What the flippin’ flop is a humdrum Volkswagen Passat diesel doing in a PH auction? It’s a mightily good question, especially because it’s gold. Well, Cashmere metallic if we’re being nerdy, with a beige – YES, BEIGE – interior. But no, we haven’t lost our minds. The car may be literally beige but it’s every bit the colourful hero.
This Passat, LC11 YTH, has a story, and a very compelling one at that. It’s done something pretty spectacular in the hands of YouTuber and friend-of-PH, Joe Achilles. This is the car Joe and his videographer, Patrick, bought, unseen, from BCA car auctions in Blackbushe. They paid the princely sum of £2,300 for it with one mission in mind: to get from Africa to the UK (that’s around 1,500 miles in case you’re wondering) on one miserly tank of diesel.
Why? Well, a) because it was a challenge and b) to raise money for the mental health charity, Mind. That’s where all the money raised by this auction will be heading, so feel free to let that tug heavily at your heartstrings and influence your bidding.
The B7 Passat 1.6 TDI Bluemotion Tech wasn’t a random choice. It’s the model that currently holds the world record for the distance travelled on one tank, and it’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for two reasons. Firstly, it sips diesel as tenderly as a Victorian lady sips her Earl Grey. Secondly, it has a 70-litre fuel tank, which is bigger than most. Together, they make it a formidable force for any economy run.
Now, that’s all very well when you’re talking about a new car, but this one is 13 years old and had 93,000 miles showing when the hammer went down. And, as we’ve said, it was bought unseen, so saying there was scope for it to turn out to be a right whoopsie is underplaying it. Yet with LC11 YTH Joe had come up trumps: it turned out to be a good’un from the off – mostly. This was a one-owner car and relatively clean, too, bar some stone chips and grime. Inside was the same. Sure, the driver’s seat was frayed around the bolster, but everything else was tidy and the back seats looked brand new. It even had welcome upgrades, like an infotainment system boasting Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus a reversing camera. For a 2011 car that’s a veritable tech fest.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was the paperwork. Joe found stacks of it, including all the handbooks in their original leather wallet and the original sales invoice. It even had a period Passat brochure, with notes stuck on the cover by the prospective buyer about which spec options to choose. Talk about an unlikely degree of provenance. It seemed too good to be true, until, inevitably, it failed to start in the compound. That was just a flat battery, though. No biggie.
This trip was sponsored by Michelin Tyres, which arranged for LC11 YTH to go to one of its partner garages not far from Blackbushe – Elite Garages in Horsham, West Sussex. They came to the conclusion that it was a good’un too, bar worn rear pads and discs and a failed rear drop link. Those bits were sorted, along with a full service and a new cambelt and water pump as a precaution. If your cambelt goes ping in the Pyrenees, it’s game over.
The only other change was fitting a second-hand set of Passat 16-inch alloys – instead of this SE’s original 17-inch rims – shod with a new set of Michelin e-Primacy tyres all round. Doing that saved around 10kg of unsprung mass and reduced the rolling resistance by a chunk as well.
This, by the way, was all happening with a week to go, so time was already short. Then disaster. En route to the ferry at Folkestone, the Passat suffered a ‘wee technical wobble’: a massive loss of power accompanied by a brace of warning lights. Crumbs. Back to Elite Garages (on a flatbed truck), where the diagnosis was injector failure. Double crumbs. All four were changed, and the time constraints meant using genuine VW parts, which basically doubled the price of this Passat. Triple crumbs.
Feeling financially flagellated but with reaffirmed hope in the LC11 YTH’s durability, Patrick drove it down to the starting point in Morocco without an issue. And even driving it in a not-so-economical fashion, the little Bluemotion was averaging healthy mpg. Joe joined soon after, the car was brimmed – in total, about 73 litres went in – then driven onto the ferry to cross from Morocco to Spain.
From then on, the only intended stops would be for human frailties: eating, drinking, sleeping and… well, you know the other stuff. But the car would get no such favours. A steady and constant 55mph over 1,500 miles might not constitute a ‘damn good thrashing’ but it’s a consistent flogging, nonetheless. Was it mechanically up to snuff? Would it really get back to Blighty on just one tank?
Over the next two days, Joe and Patrick took turns behind the wheel – Patrick being more pedantic about the self-imposed 55mph speed limit; Joe, by his own admission, less watchful and, occasionally, straying up to a heady 59mph. All the time, the focus was on the trip meter. In the beginning, it was showing an average of 60-something, which climbed steadily up to 70, 80, and then, unbelievably, pushed into the 90s. At one point LC11 YTH hit 94.0mpg. And that’s despite the required stops, the traffic, and some truly awful storms delivering heavy rain and headwinds.
Spain passed by and France beckoned, and by Le Mans the fuel light came on with the range an indicated 110 miles. That meant twitchy-bum-time because Calais was about 250 miles away. Yet still the Passat kept plodding on. It was all looking good until, with 10 miles of range left and 30 miles of driving to the Eurotunnel, in the darkness and thick fog, Joe took a wrong turn in a contraflow. That took them off the motorway with no easy way to get back on it. Not what was needed, especially as the range was now zero, with LC11YTH having journeyed for 1,361 miles. When it clocked 1,380, they were safely ensconced in an empty Eurotunnel carriage, which meant they would, whatever happened next, have made the trip from Africa to the UK on one tank of diesel. Bravo - but this story isn’t done.
Naturally, everything else was now a bonus, but how far would LC11 YTH go? Well, they drove off the train at Folkestone and headed for London to find out – now wearing high-vis jackets with an emergency can of diesel ready for the inevitable. They sailed along the M20. They got within the M25. They got in sight of the Big Ben. They even made it to the gates of Buckingham Palace. And still the 1.6 diesel purred away. In the end, they headed to Heathrow and did 20 loops of the Northern Perimeter Road, when, finally, it hesitated and died. It even managed to do that at a conveniently safe spot. What a car.
What did it manage, then? Well, according to the trip computer it did 1,484 miles on that one tank, 123 miles of which were after the range hit zero. The trip meter showed an average for the entire trip of 92.4mpg, but after doing the maths, Joe worked out that it had actually averaged 87mpg. Still pretty good, don’t you think?
The car’s since been used by Joe as his daily, who says above all it’s dependable, comfortable and does all you need it to. In fact, he’s become so attached to it that he might've kept it for himself were it not for ULEZ – no, this most efficient of cars doesn’t meet the required standard to enter London for free. It’s also been to those renowned people at Topaz Detailing to be revitalised – including having the alloys refurbished, the driver’s seat repaired, and a dent taken out of the boot that mysteriously appeared in Morocco.
We said at the start that this car had a compelling story and, hopefully, now you think so, too. Well done to Joe, Patrick, Michelin, Elite Garages and everyone else who’s contributed their time to make this charity adventure happen. You can check out the videos on Joe’s YouTube channel to see the full story, but, most importantly, stick a bid in. At the very least, you’ll bag a plucky car. A car that’s gone the extra mile – actually, many extra miles – and in the process has proven it’ll cost you buttons to fuel. Most importantly, though, you’ll also be giving to a great cause.
Additionally, you can also see the Passat for yourself at our Annual Service powered by Michelin on 10th August at Bicester Heritage, with Joe and Patrick joining us on the live stage to talk more about their incredible road trip. So grab yourself a ticket, get bidding and we'll see you there!
Special thanks to Michelin for donating the proceeds of the auction to MIND, and to our friends at Topaz Detailing for their support.
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