I don’t like spending $4,000. That’s too much money. It’s more than I’ve ever spent on anything that didn’t exist on some sort of government registry. But my dream car has a date with destiny, and there was no time to lose. I had to get this thing fixed, and fast, lest this weekend’s magical roadtrip be thrown into peril.
Last time we talked, the front left wheel was literally about to fall off my beloved Audi TT Roadster. This simply wouldn’t do, because we have a very important appointment to make. I’m shooting a music video this weekend, and it needs some cool cars in it. Thus, I’m taking my Audi and I’m driving all the way up to visit Laurence and his fleet of cool cars up in Dubbo. It’s a journey of some 800 kilometers (500 miles). I’d considered limping the car with its dodgy wheel all that way, stopping periodically to zip up the dodgy axle nuts with a rattle gun. When I explained that, one look at my partner’s face told me I had to do better.
I frantically began searching for a mechanic to get this problem sorted. Only, the wheel falling off wasn’t the only problem I had to contend with. This car is a quarter century old, and there were a few other things that were long overdue for repair…
Laundry List
My main concern was the front wheel bearings. As we discussed previously, somehow, the axle nut had worked its way loose, leaving the front hub assembly, and thus the wheel, hanging on by just a few threads. This nut should never come loose in normal conditions. I had tried retightening it, only for it to start coming loose once again. It was clear there was something badly wrong with the front left wheel bearing and/or hub, and the car wasn’t safe to drive until I got it fixed. Let alone for 9-plus hours at highway speeds.
However, there was other maintenance I knew I had to tackle on the Audi, too. The timing belt was overdue for its five-year replacement, the oil needed to be changed, and there was a minor coolant leak to boot. I wanted to solve all these problems.
I’d have loved for this to be a Tracyesque piece, where I abandoned all else in life to wrench furiously against the clock. However, in my case, I had nowhere to work on the car, and a street full of neighbors willing to call the council if I started wrenching in the street. I’d have to… *shudders*… trust someone else to work on my car.
I did my best to find a good mechanic, and one that specialized in Audi/VAG models to boot. I turned up a bunch within an hour of my house. Only, there was a problem. They were too popular. I only had three weeks before I had to leave for Dubbo, and these places were too busy to even quote me or give me a timeframe in which I could get in.
I’d have to go independent and generic, because I’m not the sort of person who pays dealership prices. If they’re anything like BMW, I suspect Audi dealerships don’t want to see a 25-year-old car anyway. I identified a place that was close to home, and miraculously, answered the phone first go. Within an hour, I had a good quote. I’d be up $1478 for the timing belt and water pump, $265 for a coolant flush, and $545 each for the front wheel bearings. The latter wasn’t exactly cheap, but I’d seen what the job takes on YouTube. On the Audi TT, it’s a pain.
The day to pick up the car came and went, and I’d heard nothing. Unfortunately, in 2025, an original Audi TT is obscure enough to cause some issues with sourcing parts. My car sat at the workshop for a week with no movement as my mechanic waited for things to arrive. The next morning, I was told that it would be a few more days with the timing kit finally on its way along with the wheel bearing parts.
Further frustration struck when the work actually began. The wheel hubs themselves were badly damaged on both sides. New hubs were needed, adding $115 to the bill for each side. With a long trip through the country ahead, I took my mechanic’s word for it when he pressed me regarding the state of the rear brake pads. This tacked a hefty $290 onto the bill, which felt particularly painful. That’s a lot of money for changing a set of rear brake pads, even in Australian dollars. $119 for a fan belt change was also a sting.
The final bill came in at $3,796, more than half of what I paid for the car in the first place. It wasn’t a bad deal—I got a lot of work done in a tight timeframe, and I got my car back a couple of days before I needed it. The work appears to have been done to a quality standard, and overall, the feedback I got on the car’s state rang true with what I knew myself. If I’d had more time, however, I’d probably have deferred some of the extras. I’ve got a friend or two that will give me some space for a two-hour brake job if I need to do it in future.
