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Comments
The catalytic converter issue was mentioned and their comments correspond to the earlier postings here on edmunds. They also added a transmission issue. Here is my interpretation of what they said.
The car's engine and transmission after being out in the cold all night are both somewhat "stiff" -- and less flexible than they will be after they have had a chance to warm up.
If the engine warms to operating temp to make the car's heater function to your comfort, and you drive off "normally" the transmission is not at its full operating temperature and there is a chance that this action does the following:
#1 pollutes the air as noted above
#2 wastes fueld (also noted above in prior posts)
#3 could cause wear and tear on the transmission.
They (as do some others and I) advise against more than 5 to 10 seconds "warm up." Most of these Passats have heated seats anyway so personal comfort should not be THAT much of an issue. I have taken it as a "truth" that warming modern cars up is in fact "not good for them" or the environment, generally speaking.
The temp in the morning when I go to work is routinely below 0, with the wind chill even lower. For me, warming the car is just not for comfort, but for safety. My breath very quickly frosts over the inside of the windshield if not warm enough. Ya, I can scrape that off, but I don't want to be doing that while I'm driving for the 15 minutes it takes to warm up enough.
At that temp, interior controls can freeze up or get sticky. It helps to warm them up. And, frankly, it's hard to drive when you're shivering you butt off!
And, up here, the cat converter is going to take a long time to warm up anyway if you start the car and drive away immediately. So, I doubt there is much of a difference in emissions either way during winter.
None of those reasons are great ones for warming up a car, but I'm still going to do it as long as I live up here.
PS: I heard that if you leave your auto tranny in neutral while warming up your car, the tranny fluid will warm up some and reduce wear and tear. Anyone know if this is true?
The net take-away of all the responses seems to be:
1. No damage to the vehicle will accrue from driving off quickly, even in cold weather--though RPMs should be kept reasonable until the engine heats up while driving.
2. On the other hand, the reasons some might choose to do a pre-warm-up are passenger comfort and safety (allowing the windshield to clear).
I own a 2003 Passat GLS 1.8T with auto, leather, monsoon, Homelink, and cold weather package (Candy White with tan interior), roughly 3800 miles. I am going on maternity leave in December when baby #2 arrives. We are contemplating my staying home however my car payment is $535.00 a month! I'd rather sell the Passat and get a used car where my payments would be around $300-$350.00.
Plus I use the recommended (or is it required?) Premium gas at my local Exxon and my Exxon bill has doubled since I bought this car in May.
I owe $26,900 on the car but the most I've been given as a trade in on it is $20K. My husband will wring my next if I go into our savings to pay off the difference (he didn't want me to buy the Passat in the first place). The cost is so high because I added $2300 of a Honda Civic onto the loan (which I should have kept in hindsight...) plus taxes, tags, GAP insurance, etc. I was SO SURE this was the car to keep for years to come and I didn't put anything down.
And if I DO continue to work (which is likely) adding in the cost of day care I still can't afford this car.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Carrie
Also we're moving 30 minutes away from my work so my Exxon bill will increase more! I'm not getting the gas mileage everyone else is. Approximately 18-20 mpg.
I haven't had a single problem with the car since I purchased it on May 5, 2003. (knock on wood)
Thanks again,
Carrie
Here is what I would do if I were you (I kind of am I will be doing this with my 300M) I would do the following.
Post it for sale privately you should be able to get at least 2k more than your trade allowance.
While your car is for sale decide on your next vehicle and try to get preliminary pricing.
Work with the dealer where you will get your next car to do a courtesy trade (typical charge is 3-500)
Now what happens is that you trade your car in (to get any tax benefits increasing the value of your car) and they sell it to the person for the agreed upon price. you get the sell price as trade in minus they're handling fee. The balance can be added to the new loan. Which should be much less than a straight trade should cut almost 3k off your negative equity.
At this point I would try to put as much down on the new vehicle as possible so that payments stay low and you are not in this situation in another 6 months.
other options are trade it and take the 7k hit.
sell it and pay the 4-5k hit.
find alternative income producing ideas to pay the payments while you are out of work and keep it.
Hope this helps.
loan amount 26900
straight trade in 20000
sell private party 22500
Courtesy trade 22000(22500-500 fee)
New car 16000
difference on trade and loan 4900 (26900-22000)
tax on new car = 0 (if your state give s credit for trade in) Typical tax at 6% would be 960
new loan amount = 20900
if you can get 60 months at 3.9 new payment would be $383. If you put 2k down your payment drops to 347.
Again I hope this helps. Congrats on the baby!
