine, pretty much the same in all sporty German cars nowadays. It's basically a manual transmission with an electronic shifter. Feels a lot like a manual, with a more notchy engagement than a true auto. You can actually make it lug if you have a light foot. i'll change fluid & filter ever 40K, and we'll see.

reading up on dual flywheel problems. Automatics don't last. maybe external atf cooler and sync. atf fix problem

__________________
1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

Stopped by a dealer today to get the price for transmission fluid. On the trip home. Costs more on the net.

Somewhat double speak at the dealer. Your automatic is not troublesome like the early versions where. Yet it may need the clutches changed in it at some point. That would be a lot less than changing the transmission thankfully.

When you do a normal c;utch job on one of their standards. It usually will involve changing the double mass flywheel. You can eliminate this at a penalty by putting in a single mass flywheel that can be used again. At the time of the first change.

I can see the automatic clutches wearing as they do not ever really totally disengage in drive. Possibly better than sitting a long time in drive to pop the transmission into neutral. Just a though. Nice automatic to use though.

They obviously are trying to get this transmission better overall in reliability. Beyond a certain year probably a pretty current one. There is another transmission fluid required at twice the price. Twenty two a liter for this triptonic transmission from Volkswagon and you need five lilters for a change plus a transmission filter. Canadan dealer price. Not as much as I was thinking. The newer fluid is 44.00 a liter he quoted.

I did look at a new Jetta on the showroom floor. They are larger now than I thought. Not as much rear foot room still as mentioned and I suspect the trunk is shorter . Than the Passat. I did not price them as there was no point. The Jettas wheelbase seems to have been increased as well. This seems to be a trend for some time. Getting the wheels closer to the end corners of the cars by many brands.

I also drove along their lineup of used cars as I left. Reading the prices on their windshields. Generally I thought they were overpriced. Where they may be leaving a lot of room to haggle or deal with trade ins. Only one buy back in inventory.