Well I may have done something stupid. I bought a 1991 Passat GL. It didn't cost me much; only 700$. It runs good and honestly, it looks great next to my 1991 Ford F-150. I hear the comment from the peanut gallery all the time, "Why oh why do you buy such vehicles?" To which I answer, "Well I bought an almost new car once and a van another time and the payments drove me nuts because I couldn't insure them the way I wanted to. Plus my last one, my van, ended up being so costly that I pondered cutting the floor out in order to rely on the demanding yet reliable Fred Flintsone power. In the span of five years, I went to the garage in between 40 and 50 times. I actually had a celebratory 6-pack of Heineken once when 50 days had passed between visits to my mechanic.
Now for the stupid part. Whatever happens with the VW Passat -I cannot win. Firstly my wife picked it out, so if it ends up being a reliable car; I'll never hear the end of it. Secondly, used parts are going to be hard to find. I had to get a speedometer cable and and a new idle regulator; the cost of them 2 was 500$, so yeah new parts don't come cheap. Thirdly I had to get help from a VW mechanic to help locate the wiper fuse!!! But aside from that all has been good so far. I'll need to fix the headliner but I'll be doing that myself and glue on a couple of emblems, but it won't cost that much. I'll add some pics real soon, of my new toy. I tell you it's a fun car to drive, there's some power and the urge to go fast is there.