A new Honda or Hyundi (SP?) can be leased for a number beginning with a 2 and I've even seen a couple for $199/month w/minimal down (lease).
Or you could try www.swapalease.com which is a nationwide organization that helps people who want out by finding someone else who will take over your lease or monthly payment, ostensibly because the term x monthly payment works out better for them.
Go to swapalease and read up on it, it may at the very least give you some ideas on how to proceed.
Hindsight is always 20-20, my friend who got in the same situation ended up with a new Honda Civic with most of the desired options and a 24 month lease when he needed to get out of an Audi A4 that he was upside down on.
Then when his personal economy turned around he finished his Honda payments fully and got into a new 03 Audi A4 -- which, son of a gun, had lower payments by far than his previous Audi (39 months).
There are ways around this, they either cost time or money. So if your desire is to reduce the money but can afford the time, focus on the latter. Or, you can split the diff and go a little longer and spend a little out of pocket and get what might be the best of both worlds.
Good luck.
The VW didn't force me to buy my first VW and couldn't convince me to buy a second one. Just good ride is not good enough any more.
Good luck on whatever you decide, and congrats on the new baby!
I have a 2003 1.8T GLS and when you start the car for the first time each day there is a distinctly louder idle for about 30 seconds. It sounds to me like the engine trying to get oil up to the turbo and/or the rest of the engine. It only does it on the first start for the day. It can sit for 4-5 hours after that start and all is still fine. I have not asked the dealer, because they would not be able to recreate it unless they kept the car overnight. Any ideas of similar situations?
Thanks.
Here's a excerpt from another board regarding this issue:
>>The secondary air system blows air in behind the exhaust valve for 100 seconds during a cold start (+ 5C to + 33C coolant temperature). This produces an oxygen rich exhaust gas, causes afterburning and reduces the heating-up phase of the catalyst.
Activation occurs from the Motronic Engine Control Module -J220- via the Secondary Air Injection (AIR) pump relay -J299- to the Secondary Air Injection (AIR) solenoid valve -N112-, change-over valve and combination valve.
Additionally, after each subsequent engine start (up to max. 96C engine temperature) the secondary air system will switch in for 10 seconds during idling and will be checked by the On Board Diagnostic (OBD). When this occurs, the Oxygen sensor control must be active.<<
Not to worry.
If you loose $7,000 in the process of trading in the car for another car, that 7,000 could make your entire car payment for over a year, or it could pay the difference between your new and old payments ($200)for 3.5 years.
If you start working again in 1 year then I am guessing you will be able to resume the payments without a problem. The total cost of keeping the car for 1 year is only $2,400 ($200 diff in payments X 12) much less than the $6-7,000 you could loose by selling it.
Remember that you get closer to recovering from being upside down every month you make a payment. If $400-450 (don't know your interest rate) goes to the principal of your vehicle, your vehicle may only depreciate $200 a month. After a couple of years you will be able to get more than you owe on the car as depreciation slows, and your payments continue.
One more thing is the value of money. If you got a very low interest rate on your Passat, then that is a loan that you don't want to pay off quickily. Used cars typically have much higher interest rates.
Other things to consider.
The used car may not be as reliable, and most likely won't be under bumper to bumper warrenty, so the Passat should not cost too much to maintain over the next year and a half as it is still under bumper to bumper warrenty. If you buy a used car with 40k miles on it, things like brake work, tires etc. are not too far off, and will add to the cost of ownership.
A 2003 Passat was rated by CR as one of the safest vehicles on the road (taking into account active and passive safety). This a good place for a baby (and parents) to be. Will the used car be as safe?
Tried with VW of A but they are of not much help either. The dealer is an "independent" organization and decides on what to stock and how to treat customers. VW don't have any say on it...
very funny! Not really.
...so the Passat should not cost too much to maintain over the next year and a half as it is still under bumper to bumper warrenty...
She has another 3.5 years of warranty on her '03 Passat.
-Craig
Everyone's posts were amazing and sensible. Thanks so much! I needed to read the reasons to keep it and the downside to trading/selling so soon after buying it. It is a wonderful car that I do feel extremely safe in. I'd rather be in my Passat than in my last car (Honda Civic) during an accident.
Thanks again,
Carrie
Thanks
But I also tried Atamian and as far north as Nashua.
Tom
I buy replacement blades, not fillers, from Auto Zone or Advance Auto Parts every 6 months. They cost about $10 each and are very easy to replace.
The counter help at either of these chains will even replace the blade for you at no cost.
Did they change the blade that much as of the 2001.5 make over?
