05 Beetle vs 03 Passat vs 05 Mazda 3

[GTO4Life]

My gf is searching for a car to buy, but she cant make up her mind between this 3. I told her to get the Mazda 3 sedan "s" (or whatever the more expensive one is) 2005 model.


Anyways, the mazda and the beetle would both be brand new, but the passat would be a used 2003 model.


Any opinions on which car is better OVERALL? Thanks.

[GTO4Life]

anybody?

[curtis73]

Relax, you posted those two messages 47 minutes apart

Take a look at what Consumer Reports has to say about the VWs and I think it will narrow your search VERY quickly. The VWs are not doing so well these days. In fact (it may have changed in the past couple years) the Beetle was on their 10 worst list every year since its inception in 98. My friends have had two new beetles. One they bought and it was a complete lemon, so they traded it in on another beetle. Now its giving them fits with just 10k. He drives a Jetta that is having electrical problems.

Mazda, all the way.

[GTO4Life]

thanks alot ill make sure to let her know this

[Ssom]

Get a Passat.

The Beetle is a terribly built car (Built in Mexico by people who were once used to building Kombi's and the old Beetel, so no surprise)

The Passat has a pretty good reputation for reliability, especially the facelift models, HOWEVER the 1.8 Turbo's up to about 2003 have faulty ignition coils which VW only replaces as each one dies (No recall AFAIK). If you get a V6 4MOTION or a very late model 1.8T, then you should have a problem free run in a car that is solidly built, comfortable and exceptionally good looking. They are also built in Germany AFAIK, so at least a skilled labour force'd have put it together (Ours is RHD and hence I think it was made in South Africa, but I'd imagine all LHD models are built in Germany)

We have a 2003 Passat 2.8 4MOTION and it's simply the best car we've ever owned, very reliable as well.