The first Passat looks like a bit of a bargain and will undoubtedly give you more space than the Mondeo you have shown. To be honest I'm not great with the Mondeos but having owned two VW's with the TDI engine (a passat and a bora) I would prefer the VW, however in the ad you have linked the passat comes with a tow bar, this could mean it could have been towing weighs beyond the limit and put huge strain on the suspension.

This Passat also has the 110 bhp engine too so wont be as quick as the 130.

The other too cars have higher mileages than the first one and will have less space for your upcoming family!

All in all I would recommend going for a estate passat with the diesel engine, if they have high mileages check for a full service history and you should be fine. Maybe some of the other posters here have experience of the Mondeos?

Are you open to other suggestions or just Passat's and Mondeo's?

I had a 97 plate passat 1.8 petrol which had 148,000 on it when I PX ed it for a 2006 Mondeo 2.2 TDCi with 6000 miles in June 2007. Worst thing I have done really after no end of hassle with the car! One of my colleagues has a 1.9 diesel 110bhp 97 plate Passat on 300,000 miles which is still going strong. I really wished I hadn't got the Mondeo. Leaking water into the footwell turned out to be defective air/con after 5 attempts by Ford to fix the problem left me with a £1400 bill which took 3 months of fighting Ford to pay for it I settled by paying £400. 2 failed EGR valves replaced under warrenty, 1 recently done by myself. Ford want in the region of £270 for the part. I used one from a jag x type purchased for just over £100 from a jag dealership! Split boost hose replaced under warrenty. That's it so far!

Unfortunately my mechanical knowledge is quite poor, and this is my first post, so go easy !

I have a Passat on W plate (2000). It’s got the 1.9 TDI PD engine (115) and the 5-speed auto box, you can also change gear yourself but I rarely bother. My car has been in the family for a 5 years or so, my uncle owned it until November when it came into my hands. It is about to tick over to 311,000 miles on the clock. My uncle is a taxi driver so he racked up most of that having bought the car at about 70,000 miles if I remember right. As long as these cars have been maintained regularly then most of the components will last a long time.

The only thing wrong with mine was the occasional loss in power (happened maybe half a dozen times over the winter) when the car is booted from cold that has been identified as a possible fault with the turbo and is fixed by pulling over, switching off and back on again. Only other downside is the thirst of the auto box (20-28 around town, 40 on a run). That said the car makes a great cruiser and has plenty of overtaking power. Decent equipment (cruise, climate control, electric windows all round) and comfortable for long journeys.

I understand that the engines are very durable, one of the other drivers has a Sharan with the same PD engine and there’s over 400,000 on the clock.

If you can pick one up for a reasonable price like I did, you won’t regret it.

Hope this helps!

Our local minicab firm's favourite cars are Skodas. This might be woth an offer:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NICE-2003-SKODA-SUPERB-DIESEL-1-9-TDI-130-BHP-COMFORT-/190505756475?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item2c5b07273b

Hi guys thanks for all your replies, i managed to find a car

passat 02 132k 130 awx engine FSH

£2350 he knocked £50 off cuz the window reg on driver door had broke ( easy to fix )

since buying i have replaced the seats and found a working handsfree kit under the dash

very happy with it

Edited by patters78 on 15/04/2011 at 01:12