R. J.
tom
These hinge-less blades don't suffer that at all. Always sweeps the entire windshield. Whether it's worth $80/year for that is a different story.
-Craig
I can barely notice it in mine.
-Craig
I sent them an email asking if this is correct.
If it is, I'm all over it.
-Craig
I can live with the Turbo lag.
Mine are chattering away as well. I was hoping new wipers would solve it. Now maybe it won't.
-Craig
The 1.8T engine when mated to a manual transmission is so close to lagless, it isn't even worth mentioning.
The reason: the torque curve.
Look at the specifications for engines both turbo and non turbo. Horsepower is not unimportant, but is less so in much of the driving we do in the US -- that is dead stop to 20 to 40 mph, slow down to 5mph, stop, go, stop, wait, go with great gusto and then overtake a traffic jam and rinse lather repeat.
The 1.8T achieves its torque below 2,000 rpms. Many of the naturally aspirated engines out there don't reach "full boil" with respect to torque until 3,000, 3,500 or HIGHER rpms.
The tiptronic transmission is the subject of much conversation here and elsewhere and it does have that "drive by wire" lag -- and it is "determined" or so it seems to love to upshift and be more, shall we say reluctant, to downshift.
The fact that the tiptronic does learn your habits is true, but it is most responsive to your most recent requests. If you want to get the thing into max response mode you literally need to have recently floored the accelerator pedal, then the program that is selected by the tips brain retards the upshifts somewhat and more rapidly engages a lower gear -- both providing higher rmps from the engine and more instantaneous power.
Frankly, I find this impractical since I made need a quick reaction after a period of some relatively non agressive driving.
The lag is, as they say, just a split second -- but it is REAL, mere mortals can feel the hesitation of this (and other) transmissions. The tiptronic implementation in Audis and VW's isn't bad -- but if you expect the instant response you have with a stick shift or with older less sophisticated transmissions, you will be disappointed.
It was enough to make me buy a car with a stick shift after 4 autos in a row (all in Audi's). I test drove a Passat 2.8 4Motion and thought this car would be "the one" if it only had a stick shift -- it was way to lazy with the tiptronic.
When my friend finally bought his 1.8T Passat with stick shift and I drove it, I thought for certain it must have been the V6 it was so peppy.
The 6spd tip "supposedly" has some of the issues cured by virtue of the extra gear and some cured by virtue of a new software package (that links the engine management and the transmission management).
For the time being, may I urge you to test drive both the manual and auto transmissions -- I'll bet that the Passat W8 with sitck shift and sport package is one spirited car.
You wrote:
>>If Part Number 1J0-955-429-A (2002-2003 Passats) is correct for this "floppy" style wiper, they have it for $7.25.
I sent them an email asking if this is correct.
If it is, I'm all over it.<<
I wish I could help you more...I looked at Etka and found a bunch of part numbers for wipers for the 2003 model, less for the 2002 model.
3B1 955 425 B was superseded by 6Q1 955 425 (left and 426 (right). The drawing that goes along with this looks like the "floppy" blade (there is a picture of the traditional wiper on the '03 page, but no associated part number - usually means not current design).
On the '02 model, the 3A1 955 425 is still listed, for the traditional blade. The floppy blade shows a number as 3B7 955 425. Very confusing.
Please post when you get a response from drewparts. Rumor has it that it's better to call them, since they're slow on e-mail responses. This whole $80 wiper thing is pretty ridiculous - but I'll agree they do work very, very well.
AAnco was one of the top rated wipers in Consumer reports.
After I did all of this, I read on Club B5 that the blades will be replaced under warantee by the dealer. I don't know if this is true.
Although lightbulbs ARE covered (which is not the norm).
-Craig
The new blades worked great (no noise) and continue to do so. To me, it seemed like the original blades were either too hard or already dried out.
Craig, any news from drewparts yet?
I've just purchased a new 2003 Passat. I tooked delivery of the car around 7pm in the twilight. And the paint looked ok, but there wasn't much light anyway. When I got home, I discovered there are numerous spots on the paint (looks like spots left there by bird droppings). I took it back to the dealer and they detail the car. The spots only improved a little. Besides the spots, the paint has some little scratches and other polluents on it. If the dealer can't get the spots off, is there anything I can do? What's my right? I feel that I shouldn't be paying perfectly good money on a new car with damaged paint.
Nothing from drewparts. Drew must be sleeping.
-Craig
-Craig
www.clarkhoward.com Clark is a consumer advocate that can answer any questions you may have. Bottom line, I would talk to the manager or owner of the VW dealer and tell him you want the paint fixed. I believe you have every right to be 100% satisfied.