mikeg1961 (Mike)

First off, thanks to the moderators for picking me as oneB5 for October. My history with cars started pretty early, when I was about 7. I have a couple of older brothers who brought home some great cars from college - a Triumph tr-3A; an Austin Healey 3000; a Volvo P1800 (!); and a 1969 Mustang Mach I with the Cleveland 351 and a Hurst 4 speed. That thing could fly. My parents had some cool stuff, too, like a Buick GS 350, and a Ford Custom 500 with police package.

Me? I started simple - a lovely orange 1976 Ford Pinto. Yikes. That was followed by another Ford. After that, I couldn't take having to work on my cars every weekend to keep them running. So I started buying Hondas. After several years of mundane cars, I ventured into a German vehicle with a 1983 911SC. The prior guy who owned it abused it severely, so I spent all my time working on this one too. Fun car, handled great, too much work. I went back to Japanese cars for another 10 years.

In April of 2001, I decided to look at the brand new redesigned Passat 2001.5 Variant with a V6. I test drove one first and was sold. It was so much tighter than the car we were replacing, a 1996 Outback with a habit of blowing oil pump seals. Of course, this was my wife's car, so I only drove it on weekends. I still had a Nissan.

In April 2005, I needed to get into a more reliable car (stop snickering!), so I went down to Quirk VW in Quincy. They had 8 2004 Passat GL leftovers there, 7 of them in white. Having owned a white car and driving a lot in snow country (VT and northern NH), I went for Mojave Beige. It's got the usual 1.8T and 5-speed with a black cloth interior. As it turns out, there were only 17 made in this configuration for the US market in 2004, which makes this a pretty rare combo. The mods haven't stopped since I got it. I now have almost 64,000 miles on it (I drive a lot for work), and 105,000 on my wife's with no problems with either (knock wood). Thanks to the folks on this site, I knew what I was getting into when I bought a second Passat, what I wanted to do with it, and most importantly what to do if something goes wrong. Thanks to everybody on here for making it such a cool place to hang out.

Mods

• GIAC flash (finally!)
• WetWorks Garage lip spoiler
• Debadged trunk
• FK Badgeless Grille (painted in my garage)
• Eibach Pro springs with Koni yellows
• 17" ASA AR1's with Kumho 225/45 17's - thanks to Alex (NU_Passat)
• K&N drop in filter
• Weathertech Window Deflectors
• OEM Sharan Antenna
• Disabled DRL's
• Pioneer Premier Head Unit
• Rockford Fosgate P450.4 amp
• Infinity 62.07cs 2-ohm component system (front)
• Infinity 62.7i 2-ohm 2-way speakers (rear)
• Tint (coming next week)

Other oneB5s

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