2005 Passat TDI 68k miles

I own a grey 2005 Passat TDI GLS with just over 68k miles. Excellent condition, perfectly maintained, oil changed every year. Leather has no wear marks, not even the driver's seat. No rust, rock chips or scratches. Honestly, it is the best condition B5.5 Passat you will find anywhere.

I was recently driving home from Minneapolis to La Crosse, WI, on i90 and hit a deer. Long story short, my insurance is totaling the car. Sadly, I don't have the time or garage space to fix it so I will be selling my baby.

Full Disclosure
The car was involved in a 20mph head-on collision spring of 2017. Car pulled out of a side street and I t-boned them. Airbags deployed and front frame rails were bent. The entire car was properly fixed and airbags replaced. The only component not replaced was the airbag sensor so the airbag dashboard light remains on. I have the correct sensor to replace but since this happened, I won't be installing it.

My asking price is $4200. Here is a photo from along the interstate. I will get more photos tonight after work.
Here's a photo from the roadside.

Can it be fixed?

Sounds like a nice car! Can you post pics of the damage? Could it be repaired if you did some of the work yourself?

Insurance companies can be a PITA in cases like this. If you plug your car info into NADA.COM it comes up with a value of $7400 while KBB.COM comes up with $6200 for the same attributes. Average the two for a value of $6800. When my car was totaled they tried to quote me a gas model, and a GL at that. Mine was a diesel GLS model. They said "Oh, my bad, let me rerun that" yeah, right. Ask them to produce documentation for how they came up with the value. If you have receipts for any recent work it may help. You CAN negotiate with them but I wouldn't count on a huge increase, sad to say. Unfortunately they go off of some calculation and not what a person 'thinks the car is worth'. When I was negotiating with them I asked for the money for the sales tax on top of the car value. After all, I did have to buy another car. They agreed and met me half way on the tax.

Good luck with this! Post pics if you can.

I think you'd be hard pressed to get $9k for that car, just FYI.

I'd take whatever they are offering, minus the value of the car, KEEP the car, and fix it. I doubt it is beyond fixing.

oilhammer said:

I think you'd be hard pressed to get $9k for that car, just FYI.
I'd take whatever they are offering, minus the value of the car, KEEP the car, and fix it. I doubt it is beyond fixing.

Click to expand...

I agree with this. I think they are building in the "low mileage premium" into what they are offering. I haven't see a single sedan Passat, even with a manual transmission upgrade and all issues fixed, regardless of mileage offered for near $9K.

OH beat me to it. I clobbered a deer just after upshifting into 6th at about 80mph in my D250. Insurance was not an issue as it was not covered, and a bit of scrounging for new fenders, bumper and grill bits has it back together. Take their offer and subtract the buy back, and fix it. They're mostly automatics, so parts cars with bad transmissions are fairly common...
cheers,
Douglas

Core support broken, radiator punctured, headlights, bumper cover, hood, fender all toast. They estimated repair at $5800.
Here's a photo from the roadside. Sorry, it's the only one I have right now.

Really, that looks very repairable.

The parts you need should not be all that hard to find. Perhaps someone on here will chime in with a source for you. LaCrosse should have a few boneyards to check.

Youtube could also be a great how-to source for some of the disassembly / reassembly steps.

I agree with oilhammer. Keep it and fix it!

And here's your $1000 front clip in Michigan, Nik:
And sell stuff off of it to reduce your costs...

https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/cto/d/2005-volkswagen-passat-tdi/6609165664.html

Below is a parts cart with no engine or transmission in WV, Cheap!

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=489762

Guys, I really do appreciate all the help on this. I didn't realize it until now but the color of the car is hard to see in the photos. It is actually grey not black. Any luck finding a parts car in that color?

rbrennick said:

And here's your $1000 front clip in Michigan, Nik:
And sell stuff off of it to reduce your costs...

https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/cto/d/2005-volkswagen-passat-tdi/6609165664.html

Click to expand...

buy this and then just change the parts yourself, it's really not that hard, i wouldn't even bother painting the hood but that's me.


how mechanically inclined are you and what do you have access to for tools/garage?

if you pull the motor, wiring harness and ECM CORRECTLY so that someone will want it for a TDI swap you can post for 1k but get at least $700 for it pretty easy i think since it's complete. then sell the rolling chassis for $200-400.
will take some time and work but you can have your low miles car back on the road for a long time for not much cash out of your pocket.

you may even be able to find a semi local VW guy who would do the work for you in trade for keeping that Passat with the bad trans

ottoman said:

Core support broken, radiator punctured, headlights, bumper cover, hood, fender all toast. They estimated repair at $5800.
Here's a photo from the roadside. Sorry, it's the only one I have right now.

Click to expand...

That ain't hardly bent, just pop a radiator in it and Mad Max it.

I have an OEM radiator and set of clear head lights for $200 and shipping.

Ottoman, what did you decide to do here? Keep us posted, please...

Sadly, I just don't have the time or space in my garage to fix it any time soon so I'm going to be selling my baby after buying it back from insurance. I am planning on $4200. Anyone interested?

I'll update my original post to reflect this.