There was just one more problem to tangle with. The mechanic had noted offhand that I should probably get a wheel alignment next time I changed my tires, as replacing the wheel bearings had necessitated pulling apart certain front-end components. However, driving away, it was pretty obvious the need was a touch more urgent than that. I didn’t feel like driving to Dubbo with the steering wheel off by a good 10 degrees, and I suspected I’d see some serious tire wear if I didn’t get it sorted ASAP.
Thus ensued a panicky rush to a wheel alignment shop the day before I had to leave. I have anxiety around few things in life, but wheel alignments are one of them. I dreaded the workshop declining to complete the job because of some frivolous complaint to try and upsell me on new tires, or the techs finding something else wrong with the car. As the hours ticked by, I heard nothing, and I dreaded my pending trip being thrown into disarray.
I rang up an hour before close of business – no point ringing at 5:30PM only to find out your car wasn’t touched after all. Serendipitiously, my car had just rolled off the lift, the alignment complete. Picking it up, the tech walked me through the results, which indicated the front toe had indeed been way out of spec. With that corrected, and the steering wheel now straight, I was good to go. Unfortunately, the tech was unfamiliar with the TT, and couldn’t find the proper technique to adjust the rear toe. It’s not great, but it’s not bad, and I should get to Dubbo just fine.
Thus far, I’m feeling good about the Audi. The major mechanicals are maintained and happy. That’s not to say the car is fully operational, though. There is a ton of other stuff I haven’t yet fixed. The dead keyfobs, the wind deflector, the slow power steering leak, the dodgy fusebox, and the malfunctioning heater blend door all come to mind. I’m also told the rear rotors are on the way out and the sparkplugs need replacement. I really want to get all of that sorted, but it’s realistically going to be another grand or two to cross all those off the list. Some I’ll probably just live without. Who needs a wind deflector anyway? It’s like a six hour job to fix!
I’ve also stocked up on fluids for the journey. Water for me, power steering fluid and purple coolant for the car.
Weekend Plans?
I’ll be hotdogging it up to Dubbo this weekend for the shoot. I wanted to say I won’t be going it alone, but sadly, it’s turned into a minor boondoggle. I was hoping to link up with a couple of friends—the charming Alex and Sabrina—who were to join me as actors in the music video. As you might have realized, three people into one Audi TT Roadster don’t fit. They were to head up in a fuel-sipping Honda Insight, a car which I’ve always admired from afar.
Unfortunately, as I was putting the finishing touches on this article, I got word that they had sadly both fallen sick. I feel for my friends, as I was greatly looking forward to the company on the road trip, and their performances in the video. I’d also bought a lovely set of walkie-talkies because there is nothing more fun than coming up with silly callsigns and saying “over” four hundred times as you make your way upstate. Unfortunately, this time, it wasn’t to be.
Thus, instead of in convoy, I’ll drive by myself, setting off at 6 AM in order to have the best chance of making Dubbo by dinnertime. I’ve handled similarly long drives before, and the fact that the Audi is now tracking straight and true will keep fatigue lower to boot. I had hoped to teach Alex how to drive a manual on the way so he could help me drive the Audi, but I’ll make do without.
As for the video shoot itself? I don’t want to reveal too much, but that’s partly because I haven’t planned it too much. Because with roughly half my cast out of action, including my lead … I’m now scrambling for a new plan. Planning normally makes for a shoot that runs smoothly and looks better, but sometimes you have to just roll into Dubbo and see what happens.
Regardless, the music video will feature an Audi and … some other cars, at the very least, and you can expect to see some of Laurence’s fine fleet appearing in it to boot. Beyond that, I’m simply looking forward to having some good laughs and car hangs with one of my buddies who is normally too far away to visit. Alex and Sabrina will be dearly missed, and their roles will leave a big hole to be filled, but Laurence and I are going to have an excellent time, I’m sure of it.
