The ‘swagen: 2009 VW Passat R36 Estate

[RoVoFob]

chazwozza said:

I was looking at these about 6 weeks ago when considering changing my cursed vRS estate. Decided i'd get annoyed at the tax and potential for big bills as I already have to maintain a few toys and the Octavia appears ok for now.
Beautiful car OP and commend you on the purchase!

‘Cursed’ vRS? That sounds ominous…

£600+ tax annoys me on paper, but it’s absolutely worth it with the R36. Oddly it bothered me much more with the A6 4.2. The R36 is more satisfying at low speeds - engine and gearbox-wise - and it’s so good at going from bumbling around in sixth to blasting off in second that it feels like you get more from the engine more of the time…

I’ve wondered many times about selling my 130i as - while I love it - I don’t get to enjoy it where we live on the edge of London, but the R36 may just persuade me to do it.

[RoVoFob]

AC43 said:

Love these. Always love the idea of cramming the largest possible petrol engine into a mainstream car; especially one which is normally fitted with some awful clattery tug boat power plant.

Sitting a 3.6 VR6 into one of these is genius. And it looks nice and subtle to boot.

Absolutely. Part of me wanted to be really silly and ‘downsize’ my A6 4.2 into a 5.2-litre S6 for the same price as the R36, but this felt like a similarly exciting but more manageable option.

Having now had four straight-sixes, a flat-six and a VR6, I really think a big six is spot on for most cars. Having max torque from 2,400rpm and max power at 6,600rpm really makes the 3.6 a satisfying engine to use.

[d_a_n1979]

RoVoFob said:

d_a_n1979 said:

That looks superb and I'm not even a huge VW fan...

What's to look out for if considering one of these?

I've seen a few listed on the usual places, mainly Jap imports and that's fine with me as having owned quite a few Jap imports inc my previous BMW E39 Touring, I'll always consider them

Any must haves and no-no's?

DSG and Haldex services, cam chains, normal servicing and condition aspects, are the main things I think.

All of those are harder to assess with imports. Mine has a few small rust spots and iffy paintwork, so I want to get that addressed. The paintwork and rust situation was much better on my three-year-older A6….

Sat-nav and the 600W Dynaudio speakers were must-haves for me. Many people want the blue paintwork, too. I did, though I love the subtleness of the silver. The leather and alcantara seats look better than the standard cloth ones to me, too.

Cheers for that

I've seen a few silver ones, a few blue ones and a black one also. A couple are local to me so I'll be paying them a visit when I get chance (but more than likely towards the end of the month)...!

I'm fortunate that I have a pal who's a respected motorsports mechanic that knows these cars inside out, so I'll be dragging him along with me for the look-over and test drive too no doubt

But he's assured me that the servicing & maintenance/upkeep is very similar to what my BMW touring was, so that's not an issue at all...

Plus I only do 4-5k miles a year, if that, so not fussed re economy etc

[AC43]

RoVoFob said:

AC43 said:

Love these. Always love the idea of cramming the largest possible petrol engine into a mainstream car; especially one which is normally fitted with some awful clattery tug boat power plant.

Sitting a 3.6 VR6 into one of these is genius. And it looks nice and subtle to boot.

Absolutely. Part of me wanted to be really silly and ‘downsize’ my A6 4.2 into a 5.2-litre S6 for the same price as the R36, but this felt like a similarly exciting but more manageable option.

Having now had four straight-sixes, a flat-six and a VR6, I really think a big six is spot on for most cars. Having max torque from 2,400rpm and max power at 6,600rpm really makes the 3.6 a satisfying engine to use.

LOL you like your 6's. As do I, although I somehow skipped them on my way to V8's.

In terms of sounds, the VR6 is right up there with the very best. Ian Tyrell recently said "a combustion engine is basically a wind instrument" and I couldn't agree with him more. I could never ever bring myself to buy a 4 pot diesel but I could quite easily listen to a VR6 for hours on end.

Or a flat 6, I6, I5, V8, V10, V12 or a triple. Love then all as much as I hate a rumbly clatter.

