Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £18,200 to £33,980
Quick; good DSG gearbox; refined V6 engine.
Firm ride; thirsty; concerns over quality.
The undercover R36 hides its power behind conservative styling .
The standard Passat rates as distinctly mediocre in JD Power's customer satisfaction survey, with an average mark in every category except interior quality (above average) and exterior quality (below average). Owners also have serious misgivings about exterior fittings, which generate more complaints than on any other car in the category.
This was backed up by our test car, which had several annoyances. Firstly, a high-pitched buzzing noise emanated from the tweeters on the rear door. We suspect that there was some problem with the Dynaudio stereo speaker system, but it corrected itself over the course of a weekend and we were unable to get to the bottom of it.
Secondly, a dreadful squeak came from the centre of the dashboard. This was intermittent, but on one longish test drive it was present almost constantly, and quickly proved to be very irritating.
There also seems to be a problem with water gathering in the door sills: opening the tailgate after a night of rainfall resulted in water pouring down into the load bay.
