Car totalled (1997 Passat TDI), looking for easily modded replacement

[Daox]

I find that funny considering I've met a guy with 350k miles on his 1st gen Prius which he was still driving with the original battery pack until his car got t-boned...

[arcosine]

You can drive with a low battery, just doesn't have pep. If I had over 300k on a car I would hesitate to spend 3k too.

[Daox]

I wouldn't want to spend $3k on a car with 300k miles either (although there are other options besides pack replacement, you can get them rebuilt for much less), and I am sure the pack capacity was lower on his car. However, the Prius won't start without a functioning high voltage pack. So, I think its safe to say that it is quite possible to go 350K miles without having to replace the pack. Can I say this is always the case? Nope. I'm just sharing my experiences. I do know that the Honda packs tend not to last as long (and as a result they have made changes), but the Toyota packs have had little to no problems from my reading.

[Ryland]

If you are doing mostly highway driving the battery pack in a hybrid is going to be used very little, if it was something like a mail route or pizza delivery your pack might not last 300,000 miles.
The Toyota Matrix is coming down to your price range for the older models but their gas mileage is not all that great! mid 20's to low 30's.

Here is the more advanced search on the FuelEconomy.gov web site, searching for anything between 1984 and 2011 that gets over 40mpg pulls up some interesting vehicles.

[cfg83]

Ryland -

Originally Posted by Ryland

If you are doing mostly highway driving the battery pack in a hybrid is going to be used very little, if it was something like a mail route or pizza delivery your pack might not last 300,000 miles.
The Toyota Matrix is coming down to your price range for the older models but their gas mileage is not all that great! mid 20's to low 30's.

Here is the more advanced search on the FuelEconomy.gov web site, searching for anything between 1984 and 2011 that gets over 40mpg pulls up some interesting vehicles.

Yes, that makes sense. When people ask me if they should get a Prius, I ask them what their commute is like. One lady told me she was unhappy with her Prius MPG. I asked what her commute was like and just as I thought, it was mostly freeway.

These are my recommendations :

City Commute = Toyota Prius
Freeway Commute = Honda Insight

CarloSW2

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by stormchaser

I lost my 1997 Passat TDI recently with only 343,188 miles on the clock.

Although I am looking for a replacement TDI,
I have been doing up to 60,000 miles in recent years and intend to keep doing this line of work a few more years.

That puts you solidly in diesel territory (or heavily modded cars).

Dunno what they're going for in the US, but why not get the same car, and keep the old one for spare parts ?

[MetroMPG]

Parts car! Great idea.

[rcpmac]

Originally Posted by arcosine

If you do mostly highway driving the TDI is better, city driving the hybrid has better mpg.

A hybrid is not as economical as it first appears, after 380,000 miles you would have gone through several sets of batteries at $3000 each.

Not to mention massage therapists. A passat is a fine safe and comfortable car which in TDI form is capable of 40+ MPG Hwy. I know that isn't a huge number on these pages but we are talking no compromise efficiency and comfortable seating for 4 or 5 plus large cargo capacity. I have a 2005 Wagon purchased in 2010 for $13500. (they command a price in the Seattle area- this was about $3k below local market!).