Tuesday 25th July 2023

VW Passat W8 | Spotted

Any 4.0-litre Passat is interesting, but there can't be many left as good as this

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Even by the silly standards of the early '00s, the Passat W8 was an ambitious idea - to put it politely. This was the era of big engines going into unsuitable places, from the availability of the 350Z's V6 in a Renault Espace to the Mustang-powered Rover 75. Yet even by those standards, the Passat stood proud. There was no great clamour from enthusiasts for a VW super saloon, it didn’t make all that much power from 4.0 litres, and this was made long before 4Motion got interesting - the W8 wasn’t that great to drive, either. On top of being fiendishly complicated.

But with VW set to be an electric car company before we know it, so those interesting combustion-engined cars from its history - whether they came with two, three, four, five, six, eight or ten cylinders - become all the more intriguing. The W8’s unconventional layout, which effectively brought together a pair of VR4s, meant it didn’t have the traditional V8 sound, but that can surely be worked on with the right exhaust. It's all the more fascinating when you consider that the W8 engine didn’t go anywhere else - it was at least 25 per cent larger than any other engine offered in the lineup, and sat longitudinally in a car best known for using transversely mounted turbodiesels. The idea of it providing a bridge between the humdrum VWs and the Phaeton didn’t really work. Two decades ago, that meant the W8 was shunned in favour of a more traditional top-of-the-range saloon. Now it’s impossible not to be just a little curious.

The W8 earned itself a bit of a reputation in time - you don’t make it to Brave Pill without one - and working on it was made difficult by just how much engine was crammed into so little space. The fact that so few sold, that they depreciated so fiercely and proved less than perfectly reliable soon sounded a death knell for numbers. You just don’t see very many at all. In fact, given the very deliberately under-the-radar look of the W8, one could pass you by and it could be mistaken for any other B5 Passat.

But then there’s this one, surely one of the best now left remaining of a car that went out of production 18 years ago. As is often now the case for cars like the W8, this estate is actually a Japanese import; originally EU-supplied but right-hand drive, it was sold new from BMW Japan. If somebody can make that make sense, please let us know. It’s believed to be one of the very last sold, which would make sense with the replacement standard Passat coming in 2006, and has covered just 58,000 miles.

This era of Passat was always a handsome car, and it’s aged really nicely, still confident and well proportioned all these years later. The condition of this W8 wagon is next to flawless - it looks 18 months old rather than 18 years. It was apparently a Grade 4B import, one of the best around, and the condition is testament to that. Everything looks fresh and well-preserved, from the lustre of the paint to the plumpness of the seats. It’s a surprise that a car can cover this amount of miles with seemingly so little wear.

Now, of course, any Passat W8 is to be approached with some caution, because they are notoriously complex. On the other hand, this one seems properly lovely, and is for sale at less than £10,000. Only £60 less than £10,000, sure, but it’s not a huge amount of money when you consider what everybody wants for anything vaguely interesting these days. And it’s a large, useful family estate, assuming you dare sully its impeccable condition. Fortune favours the brave and all that.

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SPECIFICATION | VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT W8

Engine: 3,999cc, W8
Transmission: 5-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 275@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 273@2,750rpm
MPG: 21.9
CO2: 299g/km
First registered: 2005
Recorded mileage: 58,000
Price new: £38,000
Yours for: £9,940

See the original advert here

[Sandpit Steve]

That’s very cool indeed. Proper street sleeper, most people will think it’s just an old bus - but those who know, know.

Much want!

[Billy_Whizzzz]

How complex to do a manual conversion?

[GreatScott2016]

Unfamiliar with these, but it looks like a decent old Hector to me

[Djtemeka]

So little power from such a large engine?

[Baddie]

Impressively inefficient from development to movement.

I want to like it but can’t see past the waste of company money, buyer’s money and fuel. If it effortlessly wafted and wuffled I could see appeal. There’s a lovely grey 4.4 XC90 on my road which does at least one of those beautifully.

