In February 2009 I bought a 2005 55 Volkswagen Passat Estate 2.0TDI SE from a dealer with 70,000 miles on the clock. I do about 20-25,000 miles a year and I thought this would be a great car, but I have had a lot of trouble with it since. First, the diesel particulate filter went, then the electronic parking brake (a stupid idea) failure meant a new calliper. Then, in June 2010, I was driving along a lane and the car just cut out. This turned out to be an injector, which I had to have replaced. When it came back it was misfiring very badly but my independent mechanic's diagnostic came up with nothing.

Exasperated, and having looked at forums where similar faults had occurred with the same model, I contacted Volkswagen UK, who suggested I take it to a main dealer for a diagnostic. Again, nothing has shown up so they are now stripping bits down to try and locate the problem. As you can imagine, this is all becoming considerably expensive, and rather galling as the 18-year-old Mercedes-Benz diesel estate I owned previously with almost 300,000 miles never incurred expenses like this! I now only have a budget of £2000 and I need a reliable car. What should I do?