New VW Passat Estate

There are many versions of the Passat Estate to choose from with FSI direct injection petrol and TDI diesel engines with five, six and DSG transmissions, with two-wheel and 4Motion drive and in S, SE, Sport and SEL trim levels. Prices currently range from £16,440 to £26,455 with more models yet to be added but choose the correct model to fulfil your expectations.

The new larger Passat is clearly set to become a big player in the company car and user chooser markets. The fact that the new generation Passats are significantly bigger and have more road presence than their predecessors will make will make them popular with customers who do not want to go down the path of buying the less desirable to own Vauxhall Vectra or Ford Mondeo estates. It will also compete healthily with estates from the Mercedes C-Class, BMW 3-Series, Peugeot 407 and Volvo V70 ranges.

The new Passat is a quality product with a more exclusive image, in fact it is now much closer to the Audi brand than perhaps Audi might like to admit.

Volkswagen expects to sell 32,000 Passats in the UK this year and 13,000 of them are earmarked as Estates. Diesel engines will be the stronger sales models and the best selling single model is expected to be the 2.0-litre TDI SE 140PS variant with a six-speed transmission.

It is certainly the model I would go for as it is priced only marginally more than my lack-lustre test car at £19,860, but the performance will be much better.

My test model had the 1.9-litre TDI engine with only 105PS of power and 184 lb ft of torque and it had a 5-speed transmission. To put it bluntly it was no ball of fire. It was sluggish for acceleration and it was prone to stalling when pulling away from standstill unless it was more than the usual amount of engine revs needed for a diesel. I would go for the 2.0-litre, 140PS engine every time. In fairness the test model does have a top speed of 115mph and a 0-62mph time of 12.5 seconds and it did return 45.4mpg, so it is not all bad news but the lack of driving enjoyment took the edge off the overall enjoyment of living with the Passat Estate for a week.

If driving performance is not your thing and if you want to pay lower levels of company car tax, less road fund license and use less fuel, its ok. From the outside and inside it looks an expensive upmarket car, it is just this particular engine option which lets it down.

The car is also stronger with improved rigidity. Add to this the use of a new multi-link rear suspension and the handling is better and has big car refinement in absorbing the worst potholes and poor roads surfaces. The steering offered good feedback and despite its size was neat and nimble to drive, so much so that the lack of performance from the engine proved even more frustrating.

The Passat Estate is not short of new technologies. An electronic stability programme is fitted as standard to all models as is anti-lock braking. Front, side and curtain airbags and active front head restraints, plus fast acting LED rear lights, are all good safety features which we come to expect on all quality cars these days.

The interior specification has moved up market as well. The interior initially looks quite bland and uninteresting but further use finds that everything is so well laid out that the Passat for its price really lacks for nothing. Apart from its feeble engine performance the Passat grew on me the more I drove it. It is very comfortable and even after a long drive I didn’t feel tired.

The big plus points for this estate car is its quality, its substantial and stylish on road presence, undoubted good quality and driving refinement. Just choose a more powerful engine and it is a really good vehicle. The residual values should be good as well so although it costs more than the Vectra estate it should be better value in the long term.