VW 19 plate Passat estate 15 petrol DSG

[ACCYSTAN]

My company get me a hire car instead of a company car due to the discount we get from our hie car partners and the shore term nature of our contracts.

Anyway, had this 1.5 petrol VW Passat estate DSG auto, now on 15,000 miles.

Good
- decent interior space although not huge, however the estate boot is very large.
- there’s plenty of poke up to 80ish from the engine
- it’s easy to drive, I wouldn’t say It’s nice to drive but it’s no hardship
- drivers seat has so many adjustment options it’s always a comfortable place to be
- high quality fit and finish of car body panels and doors
- good rear parking sensors which are crucial on such a long car, unlike other car the beep and head unit sensor warning are accurate - if it says your close, you are close!


Bad
- average fuel economy since new is 31.2 mpg and most of that is motorway. You have to drive like a saint to get it close to 40 (best I have had from a full tank is 37mpg). The fuel tank is huge as well (75 litres).
- since new if you press the accelerator even slightly hard it will result in wheel spin, factory tyres can’t keep up with the power. If you floor it from a stand still you will be all over the road.
- the inbuilt sat nav is frustrating and the map clearly doesn’t get the same attention as other manufacturers in built sat navs I have used, it’s considerably out of date with a road that opened early 2018 still not showing.
- the dashboard in general is dull and dated with cheap plastics below knee level


Would I want to own it? No
Would I buy one? No
Would I recommend it? No

It goes back at 20,000 miles, not long to go

[RC1807]

The nav won't update itself. You have to buy the latest disc and run that to update the stored,content.
Otherwise, use Waze or Google maps.

[Narcisus]

RC1807 said:

The nav won't update itself. You have to buy the latest disc and run that to update the stored,content.
Otherwise, use Waze or Google maps.

If it’s anything like Skoda you just download the latest maps from the portal onto an sdcard to update.

[RC1807]

Yes, it's the same... But VAG can be pricey, whereas other suppliers are maybe £20-25

[EarlofDrift]

Looked up the difference in list price between the Passat and current Audi A4 expecting it to be maybe 3-4k, couldn't believe it's actually 10k.

Is a base model A4 a better car than a base spec Passat, probably yes, is it 10k better, probably not.

[MJK 24]

That’s really poor fuel economy.

I drove a 2016 A4 1.4 to Italy and back and worked out with a pen a paper, we were getting an easy high 40’s mpg at 80mph with the AC on eco. That was a six speed manual with intergalactic gearing.

It did 40mpg on the autobahn to Stuttgart on the way home!

[SidewaysSi]

Yep the economy is hideous. You could have something older and wilder for not much more cost.

[gizlaroc]

ACCYSTAN said:

- since new if you press the accelerator even slightly hard it will result in wheel spin, factory tyres can’t keep up with the power. If you floor it from a stand still you will be all over the road.

I bought a 2009 120hp 2.0tdi A4 avant the other week to get me out of a muddle.

I completely forgot how much I hate VAG's FWD cars, you have to really feather the gas or you get the front wheels scrabbling.
Even dropping it to 2nd to overtake and booting it you get a bit of torque steer too. Torque steer with 120hp?! WTF?!
This is a manual, combine it with a heavy diesel clutch, that has a funny ledge under it which makes it hard to press down, and is miles over to the right which means the foot rest also gets in the way and I can only describe it as hateful combination.

I'm sure in auto guise it would be far better, as the actual chassis feels pretty good for an Audi, it handles nicely and is quite fun to drive.

Oh, and it seems to be averaging 35mpg, stats all OK, dpf OK, no codes.
On a long steady run it still only just nudges over 40mpg.


Picked up a 2009 320i Touring yesterday for my daughter.
170hp petrol.
My god what a revelation that is, much nicer seating position, lovely light clutch and pretty nice gear change too.
You can bury the throttle and the car just goes.
I did 10 miles down the A11 into Norwich, then through the city, back in and home again via back roads and it returned 44mpg. On the way in it got to 47mpg by the time I hit the city ring road.

I'm not into manual cars, but I could easily live with this.




I have had FWD hire cars from Ford and others and they have been fine, however, every FWD VAG I have had has always had this issue, why?

[braddo]

Wow, interesting reading.

It makes one wonder that if manufacturers hadn't been trying so hard to game emissions tests for the past 5-10 years (my guess; please anyone correct), how nice might cars be to drive these days whether manual or auto.

Even on PH, I think very many people have forgotten how normal cars can be nice to drive and economical as well (the fault of manufacturers, not consumers). Think of steering feel, brake pedal feel, clutch pedal feel, throttle responsiveness, gearchange quality, outward visibility - all this stuff is long forgotten unless you have driven a good 1990s car.

To be clear - I am not saying 1990s cars are better. I am saying their 'controls' are better - more natural, transparent, honest, which means more enjoyable while also knowing what the car is doing (rather than total and unrealistic reliance on stability control etc)

[Sheepshanks]

RC1807 said:

Yes, it's the same... But VAG can be pricey, whereas other suppliers are maybe £20-25

It’s free from the VW website. It’s a bit of a faff though and you have to overwrite the original SD card as it has the licence code embedded, you can’t use a generic card.

The nav is crap though - wife has same in her Tiguan. The one in my 2005 Merc works better.

[bungz]

Sounds fairly hateful.

In a drive for emissions and to be rid of diesel seems we are all going to take a fairly hefty hit on economy.

[gizlaroc]

bungz said:

Sounds fairly hateful.

In a drive for emissions and to be rid of diesel seems we are all going to take a fairly hefty hit on economy.

I think it is more a case that it will be ever more important for buyers to take their potential purchase for a proper test drive doing the sort of journeys they will do.

For a start, someone who sits at 50-60mph nearly every day may have a very, very different experience to someone who does lots of town work or someone who sits at 80mph every day.


I was saying the opposite, that going from a 2 litre VAG diesel to a 2 litre BMW petrol I have seen my MPG average go up!
Both round town and on the motorway say at 75mph.


I had the 1.4t fsi A3 on back to back test with the 2.0tdi A3 a while back, in that car over 90 miles across town, out on my normal route and back again it return 44mpg, which was exactly the same as the tdi doing the same trip. Which genuinely shocked me.
The 1.4t in the A3 just seemed to suit each other, it is probable that the Passat is simply too big a car for the smaller engines.

I know a few guys who have the 1.5 engine in the 3 series and they are not getting as good MPG as they had in the 2 litre that they replaced. They were expecting better mpg at some performance cost, the reality was just worse all round.
However, in the Mini it is excelling with that engine.