If you want to follow along with the antics, I’ll be blogging as we go on Instagram. It’ll be ridiculous, because I’ve recently been rediscovering the over-caffienated influencer I used to be. Maybe we’ll have a smooth drive and a quiet shoot, or maybe the Audi will catch fire and I’ll have to abandon it on the side of some New South Welshian highway. That’s a particular fear of mine because I can’t afford flights back from Dubbo. My only route home would have been to tag along with my friends in the Honda Insight. Now that option is gone… the Audi pretty much just has to work. I’m always edgy taking a car out right after major work. I need time to reacclimate and trust the car again. Still, I’m sure we’ll do okay. I’m touching wood as I type this.
Ultimately, for the $4,000 I spent on fixing this car, I hope to be rewarded. I seek good times and adventure, and the blessings of the open road. I also hope to net a sweet-ass music video full of rad cars out of the bargain. Wish me luck, and let’s hope I come back with as many roadsters as I left with.
Image credits: All images from author except where stated
This is what annoys me about mechanics. They do a cursory inspection and give you an estimate on a rough look over. Then even as parts come in they won’t even prep the car until every last item is in. Then once they finally start it they find even one tiny new problem they stop until they get the new parts. I’m not saying do an oil change that will end up being duplicated but shouldn’t a basic look over tell you brakes and rotors need done before you are two weeks into the job?
i agree that a more thorough evaluation should be done in the beginning quotes for everything should be done up front or at least pointing out “hey your going to need brakes soon would you like a quote on that?”
but you can’t start work before the parts come in. a shop only has a limited supply of bays for cars to be worked on and you cant have a car take up that real estate for extended periods of time unless they are being actively worked on. if you took cars apart before the parts came in you would end up with every bay occupied by cars waiting on parts and then you would be sending customers away for jobs because you don’t have any space to work on their cars.
I don’t think I could bear to live somewhere my neighbors can complain about my wenching. I don’t care who it is, nobody comes between me and my wenches. And if I want to wench on my car, it’s nobody else’s business. I mean sure, I might need a microfiber cloth and maybe some wax to clean up the finish afterwards, but why would that bother anyone else? I feel bad for you having to deal with that and all, but hiring someone else to do your wenching for you is kinda perverted, especially if it’s in your car. Australia sounds like an odd place, but hey, different strokes …
It was more a no place to do it that wasn’t out in front of an HOA.
I feel for our friends who have to deal with an HOA. I also see what you did there and I appreciate it.
Plenty of places in the USA don’t let you wrench on cars in the street or even your driveway. And I get it the way many cars projects go. Not too many people want to live next to a house with a car (or cars) on blocks in various states of disrepair for weeks , months, years.
I feel your pain. I had to pay an enormous amount of money last year for a new clutch and related work for my JSW TDI because, while I *could* do the work myself, I just don’t have time for that thanks to a bunch of old cars and normal life, plus I specifically bought that car so I had one car that didn’t require wrenching <facepalm>
Garage space is mandatory for me, but I’m glad I live in a neighborhood where doing car maintenance on the street is normal enough that nobody cares.
It’s better if people just wander up and ask if you need help. Unfortunately my neighbor who has been here awhile but when he first moved in required me to change a flat tire and instructed him how. Good guy stay at home dad for like 6 kids. No help except Google search he is good at it
There needs to be something like Airbnb but for garage or workshop space…if there isn’t something already.
https://gearheadworkspace.com/
There’s one like that in Chicago that’s been around for over 5 years since I first heard of it. Never been but heard good things about it. Business opportunity for Lewin / The Autopian Garage?
There’s also one in Gurnee, IL! Or at least there was one about 10 years ago…
Wait, it’s still there!
https://icanfixthisshops.com/
Letting this idea roll around in the back of my head makes me think this is a really good idea if expanded or franchised. One of the biggest issues with having a business like that would be awareness, but having a respectable website with a huge following takes care of that. At that point they could just say F ads and keep writing the content they love to make, fixing old tired stuff, and it only encourages more people to do it themselves which drives business to the garage.
