Volkswagen Passat Car Review

Share This Article

Get the latest industry news
stories into your inbox!

Say hello to…

…the new Volkswagen Passat which, in it’s latest guise, is only available as an estate. VW has also kept the range simple by offering just one engine a 1.5-litre petrol. However, VW is promising two plug-in hybrid versions later on in 2024 which will have more fleet appeal thanks to lower benefit-in-kind taxation.

The Passat is available in three trim levels:

Life
Elegance
R-Line

Standard kit on the Life trim level includes 17-inch alloys, rear view camera, satnav, 10.25-inch digital cockpit screen, high beam assist, massage front seats, three-zone climate control, adaptive cruise control and powered tailgate.

Elegance adds uprated massage sports seats and panoramic sunroof.

R-line adds 18-inch alloys, changeable interior lighting colours, adaptive sports suspension, drive modes, rear side sunblinds, park assist, 12.9-inch infotainment touchscreen, wireless Apple Carplay & Android Auto, 4x USB sockets and heated washer jets.

Is The Volkswagen Passat Suitable For My Fleet

As a large estate, the Passat is proper old-school fleet-suitable. It will carry everything you need and four or five adults with ease. Before you fold the seats the boot is an enormous 690 litres including a very usefully sized under-floor compartment. In ‘fold the seats’ van mode the Passat’s boot increases to 1,920 litres.

The only thing that would make it more fleet suitable would be a plug-in hybrid option – which is on the way.

Leasing A Volkswagen Passat

Intelligent Car Leasing is offering the Passat in R-line trim for £854 a month on a 3+36 contract with 20,000 miles per year. Maintenance costs are forecast at £66 a month with Class 1A NIC coming in at £121 a month, according to Gensen Reports.

Driving A Volkswagen Passat

Passats have always been the go to car for high mileage business drivers. The combination of solid quality, good value, comfort, space and an overall simple ease of use are core traditional qualities for the model.

The latest Passat hits almost all of these points and adds a couple more.

With the latest car, Volkswagen has also added a generous level of standard equipment and competitive pricing. The move should temp a company car drivers away from the ubiquitous SUV sector, especially given the impressive fuel efficiency figures for a car of this (interior) volume. VW claims an official figure of 50mpg and we weren’t far off that, at 46.3mph, in mixed real-world driving over a week-long test. And on longer motorway stints 50mpg was easily achievable.

Motorway is really where the Passat is most at home. Refinement and comfort levels are superb and the adaptive cruise control is one of the better systems available; useful and not too intrusive.

However, if the Passat has a weak spot it’s in urban driving. The turning circle and overall manoeuverability is impressive for a car that’s 4.9m long, but at manoeuvering speeds the brakes are difficult to modulate smoothly and they have a tendency to be grabby when coming to a stop.

Lower speed ride comfort is also on the harsher side – even with the adaptive suspension in its softest setting.

However, for the rest of the time, the Passat behaves exactly how you’d expect. It feels solid and unflustered in almost all situations.

For the latest car VW has also opted to retain physical buttons for the steering wheel controls, which are classically simple to use.

The infotainment system retains touch sensitive sliders to control the aircon, but these are now backlit so you can see them at night.

VW has also now sorted out its infotainment system to the point where it’s one of the easiest to use (having come from firmly back-of-the-pack). Particular praise should go to the ease with which you can turn off the mandated warnings for speed and lane keeping.

The result of these combined points means the new Passat is still a winner for high mileage drivers.

FleetandLeasing.com Verdict On The Volkswagen Passat

An old-school, long distance, fleet favourite.