Your point on torque is also key - makes for uber-relaxed schlepping when you're in the mood for that.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Lovely! I was in a position to get one of these a couple of weeks ago - they're a long term dream car of mine (I like oddball, leftfield stuff so a 3.6 v6 in an old Passat suits me down to the ground!). Unfortunately the wife said no to anything with a massive engine (its used by her for pootling around town/school runs etc mostly) so ended up with a Merc C class estate. 10x better build quality than the Passat but 10x less cool...

[rottenegg]

34.4mpg is bloody good going. The most I could ever get out of my Golf R32s as a long term average was 27mpg.

The R36 is direct injection isn't it? That might explain the big jump in economy.

[RoVoFob]

d_a_n1979 said:

Cheers for that

I've seen a few silver ones, a few blue ones and a black one also. A couple are local to me so I'll be paying them a visit when I get chance (but more than likely towards the end of the month)...!

I'm fortunate that I have a pal who's a respected motorsports mechanic that knows these cars inside out, so I'll be dragging him along with me for the look-over and test drive too no doubt

But he's assured me that the servicing & maintenance/upkeep is very similar to what my BMW touring was, so that's not an issue at all...

Plus I only do 4-5k miles a year, if that, so not fussed re economy etc

I’ve just seen that you’re no distance from where I bought this one in Blackburn. Looks like there’s a Japanese import specialist near there that has several R36s, too. Sadly I had to travel more than four hours to get there!

Handy to have a knowledgable mechanic friend. I might take mine to The Phirm where I took my A6 previously, as they’re VW Audi specialists and imagine R32s are a big thing for them so they should be R36-savvy…

[Turkish91]

Been eyeing these up for a few months now, they really appeal to me as a good replacement for my tired old V70.

I take it yours is a UK car going off the plate recess? Seems to be a fair few Jap imports about, which is what I’d likely go for if I do get one as it’ll be clean underneath and I’m sure I’ve noticed they aren’t the same to tax per year as a UK car?

Glad you’re enjoying it, will keep an eye on this thread

[d_a_n1979]

RoVoFob said:

d_a_n1979 said:

Cheers for that

I've seen a few silver ones, a few blue ones and a black one also. A couple are local to me so I'll be paying them a visit when I get chance (but more than likely towards the end of the month)...!

I'm fortunate that I have a pal who's a respected motorsports mechanic that knows these cars inside out, so I'll be dragging him along with me for the look-over and test drive too no doubt

But he's assured me that the servicing & maintenance/upkeep is very similar to what my BMW touring was, so that's not an issue at all...

Plus I only do 4-5k miles a year, if that, so not fussed re economy etc

I’ve just seen that you’re no distance from where I bought this one in Blackburn. Looks like there’s a Japanese import specialist near there that has several R36s, too. Sadly I had to travel more than four hours to get there!

Handy to have a knowledgable mechanic friend. I might take mine to The Phirm where I took my A6 previously, as they’re VW Audi specialists and imagine R32s are a big thing for them so they should be R36-savvy…

Hi pal

Yes; literally 15 mins from there and it'll be that local Import specialist that it'll be visiting, if they still have then when I finally get the time/brain-space to start looking at cars again!

And yes, very handy to have my pals that are VAG/BMW/Honda/all things nice specialists

[finlo]

I saw one of these in a carpark earlier and thought that must be pretty rare!

[RoVoFob]

AC43 said:

LOL you like your 6's. As do I, although I somehow skipped them on my way to V8's.

In terms of sounds, the VR6 is right up there with the very best. Ian Tyrell recently said "a combustion engine is basically a wind instrument" and I couldn't agree with him more. I could never ever bring myself to buy a 4 pot diesel but I could quite easily listen to a VR6 for hours on end.

Or a flat 6, I6, I5, V8, V10, V12 or a triple. Love then all as much as I hate a rumbly clatter.

Your point on torque is also key - makes for uber-relaxed schlepping when you're in the mood for that.

I never understood the appeal of V8s. I liked the A6, but not because it was a V8, more because it was powerful and sounded interesting.

Yep. Torque and power aren’t that exciting without the other. Having a super-revvy VTEC is tiring, while a torquey car with no top end can be tedious.