I heard from a friend last week that it is closing down.
In some places they have rent garage space and tools. But with the new generation less need
My soon to be mother in law has a 2004(?) TT. She loves it, but rarely drives it these days. Unfortunately it’s an auto, which sucks a lot of the fun out of that car. Driving it reminds you of where the term “slushbox” comes from. She’s always saying she needs to drive it more, and I’ve considered borrowing it from time to time to keep it from being parked for months at a time.
But then I remember it’s an early 2000s VAG product (I have personal experience there) that spends most of its time parked in a garage. Where there are mice. I just know I’d get the thing 20 miles from home and it would die on me. I’m happy to do maintenance on her RAV4 but won’t touch the Audi, even though I’m very familiar with the 1.8t.
Audi TTs are not bad. They are just mkiv VWs, which while more expensive to maintain than a Honda/Yota, are not anywhere near BMW/Audi/Porsche etc. The drivetrain is literally a 1.8T used in 8 trillion VWs.
Oh I know they are, that’s why I’ve avoided working on it lol. Kept my ex’s 2005 Passat (1.8t) on the road the five years we were together. Loved the car, but hated working on it. And it needed a lot of work just to keep the warning lights off. Everything was so needlessly complicated, and there were far too many plastic parts that should have been metal. I love MKIV VWs for their styling, comfort, and driving dynamics, but I never want to work on one again.
Man, I don’t think they’re that bad at all… but I’ve worked on newer BMWs and Audis before so I guess my BS tolerance is much higher
The problem comes with age, where all the plastic bits and pieces disintegrate. In less than five years I had to do the following on my ex’s ’05 Passat, all before 150k. This is just what I remember. New headlights, full coolant flush to clean a clogged heater core, new coolant reservoir, motor mounts, literally the entire PCV system (ridiculously complicated), throttle body, MAF sensor, coil packs, axles on both sides, sway bar bushings, tons of interior pieces that just fell apart (I was making frequent junkyard runs for that stuff), sunroof drains clogged, a tiny coolant pipe at the back of the engine that took a full eight hours to replace, washer fluid sensor, thermostat and coolant temp sensor, trans fluid (was slipping just a tiny bit), turn signal relay, turn signal stalk, side mirror glass that just fell off, clearcoat failing, something that involved disconnecting the whole radiator assembly (can’t remember what I was fixing but it was a bitch) and uuh, that’s all I can remember. Those were all to fix things that were broken or breaking.
To be fair, those Passats are probably the most notorious VWs from that era, in terms of reliability. It never actually broke down, so there’s that, and it really was an excellent car to drive. But I don’t care to repeat that experience!
I have an 04 beetle turbo S, had a GTI, and a Golf, probably some other ones I’m forgetting about, so I’m familiar with them.
Your car didn’t need new headlights, they needed to be polished.
Clogged heater core = someone used the wrong coolant, which caused a lot of your cooling system problems. If you use G12/pink stuff exclusively you shouldn’t have had issues.
PCV is pretty standard, don’t remember anything complicated about it?
What was wrong with your TB? Never heard of replacing one, only cleaning. I did have a MAF go bad tho. Tried cleaning it with no luck.
Coil packs are cheap, had one go bad. Just had some go bad on my Honda, so… happens.
Coolant pipe just rotted out on the Beetle, was pretty annoying to replace, but not 8 hours. Maybe 2-3.
Idk. It was an old car man. All old cars need stuff. Even hondas.
The headlight adjusters had all crumbled away so the lights just pointed down.
Well aware of the coolant type to use, it had the pink stuff in it when we got it but someone probably ran the wrong stuff through at some point.
The idle started jumping around and there were occasional CELs, I had to replace every hose and check valve and it took ages just to track down each and every part. I tried fixing it one piece at a time but eventually just had to pull the intake off and replace every piece.
No idea what went wrong with the TB. This was like nine years ago lol but we weren’t rich so if I replaced something it was because there were issues. I do remember that it was a separate issue from the MAF sensor though.
