Bread and Butter buying advice!

[StevieB]

Not spectacular choices these, but the good old Passat and mondeo make sensible cheap family wheels. My family love our Passat B5 1.8T and whilst it is spectacularly boring in many ways, it does give me a feel good factor wafting from A to B....sad, but true. Anyway, with 110K on the engine it wont be too long before it gets replaced..

So... what is the better buy? A current Shape Mondeo, which start at 4K now or a B6 Passat, which would be a year or two older for the same dosh?

The issue I have is injector problems on the 2.0 TDI PD engine. Does the current shape Mondeo have any inherent problems? The previous shape TDCI was known for dual mass flywheel problems....

[jamiebae]

Mondeo is more fun to drive, and reportedly better built and more reliable as well so that's where my money would go personally.

[bozmandb9]

I'd stick with the Passat you have, 110k isn't a problem, and if you get a 60k car I wouldn't say it'll be notably better or cheaper to run: better the devil you know. Maybe just get a fun car to run alongside your current Passat!

[va1o]

I prefer the Passat but I'd probably go for the Mondeo as its newer and represents better value for money, plus the 2.0 TDCi is nicer than the 2.0 TDI PD you'd get in an older B6 Passat.

[D1bram]

At 110k I'd expect it only to be halfway through it's useful life tbh.

[Mr.Meaner]

The B6 Passat also comes with the Electronic hand brake, which if your not used too can be a pain in the backside. The early manuals came without the hill hold/hill assist, which when in slow moving traffic if you are someone that uses the handbrake alot can be compared to juggling
Big problems when they fail aswell.

[jamiebae]

D1bram said:

At 110k I'd expect it only to be halfway through it's useful life tbh.

Not so sure about that with a 1.8T personally, I've seen plenty of turbo failures and other big-ish bills on them at not much more than 100k miles.