12th Jan 2016, 12:23
Gaskets can't be maintained, you are right, but maybe the original reviewer meant the head cracked. They can be protected though. A "blown" gasket can be due to many things that are not always the car's fault. I knew a guy who replaced coolant with water to quick fix a leak during summer, and sealed it forgetting to change for an antifreeze mix when winter came round. Needless to say it froze up and cracked the head, and that was the end of that car.
12th Jan 2016, 10:30
I dunno man, I had another one of these a few years later, and with frequent oil changes and the coolant replaced every now and then, I got 250,000 miles out of it with no engine problems. Gonna need to get a review of that Passat on here soon; it was even tougher :) I hear what you are saying though, gaskets can still go at any time. I suspect this one we had was also driven hard as well as not maintained correctly, which didn't help the gasket that's for sure, and getting to 170,000 miles like that is pretty good going.