[RoVoFob]

DaveyBoyWonder said:

Lovely! I was in a position to get one of these a couple of weeks ago - they're a long term dream car of mine (I like oddball, leftfield stuff so a 3.6 v6 in an old Passat suits me down to the ground!). Unfortunately the wife said no to anything with a massive engine (its used by her for pootling around town/school runs etc mostly) so ended up with a Merc C class estate. 10x better build quality than the Passat but 10x less cool...

Shame. I swear 50% of fuel economy is how you drive the car. I encountered a number of angry people in E220ds on the way to get the Passat, who were blasting around everywhere at full speed. Am sure they didn’t get much better economy than me whizzing up to speed and then cruising calmly from then on.

[RoVoFob]

rottenegg said:

34.4mpg is bloody good going. The most I could ever get out of my Golf R32s as a long term average was 27mpg.

The R36 is direct injection isn't it? That might explain the big jump in economy.

I’m quite good at eking out decent fuel economy from cars that aren’t the most frugal on paper. It is FSI, which I think is VW’s jargon for direct injection.

I was pleased to see that the trip computer recorded more than 20mpg when I did some town driving to get to Tesco yesterday lunchtime. The A6 was really thirsty on trips like that…

[RoVoFob]

Turkish91 said:

Been eyeing these up for a few months now, they really appeal to me as a good replacement for my tired old V70.

I take it yours is a UK car going off the plate recess? Seems to be a fair few Jap imports about, which is what I’d likely go for if I do get one as it’ll be clean underneath and I’m sure I’ve noticed they aren’t the same to tax per year as a UK car?

Glad you’re enjoying it, will keep an eye on this thread

Yes. It’s a UK car. £615 to tax and some small rust spots I need to sort, but quite a lot of evidence of costly maintenance, too, and the sat-nav and all the other functions just work, without having to be replaced with English language systems…

Swings and roundabouts!

[RoVoFob]

d_a_n1979 said:

Hi pal

Yes; literally 15 mins from there and it'll be that local Import specialist that it'll be visiting, if they still have then when I finally get the time/brain-space to start looking at cars again!

And yes, very handy to have my pals that are VAG/BMW/Honda/all things nice specialists

That company strikes me as being a bit fishy. Not only do they list two R36s on one Autotrader advert - no doubt trying to avoid paying to list two cars - they do the same on their own website and show only one mileage for the two cars, too. When a company has such slapdash ads, it always makes me wonder which other corners they cut.

Those are up for £11,995 and £13,995. While mine is on 114k miles and has a few rust spots and bits of paint to get sorted, it also cost just £9,500, which seems like quite a big difference…Not sure if mine was underpriced and/or these are overpriced.

Edited by RoVoFob on Sunday 7th August 00:01

[d_a_n1979]

RoVoFob said:

d_a_n1979 said:

Hi pal

Yes; literally 15 mins from there and it'll be that local Import specialist that it'll be visiting, if they still have then when I finally get the time/brain-space to start looking at cars again!

And yes, very handy to have my pals that are VAG/BMW/Honda/all things nice specialists

That company strikes me as being a bit fishy. Not only do they list two R36s on one Autotrader advert - no doubt trying to avoid paying to list two cars - they do the same on their own website and show only one mileage for the two cars, too. When a company has such slapdash ads, it always makes me wonder which other corners they cut.

Those are up for £11,995 and £13,995. While mine is on 114k miles and has a few rust spots and bits of paint to get sorted, it also cost just £8,500, which seems like quite a big difference…Not sure if mine was underpriced and/or these are overpriced.

Yeah know what you're saying, but I've known the company for a good while. They're not dodgy, but they don't go about doing the things right on their website either...

The cars are in excellent condition and they do their damndest to help you

My pal bought a V70R from them; had a few issues close to c£1k that needed to be sorted and they got them sorted, no questions asked and with a local respected Ovlov specialist too!

So I'd hope they do that with everyone...

The prices for these currently are anywhere between £9.5k to £14k looking across the usual suspects

My preference is to stick with BMW as I've owned them now since 2011; but the R36 does tick a lot of boxes and I'll definitely be going to have a look at them, if they're still available, when I get chance in a few weeks, even if to rule them out

[RoVoFob]

d_a_n1979 said:

Yeah know what you're saying, but I've known the company for a good while. They're not dodgy, but they don't go about doing the things right on their website either...

