VW?
 

My daughter is looking at a 2002 VW Beetle. A co-worker is selling it for $1,000.

It has 185K on it and is an auto (which I don't like).

What sort of durability and longevity do they have?

What is your impression?

VWs are just like any car. If it was properly cared for and you can take car of the break/fix issues typical to a car with ~200K miles

There will be some reliability issues based on which engine - the NA engines are pretty reliable and have good availability of parts. The 1.8 turbo engines of that vintage were known to have issues when people didn't change oil often enough (sludge build up/PCV issues etc). The cars don't push a lot of HP so I wouldn't expect transmission issues - but electrical issues/sensors etc are more the norm.

If you can't work on the car yourself and don't know the prior owner's maintenance history then you can consider the car "disposible" (meaning you sell the car when you get a big ticket repair).

I like that vintage VW with the 1.8T and stickshift, i have had several Passats with that combo and they have been great. I wouldn't touch any 2.5lt VW with A/T especially--bad fuel economy, boring to drive, and terrible transmission reliability. The beetle especially is pretty unloved...