Should I buy my friend's car? How can we fairly value it?

We had a 2002 Passat -- this car eats money. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The fact that your friend's mechanic has "allowed" this amount of work to "build up" on this car isn't ridiculous at all -- it's entirely par for the course for an early 2000's VW. Expect to shell out substantial amounts of money every single year to keep the car living until one day you finally realize, "Why am I putting myself through this?" and unload the car faster than a box of monsters. That day will be the happiest day of your life.

This is how a friend sale should go down. I should know, I just did one. I told my friend, here is my dinged up 2002 Dodge Stratus, it has less than 75,000 miles on it, it has plenty of wear and tear, I'll show you all the problems, engine is great, transmission likes to poop out, replacement parts are cheap as shit, buy it from me for $1,000 no questions asked. Done. They walk away happy, I walk away with some change in my pocket. Now let me make a couple of angry comments about Volkswagen. Once they are out of warranty, they are essentially expensive pieces of shit. The dealers like to gouge you for parts and repairs; replacement parts anywhere are going to be more expensive. Several oil leaks? At some point you're going to have to make a major repair, as these leaks can be a sign of severe engine contamination. How long has the CV boot been broken? Maybe the driveshaft is going to give you problems down the line. I'm surprised the transmission isn't leaking. Wait until that poops on you going up and down mountains. My family has owned at least 4 Volkswagens over the years, I honestly don't know what we were thinking. I had a GTI poop out on me 1 month out of warranty. They said it would cost $2,500 just to inspect the engine, not even fix the problem, and I walked off the lot with a piece of shit Audi instead. The V6 will guzzle gas like you won't believe. To quote another viewer, "marvelous to drive, miserable to own." You shouldn't pay a dime over $2,000 for picking up the tab on this. What is the point? He's your friend. If you're going to drive a risky out of warranty car and you have a kid on the way, then you should at least afford yourself the room to take the hit of expensive repairs for the next year or two. If after that, the car sucks ass, you'll feel okay about how much money you spent on buying it, and/or turn around and sell it to someone else. If it doesn't suck ass, then hold on to it. $2,500 max. Don't bend over backwards for this car. Who gives a shit what your friend is asking? You need to let him know what you think is the best fit for you, and see if he's willing to make a deal.

To do so would be violating two of the most important laws of car buying: never buy a car from a friend or family member, and never buy a used Volkswagen.

"... But I also know it won't be quite as safe, and it definitely won't be as a nice of a ride. ..." Any car you buy in the U.S. newer than model year 2012 will have, by legislation, some form of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_stability_control (ESC), which that 2002 VW has no clue about, and which can prevent deadly rollover accident results in many cases. Also, nearly any new car you can buy in the U.S. today will also have 10+ years of a combination of development of high strength steels in unibody construction, and vastly improved computer aided design and crash test analysis, as well as improved frontal crash requirements, that again, that 10 year old VW does not have, and never was designed to handle. Not to mention incremental improvements in airbags, seat belt systems, head restraints, interior materials (particularly as regards vehicular fire performance), tires and brakes, that pretty much put this concern of yours to bed entirely, in favor of purchase of a newer ride. If safety is a serious concern of yours, buy something newer, preferably with ESC, side air bags, and perhaps optional safety items like front and rear obstacle detection with automatic braking, etc.

There's always a spread like that between Kelly and Edmund's. I believe Edmund's is aggregating data to tell you what similar cars actually sell for, while Kelly is suggesting asking prices that will be a good starting point for negotiation, i.e. they're high by design. When I've bought and sold cars, it's always been much closer to the Edmund's price. I don't know about the Passat, but my wife's last car was an '01 Jetta and it got to be a maintenance nightmare before it hit 90K. There were some mechanical issues (suspension bushings, premature exhaust system failure) but mostly it was electrical problems that were expensive and apparently difficult to diagnose (VW charged me $90 to get one diagnosis completely wrong, even with all their trained techs and proprietary diagnostic equipment) and required expensive parts. Such failures got to be so frequent that our reaction was 'oh no, not again!' We finally dumped it and got a Honda. Our Jetta was really nice to drive. It was quiet and smooth, and the interior surfaces were luxurious for the price point. But it's not really a high-end car; it's a car for which they've put the money into the feely parts instead of the worky parts. I can't see myself ever buying another.

What is the mileage? Did I miss it? That's a HEAP of repair you are talking about. My beloved 2000 Jeep supposedly needs $900 dollars worth of repair for some minor leaks, and I decided to fix and not to sell her based on this. And my Jeep has 75,000 miles, which is crazy low for her age. Also, absolutely zero body damage or scratches. Your friend has not taken such great care of this car if the mechanic or owner has allowed this amount of repairs to add up. Sorry. $3600 sounds absolutely correct. $4,000 if you are feeling generous.

With 100k of VW experience; I believe that minus the 2400 for repairs it is ok. And if the CV joint is not making noise; I'd hold off on the repair until 5k past making noise. Serpentine belts usually crack, then fray; and then break 5k later. The V6 is kinda sought after VW motor... torque and hp and tough; probably worth 2k in itself even if the entire vehicle crumbled. And hungry for fuel! I'd offer a little less than the adjusted offer; seems to be a cherry in disguise; i.e I've had two nieces; both with New Beetles. One fell apart consistently; the other has consistently been failure free. ?leaking engine mount? ?how much would it sell for in the NE? ?has it been driven softly; or roughly?

I don't think I'll pay him for than $5000 for the car, including repairs, and I think it's fair to ask him to buy it *after* repairs. Another thing to consider is that what makes sense for you may not make sense for your friend, because by now you probably know much more about the car than most other potential buyers. Your 'fair' price is just the amount that makes sense for you given your awareness of the car's flaws, whereas some uninformed schmuck's fair price might be a couple thousand more. Buying the car from your friend under these terms may be "fair," but all the benefit of that fairness goes to you.

Hey, thanks everyone. @paulsc, that is really helpful safety information. Thanks! The car does have side/curtain airbags, but I think only the W8 model that year had electronic stability control. I'll take a look. This might be the reason to nix the sale, as well as to turn down my brother's offer of the free Saab. I still wonder if it's worth buying just to keep for the next six months, or if I should just get a new car. @couchdive, I saw that too, but virtually every complaint is the oil sludge problem with the 1.8L turbo engine, which is a completely different car that had a terrible oil sludge problem. I'd never get one of those. The hard part has been sorting out whether the many people talking about their terrible Passats were people who had that model. The engine on this car is a completely different model that may have some known issues (that's what I'm trying to figure out), but not the oil sludge. My friend went to Tahoe with his family and lent me the car for the weekend. I'm going to drive it around, ask the mechanic who did the 2-hour inspection whether it can make a cross-country drive, and test-drive a bunch of new cars. Oy. I don't think I'll pay him for than $5000 for the car, including repairs, and I think it's fair to ask him to buy it *after* repairs.