At $225, This Old Volkswagen Passat Is a Steal. Or Is It?

Well, if you somehow missed the title, it costs only $225, or better said the equivalent of that sum, as it is being advertised for €210 at the time of writing by a German used car dealer that has some very affordable vehicles in its portfolio.

First registered in 2000, and with four owners in the papers, this B5 generation VW Passat, which is a Variant – aka estate - has 354,150 km (220,059 miles) on the clock, or so the ad claims anyway. It is powered by a 1.8-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine, making 123 hp (125 ps / 92 kW), mated to a manual gearbox that directs the output to the front wheels.

The white paint finish has seen much better days, and so has the cloth interior. It has ABS, power-assisted steering, traction control, central locking, front electric windows, electrically-adjustable side mirrors, leather-wrapped steering wheel, steel pedals, front armrest, aftermarket CD player, winter tires, and no air conditioning.

Originally sold in Germany, the car looks like it still has some life left in it, despite the rust problems, beat up overall aesthetics, and other issues that might be hidden. The vendor did not say anything else about it in the Mobile listing, but hey, it costs as much as a normal bicycle, and can keep you protected from the outside environment, assuming that it won’t break down, though nobody can guarantee that.

Some of you might be tempted to think that this 22-year old family car might be the cheapest used vehicle that we found for grabs on Mobile. But you’d be wrong, because it is not. In fact, the most affordable one currently listed on the quoted website is a 1991 Audi 80, with some 230,000 km (142,915 miles) under its belt. It comes with a buy-it-now price of just €50, equal to $54 at the current exchange rates, and you can find it here.

Double that sum, and you will be able to land a 1998 Mitsubishi Galant. Advertised here, this one has also seen better days, but at least it features air conditioning that may or may not work. It costs only €100 ($107), and seems to have been taken care of better than the aforementioned Passat. A couple of Fiats, including a 1996 Barchetta open-top model, can be yours for some €200 ($215) each.

Now, if you remember our ‘Cheapest used car for sale on eBay’ stories, then you know that there is no way that you could land something like this in the United States. You will have to add many more Benjamins to get one of the most affordable vehicles currently advertised on eBay, which is that 1941 Cadillac Fleetwood that we wrote about a few weeks ago, which doesn’t seem worthy of being rescued.

For that same amount, you could get a very rusty 1956 Studebaker Hawk, or a 2001 Hyundai Tiburon, and it is the latter that appears to have some life left in it. Despite this, we obviously wouldn’t recommend buying the Korean model, as you could end up investing more money in it than it is actually worth.

Now, assuming that you only had a few thousand dollars to spend on your next daily, what model would you choose and why? It’s a hard one, but for me, it would probably an old Benz that was built like a tank.