Remember the Passat has a longitudinal engine, that coolant pipe was right up against the firewall and all work had to be done blind. Reading DIYs for the Passat it wasn’t unusual for it to take many hours.
I spent many, many, many hours researching solutions to all the problems that car threw at me. And as much as I love my VWs, the amount of work it took to keep that thing in good shape was excessive. Interior components fell apart so frequently I just kept a back stock of junkyard parts haha. The only car I’ve worked on more than that Passat is my air-cooled Beetle, which I’ve had since I was 11. I know old cars need stuff but you have to admit that’s a lot of shit, beyond just normal maintenance.
Having been watching old Australian police dramas for the past year as I fall asleep (on Blue Heelers right now) I natually assumed Dubbo was a slang term for an actual city, since from watching said TV shows it seems the slang for everything in Australia is to shorten a word as much as possible and stick an -o on the end of it (i.e. registration becomes reggo.
Much to my surprise Dubbo is the actual name of the city. Was it always called that, or was it called something longer previously and they just gave up when everyone called it Dubbo?
Dubbo is derived from the local name for the area from the Wiradjuri people, it means ‘red earth’.
We usually spell it rego, with only one ‘g’. You got save as much time as possible in life, so shortening names is one way of helping. Although sometimes the slang version ends up being longer than the original. There’s another city in NSW that’s proper name is Wagga Wagga, although usually shortened to the singular Wagga.
Sometimes they shorten words and stick -ie on the end eg eskie (a cooler, from ‘Eskimo’), or tinnie (either a tin boat or a can of beer). So you put yer tinnies in yer eskie, then stick the eskie in yer tinnie and go fishing
My son picked up a 2000 TT quattro coupe last Fall. We had to do a timing belt because it had 110k miles and no record of ever being done. It was a PITA and we still laugh about mistakenly putting the old belt back on, we were so tired by the end of the job. Next up, a rear wheel bearing. It helps we’ve got 4 other cars on the road so we can park it and do repairs when we feel like it.
We love that car and it’s the most fun to drive in the fleet. I think the design aged really well and it’s an underappreciated classic.
Glad I’m not the only person to put the old belt back on, I remember picking up the ’empty’ box once and looking for the old belt. Surprisingly much faster to change the second time in a day
Yeah, at least we realized it before buttoning the engine back up. My son saw the Audi logo on the belt while I was rotating the engine by hand. After a 5-10 minute swearing break we got back on it. The hardest part was taking the load off the hydraulic tensioner. Once you pull the pin it’s not easy to get a clamp in there and push it back.
If you don’t want to reveal too much, then I’m just gonna have to speculate.
Iggy Azalea dancing on the hood of the TT to a new song called “Check out my VAG”?
She’s so fancy. She spells it out so nobody thinks there’s a dirty joke in there.
$290 for rear brake pads?!
Fan belt??? Pretty sure you have an electric fan. ?!
Dude you need to learn to wrench. DIYing this stuff isn’t bad and it would have saved you 75% of the cost, if not more.
Fan belt = serpentine belt. I’ve noticed that a lot of our UK and AU friends just say “fan belt” even if it doesn’t actually run a fan.
Also, it’s my understanding that Lewin does not live in a place that permits wrenching. I don’t either, but I still won that lawsuit. Heh.
Thanks for clarity, thought it was another ripoff by the mechanic like the $300 rear pads.
That doesn’t mean you can’t make friends who can make it happen. I have worked on things at friends places plenty of times. And for $3k+ savings, I most definitely would.
Man that TT design has aged nicely
agree, a very pretty car!
Not only that, but it’s never NOT looked modern. A lot of designs get old and then come back into style. This one never left.
J Mays for the win!
I think that Audis in general age really well. Even 20 year old ones don’t look too of their time.