[Gary C]

I saw one of these on the M6 going north on Saturday.

Looked a bit of a shed to be honest but interesting enough to raise a comment

Crazy car. Probably great fun for 12 months at say £2k but £10k ? Probably better places to put my money.

[slk 32]

FIND ANOTHER!

[pb8g09]

Never even knew these existed, let alone ever seen one.

Find another indeed, but I’d rather pay similar money for an R36 facelift Passat estate instead.

[Greatestape]

I was visiting a German friend who ran a VW dealership near Stuttgart, appropriately called Auto-Wagenblast, when these came out.

He had just registered a demo car and offered me a test drive.

The W8 motor lacked low end torque and needed to be revved, so it drank unleaded like it was going out of fashion.

Lot of pistons in a short stroke motor with inadequate displacement is never a good thing!

Edited by Greatestape on Tuesday 25th July 07:19

Edited by Greatestape on Tuesday 25th July 07:21

[Triumph Man]

To be that nerdy guy (well, unapologetically really) all B5/B5.5 Passats had longitudinal engines, not just the W8. This era was Audi based, unlike its predecessor and successor that were based on a larger Golf platform.

[evojam]

Interesting oddity from VW's back catalogue but will cost you dearly at the pumps to run one as a daily..

[Court_S]

Interesting from an oddity point of view, but I couldn’t buy that at £10k.

That’s a massive engine for very little power compared to what a BMW inline 6 was chucking out with less capacity.

[Darnoc95]

I really don't remember these at all! Were they actually sold as a UK car or just to armed forces abroad or something like that. I know this is a Jap import one but couldnt of sold them for long even if they did officially sell them here. Cool car though if something of a future money pit.

[Pablo16v]

I came close to buying one back in 2003. It was a 51 plate auto estate in a light petrol blue metallic colour (asking £17,995 for it IIRC - heavy depreciation because nobody wanted it), but the test drive was really disappointing. It just didn’t feel fast at all, didn’t sound great, the average MPG reading didn’t get above 18 (unsurprisingly) and the suspension was a bit too soft and wallowy for my liking too. I ended up buying an ‘02’ Audi A6 3.0 Quattro instead, which had less power but it didn’t feel any slower and was a good bit more economical. I really wanted to like the Passat (a couple of mates had S4 Avants which felt quite rapid with a similar power output) but it just left me cold.

[Gigamoons]

To stuff a family engine into an unsuspecting model is fair game, a bit of fun even!

To design one from scratch for such a niche model is either genius or madness. In this case, with the benefit of hindsight, it turned out to be madness.

But that sums up Ferdinand Piëch from that era. Credit where it’s due though, I think he had more hits than misses. Certainly can’t fault the man’s ambition. He literally forced the Bugatti Veyron into life with sheer brute force despite pretty much his whole team telling him it couldn’t be done.

Edited by Gigamoons on Tuesday 25th July 08:33

[Trebor1970]

Advert link is dead, just opens up another Brave Pill article.
Maybe it's sold, to someone with shares in Shell or Esso?

[bmv6197]

Like a moth to a flame, I find myself drawn to this. I hear the warnings of reliability woes, fuel consumption horrors, disappointing power and torque, and an underwhelming soundtrack. And yet that voice inside my head says “life is short - what have you got to lose?” (money, sanity, marriage all being valid answers…)

Am glad I’m travelling abroad and can’t physically go and look at it, as I fear I’d do something silly…

[WPA]

Not a great engine from what I have read, lots of issues with them

[Thebritishguy]

The autos have a known (and costly) tendency to destroy their torque converters, I say this from first hand experience

Cool cars but get a manual!

[Quhet]

Always liked this shape of Passat and the W8 does look great. Used to be one down the road from me when I lived in NZ owned by a fairly unassuming family and I always thought it was cool as fk.