The cars are in excellent condition and they do their damndest to help you

My pal bought a V70R from them; had a few issues close to c£1k that needed to be sorted and they got them sorted, no questions asked and with a local respected Ovlov specialist too!

So I'd hope they do that with everyone...

The prices for these currently are anywhere between £9.5k to £14k looking across the usual suspects

My preference is to stick with BMW as I've owned them now since 2011; but the R36 does tick a lot of boxes and I'll definitely be going to have a look at them, if they're still available, when I get chance in a few weeks, even if to rule them out

Hmm. Always surprising when a dealer spends that kind of money on a car, but maybe they know about the problem to begin with. Sorry, I’m a cynic!

Which BMW model are you thinking about? I’m a massive fan of my 130i and older BMWs, but I haven’t heard the best things about the E61, which seems the closest model…

[d_a_n1979]

RoVoFob said:

d_a_n1979 said:

Yeah know what you're saying, but I've known the company for a good while. They're not dodgy, but they don't go about doing the things right on their website either...

The cars are in excellent condition and they do their damndest to help you

My pal bought a V70R from them; had a few issues close to c£1k that needed to be sorted and they got them sorted, no questions asked and with a local respected Ovlov specialist too!

So I'd hope they do that with everyone...

The prices for these currently are anywhere between £9.5k to £14k looking across the usual suspects

My preference is to stick with BMW as I've owned them now since 2011; but the R36 does tick a lot of boxes and I'll definitely be going to have a look at them, if they're still available, when I get chance in a few weeks, even if to rule them out

Hmm. Always surprising when a dealer spends that kind of money on a car, but maybe they know about the problem to begin with. Sorry, I’m a cynic!

Which BMW model are you thinking about? I’m a massive fan of my 130i and older BMWs, but I haven’t heard the best things about the E61, which seems the closest model…

Agree; I take stuff like that with a pinch of salt

TBH I'd rather buy a car from an enthusiast owner that like me, retains every ounce of paperwork for any bits of work done etc

This is why anything out of the BMW realm worries me, as I'm out of my depth!

Ref BMWs; this was my previous Jap import E39 Touring: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

I'm well versed on the BMWs, more so the E39s, but know enough re the E61s of what to look out for etc. The BMW 5 forums has always been a superb wealth of knowledge and fellow owners etc (sods law the forums down currently due to hosting issues)

The E91 335i is of interest to me as well; but the worry is it may be a bit small as I'm not an averaged sized hooman

I do this for a hobby:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qMQjThUm67M

Hence why an E61 petrol touring is of great interest to me

Edited by d_a_n1979 on Saturday 14th May 08:15

[RoVoFob]

d_a_n1979 said:

Ref BMWs; this was my previous Jap import E39 Touring: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

I'm well versed on the BMWs, more so the E39s, but know enough re the E61s of what to look out for etc. The BMW 5 forums has always been a superb wealth of knowledge and fellow owners etc (sods law the forums down currently due to hosting issues)

The E91 335i is of interest to me as well; but the worry is it may be a bit small as I'm not an averaged sized hooman

I do this for a hobby:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qMQjThUm67M

Hence why an E61 petrol touring is of great interest to me

Ah, the E39 is a serious BMW. I imagine that the E61 would feel like a step down after that quality and styling-wise, though the 30i engine is a decent improvement. The 335i no doubt is much sharper than the E39, but sounds like size might be an issue!

While the Passat is pretty spacious, do you think you’d get on with the huge seat bolsters?

[Cambs_Stuart]

I had a VW CC with this engine/gearbox/drive train. It was a superb motorway cruiser and surprisingly economical for a heavy car with a big n/a engine. I sold it when the timing chain started to get very noisy and I got tired of treating rust on the wheel arches.
As a note, I found the gearbox was very see sensitive to tyre pressures and condition, unless everything was perfect in traffic it would change up to second too early then lurch. After I sold it someone said that could also be a gearbox mount issue.