Since 2010 I've owned a 2008 Passat CC with 165k miles under it's belt. For years I've considered selling it, but it owes me nothing and refuses to die, but......

• Its about 5 years/10k miles overdue a cambelt change

If our 1994 Passat 2.0GL did 242,000 miles on its original cambelt your more modern one might do too. I did have to change the tension pulley at around 140,000, as it was whining and beginning to seize.

• It needs a service

Why? Ours never had one apart from the MoTs which did most of the 'service' - I just changed the oil every 10k.

• The radio touch screen backlight has broken

That won't fail an MoT.

• A sticky switch in the steering column means it sometime throws a steering lock error, but still starts. This is quite a common error, but painful to fix.
• It has paint bubbling/minor rust over the rear wheel arches.

Nor will those...if the error doesn't appear at the next MoT.

On the plus side it has 12 month MOT, decent brakes/tyres/springs and the engine seems fine.

That's a lot of plusses for an old car.

It seems a shame to break it up for parts, but without some costly love I know it will let me down at some point. What do you all think?

All cars will let you down at some point if kept indefinitely - it's only the distance to the point that's debatable. As said, I can't see why it shouldn't do another 80K miles like our last century Passat did if the corrosion is halted - and that doesn't cost much if you attend to it early. It's stopped depreciating, the annual cost of which probably exceeds the annual cost of fuel for many owners. Incidentally, that Passat never 'let us down' apart from a HT coil failure in France - and even then it was driveable on three cylinders to a garage for an urgent repair.

Edited by John F on 29/04/2025 at 16:44