Since the general concensus seems to be that I should get rid of my B5.5 Passat wagon, does anyone wanna trade this clean low mileage indigo blue on flannel grey 2003 Tiptronic 1.8T Passat wagon with cold AC that's had a recent timing belt service (dayco belt, geba/hepu water pump), new genuine VW condensor fan, and a big new battery for their highway worthy (running/drivable) manual TDI Passat wagon, or maybe a running manual ALH Mk4 Jetta?
I never said the late timing belt change was a negative strike against the car. In fact, I'll totally agree with you that it's not the car's fault whatsoever that its' original owner missed that recommended service interval.
Although in fact now that you mention it you couldn't have waited until your preferred 100k mile service interval to do a timing belt service for this Passat so I guess in a way it could actually be considered a big negative against this Passat after all. (kidding!!!)
Well, technically it probably could've waited if you really wanted to pinch some pennies and I know there are some cheap owners and shady used car dealers who would actually choose that option but it would've been a foolish decision since it's ultimately more costly in time and/or money in the long run to go that route considering the timing belt has to come off to replace the failed water pump anyway and the amount of labor to do that job twice within 12,000 miles would've been senseless unless their car is only getting fixed as cheap as possible just to be sold by a not so ethical owner.
If you wait until 100k on an interference engine that has a lower factory recommended timing belt service interval for whatever reason and you haven't suffered through bent valves or worse yet then you're a lucky gambler.
There have been some Mk5 and Mk6 VW automatic gassers that didn't even make it to their recommended timing belt intervals before having either a water pump failure or actual bent valves from belt slippage or worse.
In mentioning the mileage this Passat had on it when the water pump failed I was merely stating that the factory water pump happened to fail with just under 89,000 miles on the car to acknowledge the fact that this particular vehicle was apparently several thousand miles beyond the recommended timing belt interval for an automatic Passat, and at the time when I bought this Passat I was actually surprised that the water pump had failed so soon (well under 100k miles!), especially since this vehicle does appear to be running what looks like the correct engine coolant, but I was also very relieved that it happened to fail because its' failure made her stop driving the car before a looming timing belt failure could occur.
By the time your 2004 was made it's my understanding that 100k miles had pretty much become the factory recommended timing belt interval for numerous manual transmission VW models but the automatic version of a same model was often either 80k or 85k miles for some reason and ignoring it until 100k is a roll of the dice.
This particular VW automatic car, for example, most likely would not have survived to 100k miles for various reasons if the water pump hadn't failed and the owner hadn't heeded the big red STOP warning message that appeared on her MFD instrument cluster when the coolant reservoir went empty.
As for others referring to this Passat's missed timing belt service interval as indication of a poorly maintained car, my previous Mk4 Jetta that an 18-wheeler destroyed in 2014 had been completely rode hard and put up wet for its' first 10 years of existence by the original owner before I bought it including several at-fault front collisions she caused and it appeared to be in far worse mechanical, electrical, and cosmetic condition inside and outside when I bought it (as-is NOT running with just 138,000 miles and good timing belt on a TDI manual Mk4 Jetta!) than this super-clean and far lower mileage Passat wagon seemed to be and yet this dealer maintained and garage kept Passat wagon has turned out to be far more demanding, problematic, and expensive in a number of ways with far fewer miles on it than that Jetta was including at least 2 class action lawsuits by owners that were won against VW for major problems with this generation and model of Passat, neither of which the original owner was aware of at all and the time window for having those problems corrected by VW has long since closed.
My current Jetta wagon is my third Mk4 TDI Jetta, all of my Jettas were bought used with well over 100k miles on them (and beyond) and in varying states of very good to rough condition, and so far none of them have been anywhere near as clean, pretty, or frustrating as this low mileage Passat.
BUT when it's not broken as I have said several times so far, and others have also said, I actually do enjoy driving the Passat.
Based on personal experiences so far with Mk4 TDI Golf/Jetta, Mk4 1.8T Jetta, and this 1.8T B5.5 Passat I love the size and comfort and ride of the Passat over the G/J but so far the number of Passat gremlins I've experienced and read about has left me disappointed in more ways than the Passat has excited me thus far.
I have zero interest in swapping this Passat to a manual transmission, it's just not that great of a vehicle for me to feel motivated to put that much time and money into although that would certainly solve any of the tiptronic gremlins it's currently having.
If it was fully loaded with all the gasser bells and whistles and stuff like climatronic and 4-motion I'd be slightly more motivated to pour even more time and money into it but sadly my TDI Jetta is actually better equipped than this particular Passat which only adds to my overall disappointment.
When I decided to buy this Passat wagon I was really looking forward to having more interior space and more cargo room and most definitely looking forward to having more than my Jetta's 90hp and especially liked the idea of still having a 5-speed but not having to manually shift anymore, and all it supposedly needed was a water pump...
I've un-buried the transmission ECM from under the passenger seat and was pleasantly surprised to find that its' water tight box was completely dry inside so I'm contemplating having the filter changed and the fluid flushed to see if that would solve the automatic's gremlins but between the fluid cost and labor I'm being quoted $500.00 to have that done and I'm not currently all that eager to throw another $500.00 at the Passat...