Ahhh, the people's car. Simple, effective, reliable, and economical.... 30 years ago! Don't get me wrong, I love working on the old beetles, but IMHO VW's are no longer mechanic friendly. Most are very well priced and that's why I think they're so popular. They're great cars until you have to fix them.
I've worked on VW's as old as 1954 and as new as 2007. Up untill the early 1980's, VW designs were simple and easy to maintain. Don't know what happened, but by the mid 80's they started coming out with these weird molded hoses, incredibly bad wiring, poor suspension, etc... It's great for me cuz stuff like that pays the bills, but for the customers it's a different story.
Then comes this 2003 Passat VR6 with a leaky waterpump.
The customer had tried to do it themselves so the car was towed to me with the ominous "box of bolts" in the passenger seat. After thouroughly checking what he had failed to do, I gave him the estimate... $750 with all OEM parts (including that overpriced $78 molded radiator hose, no aftermarket parts were available at the time). He bitched and banged his hand on my counter accusing me of "highway robbery".
Then I showed him the "FACTORY" directions on replacing a WP. After explaining that we had to remove both headlamps, front bumper assy, radiator, radiator support, and a few of the parts HE damaged (including a rounded off crankshaft bolt)... he said these exact words...
"Why?! Why did I Fukken listen to my wife when she said we should by a VW.?!"
I've worked on VW's as old as 1954 and as new as 2007. Up untill the early 1980's, VW designs were simple and easy to maintain. Don't know what happened, but by the mid 80's they started coming out with these weird molded hoses, incredibly bad wiring, poor suspension, etc... It's great for me cuz stuff like that pays the bills, but for the customers it's a different story.
Then comes this 2003 Passat VR6 with a leaky waterpump.
The customer had tried to do it themselves so the car was towed to me with the ominous "box of bolts" in the passenger seat. After thouroughly checking what he had failed to do, I gave him the estimate... $750 with all OEM parts (including that overpriced $78 molded radiator hose, no aftermarket parts were available at the time). He bitched and banged his hand on my counter accusing me of "highway robbery".
Then I showed him the "FACTORY" directions on replacing a WP. After explaining that we had to remove both headlamps, front bumper assy, radiator, radiator support, and a few of the parts HE damaged (including a rounded off crankshaft bolt)... he said these exact words...
"Why?! Why did I Fukken listen to my wife when she said we should by a VW.?!"