Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £15,150 to £31,825
Decent motorway cruiser, good fuel economy, low emissions.
Firm ride on economy tyres, bit too taxi-like inside.
It's decent enough car for a sales rep, but they might want a bit more standard equipment.
The Passat BlueMotion should be the best answer for fleet managers who want to cut their company car tax bills and fuel bills. However, VW is only expecting it to make up 2,000 of the 32,000 Passat sales in the UK each year.
So why the low sales expectations? It ticks all the boxes in the costs department and its CO2 emissions are low. All this should make it a better option than a 'normal' Passat diesel.
The issue is compromise. In a bid to make this car fuel efficient, VW has lowered the ride height and tweaked the front to make it more aerodynamic. Drag has been reduced by 12% but the longer gearing, economy tyres and a dashboard indicator showing when you should change gear to get maximum efficiency all combine to offer a less-than-rewarding drive.
However, VW has given with one hand and taken with the other. To achieve good fuel economy and low CO2 emissions, it's had to sacrifice driving pleasure. So is the BlueMotion too much of a compromise for fleet divers, who want comfort, performance and driving pleasure as well as low running costs?
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Passat
wrote on 06 06 2006