In terms of design yes, mechanically, maybe not…
Are those after market wheels the correct offset? Could be a factor in hub wear. I didn’t have any hub problem with 200k miles on a 2002 Beetle turbo S, the same engine held up fine too(180hp. fwd. version) after replacing the valve cover gasket, plugs, coils. T-boned Totaled 5 yrs. ago right after properly sorted, will not venture in the evils of VAG again. I gave you a long list of things to watch out for back when you first posted about it. Always liked the TT from afar. Best of luck.
is there anything that is not a pain to repair. replace on Audi TT?
we had our A6 C5 once, never again
They’re basically MkIV VWs, so apart from the interior, the drivetrain is pretty standard VW 1.8T stuff.
Your C5 is/was/always will be junk. First gen TTs are decent tho, because it’s a VW GTI in an Audi suit.
I see…. I mean I loved the design and the interior was very nice. Also despite the complexity suspension was impressive so was quattro in winter but holy shit it was not reliable.
B5 and C5 garbage tarnished Audi’s reputation, and deservedly so. C4 was a superior built car, way more reliable, and looks better imho.
I will forever love C3 and C4. especially facelifted C4s of about 1996… that long Porsche like cluster with gauges and quality of materials…
Based. Here’s mine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3qcEqrfCTE
It’s been an incredible car. Might be for sale soon; I just don’t use it enough.
very nice. Avant and Green is a great combo. Green is having a huge come back. Brown is next 🙂
yep, when I brought my E39 to the BMW of Thornhill in Ontario Canada not only the guy did not know how which button to push to open to open the door on a key (somewhat forgiving) but the whole look of disgrace the receptionist gave me left me with the bad taste in my mouth. also there was a guy who was about to lost his shit because his car was in for 6th time and he only got it 6 weeks ago or something.
then, they made so much mess in my engine bay as the idiot mechanic just spilled oil everywhere. never again, I would rathe push it off the cliff that give it to them again
You only need to go to the dealer for two things:
Recall workBuying random obscure parts not available in the aftermarketThat being said, I have taken my beat to hell, 300k+ km E90 to Pfaff BMW in Mississauga for the former. The service advisor who I dealt with was not snobby at all, though ymmv.
I only buy coolant and lug nuts there when I need it.
The more I look at it the more I like it, and those wheels are great.
That sum of money isn’t too bad all considered. You could spend just as much keeping a 25 year old Nissan alive (provided you could even find one worth repairing). Anything that old is going to require repairs and there’s nothing here that isn’t a normal failure point or service item on pretty much any vehicle.
Autopain living up to its name.
Sounds like owning a driveway would save you a ton of money. I rebuilt a Ford 302 in an upstairs apartment and installed it in the parking lot of my apartment complex at 2AM on a winter day when no one was looking.
Pro tip: don’t install the heads until after you get the short block down the stairs and into the truck.
But have you worked on a Volkswagen / Audi product of this era? A broken plastic hose fitting on the radiator may look like a 45 minute job to just swap out the radiator like on a normal car, but turns out to be an 8 hour job removing the entire front of the car just to get to 2 bolts.
Absolutely. The number of plastics under that hood that will crumble as soon as you touch them is too high! I remember snapping the plastic handle on the dipstick checking the oil level on a 1.8t and it was only a decade old.
Oh, they could crumble into dust like they chose the wrong grail well before a decade.
My 2001 Passat wasn’t supposed to last past the pandemic (we ditched as primary family transport in 2014 when both kids were still in car seats). Unfortunately, that was the time I started neglecting it and parking outside 24/7 in the southerly latitudes which is not great for paint, German interior adhesives, headliners, rubber, plastic, or any of the other things required to hold a car together. But it’s rust-free!
And yet there was something appealing about a car that requires almost zero maintenance, only had liability insurance, and registration was $32/year — the bare minimum just to send the sticker. The clearcoat is destroyed on all horizontal surfaces and the interior is turning to dust (behind the dash, I actually have baling wire holding up some of the parts because screws-on-plastic depending on the plastic retaining its structural integrity. LOL.)
