Volkswagen Passat Estate
Faced with a week’s touring through Northern France it was with a smile that I discovered that I was to be using Volkswagen’s new Passat 4Motion Estate.As anyone who has taken the family on a camping or caravanning holiday will know, it’s a case of taking everything you normally need plus a few hundred other bits and pieces. This means, of course, that you need space – lots of it! This is something that the Passat Estate has. It seems to be able to swallow up enormous amounts of luggage with ease. If we’d needed a kitchen sink we could have taken it along too.
The Passat’s versatility and attention to detail is impressive. If you’ve driven a car with a large luggage space before, you’ll be only too aware that it’s fine when it’s full and it’s fine when it’s empty too. However, if you carry one item, no matter what, it has free run of an entire playground and it makes sure it uses all of it. Whether it’s the rogue orange that’s sneaked its way out of the shopping bag, the plastic squash bottle that appears to take on anti-gravity properties or indeed anything with a coefficient of friction less than a sheet of sandpaper, it’ll be shooting from side-to-side, banging into the rear seats each time the slightest driving manoeuvre is carried out. Volkswagen now have a bar-and-belt arrangement which ensures that any load carried, no matter how big or small, can be secured in the boot area with the minimum of fuss, thus ensuring a safe and stress free drive.
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On the subject of driving… this is a car review after all… what’s it like? Tremendous! The Passat, like its other VW siblings seems to mould itself to you as the driver. Everything is very intuitive and it requires so little effort to adapt to it that you could almost believe you’d owned it for years only an hour after getting into it. The 2-litre diesel engine is torquey, responsive and immensely flexible throughout the range and, although maybe not the quietest I’ve driven, it has a reassuring diesel purr which in not in the least bit distracting. Roadholding and ride are surefooted and confident, never hinting at being close to a limit of any description over the entire 670 mile trip. The acid test, however, was how well the kids handled the long journeys.
Teenagers, by their very nature, are easily bored. This doesn’t bode well when in addition to a fairly hefty drive, we had to contend with the inevitable delays resulting from the almost annual French fishermen’s blockade at the Channel Ports. However, they were comfortable, contented and remained trouble-free throughout. That is in itself a glowing recommendation, bearing in mind there were three of them in the back seat for the entire time. I only wish we’d had a camera to hand when we were on the last leg of our drive home, when our son, in the centre fell asleep, his head tilted back and one of the best ‘catching flies’ expressions I have ever seen! For those with very small children, the integrated child seats were a great idea, leaving no need to fit additional seats. The child seat back simply clips onto the rear headrest and the seat part lifts out from the main seat. Clever idea!
The audio system fitted was of such a good quality that you couldn’t resist turning it right up all the time. The ipod was left permanently connected to the Auxiliary input throughout.
The version driven also had Volkswagen’s GPS Navigation system fitted too, which was a real bonus on the way home, when bank-holiday madness had gripped the road system of Southern Britain. The traffic interface, which updates the route plan, was an absolute Godsend, as it seemed that most of SW England had become gridlocked as the day went on. We were still able to weave our way through some rural roads that had escaped the mayhem and got home more-or-less on schedule.
All-in-all it was a fantastic car to live with for the week and very hard to fault. The ‘switch’ handbrake took a little getting used to, as did the keyless ignition, which for the most part was not an issue. However, on one occasion, I managed to stall when pulling away at a particularly busy junction and in a situation like this, it’s not simply a case of clutch-down and turn the key again. It took a little while to realise that it was necessary to remove the fob, put it back in and then start up again. Not a particularly great concern though, and something that would be easily dealt with when you know the routine. It offered enormous driving pleasure, had enormous luggage carrying space, seemed to go on forever on a tank of fuel and left all occupants arriving relaxed and unstressed. An ideal big family car!
Nigel Crawford
June 2008
Model Driven:
Passat Estate Sport 2.0-litre TDI 4MOTION 6spd manual.
Price £23,000 OTR
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