OK so with winter looming the BMW is tucked away in a unit far from home, the TVR is, as always sat in the garage warm and cosy awaiting the next dry winter road and the Astra Estate... well, it’s dead. To cut a long story short the Astra didn’t sound like it was going to last much longer, so rather than have it break down on me during winter when I was relying on it I decided to aid its demise and blow it up in which it was done spectacularly with a con-rod or two punching their way out of the block.
With ole un-reliable sat in the scrap yard awaiting boxation I set about looking for new daily drivers, but this time I’d spend a few £k and get something nice that would last a good few years. Since I was spending my hard earned I decided this time round I’d go devil-juice (diesel) and that I would stick to my VAG roots and look for a 1.9 TDI engine’d car.
I didn’t realise how hard it would be to find a good, suitable car and, after deciding if I went Golf GT-TDI I’d just throw a load of money at it modifying it I stuck to a more sensible option like the Bora or Passat, something I’d just leave alone and not be tempted to modify... much. :P
So after trawling Piston Heads and Auto Trader with no joy, this came up locally; a 2004 VW Passat TDi PD130. In all honesty, I was expecting it to be $hite as it was sensibly priced especially given that it was a well spec’d model with the Pumpe Duse engine. Anyway after a quick viewing I was pleasantly surprised and actually arranged to re-view the car to check that my eyes hadn’t deceived me.
After the second viewing proved my eye-sight was still functional a sensible amount of pennies were handed over and I was the proud owner of a VW again. First impressions? Bland, dull but it does the job and it does it well especially as cruising along moor roads its achieving 47mpg... that will at least half my current fuel bill and allow more fuel per month to go into the other toys.
Don’t expect and exciting project thread, the only update on this will be for any repair work!!