Now it’s almost a retro-junker/beater and the longer time goes by, the more I plan to keep it running. Probably going to teach my son to drive in the next few months. If he hits anything, it’s totaled, but I probably won’t bother calling the insurance company unless I serious damaged someone else’s property 😉
In 2012, when my (now) ex and I were in college, he needed a car. We picked out a 2005 Passat GLS wagon, 1.8t auto with 115k on the odometer. I did a ton of preventive maintenance on that car, refreshing the whole PCV system, new motor mounts, transmission fluid, coils, plugs, a horrible coolant pipe on the back of the engine that took eight hours to replace, etc. We even got it chipped!
Well, we split up in 2017, but stay in touch. In 2023 he hit 200k miles, and last year he finally retired it and got a used Tiguan. But he still has the Passat, which is still running but needs some work. He said he wants to fix it up himself, which means that even though he’s been my ex for eight years now, he can’t shake off the “car guy” influence I had on him. He told me that in those years nothing major went wrong with the Passat, it was just consumables that needed replacement. I’m still damn proud of the work I put into that car and amusingly so is the ex.
May your Passat live far beyond its life expectancy!
They shouldn’t have charged labor to change the accessory drive belt, as it comes off as part of the timing belt service. That’s double dipping.
Yeah he got a little scammed on that one (whether intentional or unintentional)
And that kind of double dipping is very common.
$290 for a set of pads is what jumped out to me. I see them on eBay for $20-50 or so. Changing them takes less than 15 minutes.
Replacing brake pads when te discs are also needing replacement is throwing away money, when disc’s are replaced you again need new pads.
Sometimes it’s better spending more at once then saving a little at the time and throwing it away later
You can get discs turned for $15 each or so at most auto shops, as long as they aren’t too thin.
My brother had rear pads on his 2019 Jetta replaced at either a dealer or independent shop, can’t remember. Anyway it was like $300, my dad and I were shocked. Is that really the going rate for jobs like that now!?
Stealerships are called so for a reason.
It’s a VW product, what did you expect…?
Don’t you get tired of leaving a berating comment on every VAG related article on the site? I’d love to know which model hurt you or what car you got underwater on.
This commenter is nothing if not reliable. I swear it’s a parody account.
More reliable than anything from Wolfsburg xD
They should add a laugh react and better screen for bots
No 🙂
Don’t you get tired of reading about people buying VW products only to realise what a horrible decision they’ve made?
Well at least 4,000 dollarbucks is like 2,600 in TrumpCoin or whatever we’re calling USD these days.
Wait, 2,700
2,800
Sell, Mortimer! Sell!
I’m surprised that was $3800. I presume those are Australian dollars so only $2500 USD? That seems cheap compared to what I am used to paying for work on my vehicles. I can’t tell if I’m getting overcharged or if parts and labor are just cheaper in Australia.
The timing belt life is 5 years? Is it made of spaghetti?
I would have assumed pappardelle.
According to Tracy, all timing belts are made of spaghetti. But not a kind that’s good enough to eat in the shower.
His shower spaghetti days are over. His shirt strained-carrot days are here now or just around the corner.
That is a pretty standard change interval. The only cars I have owned with a longer one were my two Fiats with the 1.4T which was 100K or 10 years. It’s nearly always X miles or Y years, whichever comes first. But people tend to ignore the Y years part “it’s only done 20K miles”. To their chagrin in many cases.
According to my friend who I just helped do the TB on his 944, those are only rated for 3 years (although the old one lasted 8 without any cracking)
It’s VW, so likely sausage skins.
Yeah, Audis suck 🙁
Too bad, because the first-gen TT looks cool and I like it more than I should
They’re fine as long as you have the money to keep up with the expensive maintenance and repairs.
But they definitely suck for anyone on a budget.
The first gen TT is a MkIV VW. It does not suck. It’s a VW with a bodykit.
The MkIV Golf/Jetta has a bad reputation. Of course it sux LOL