Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £15,150 to £32,780
Most efficient and lowest polluting in class, common rail's flexibility.
Gearing restricts performance, BlueMotion price premium.
Hugely improved engine plus stop-start increases the BlueMotion's appeal considerably.
The Passat BlueMotion 2 is the most fuel-efficient and lowest polluting large family car money can buy. It averages 57.6mpg while emitting just 128g/km, putting it in VED road tax band C. Its key rival, the Ford Mondeo Econetic, is in the same road tax band (emitting 139g/km of CO2) but returns a less impressive 53.3mpg.
So, although the BlueMotion 2 may be the perfect solution for companies wanting to slash their overall fleet emissions it's not necessarily the most cost effective because it's £465 more expensive than a straightforward Passat S, on which it's based.
The standard Passat S comes with the same 109bhp 2.0 TDI engine but averages a slightly less impressive 51.4mpg while emitting 143g/km of carbon dioxide. Those figures might not be headline-grabbing, but they still put the Passat S in the same road tax band as the BlueMotion 2.
There's not much difference between the two when considering company car tax costs. The Passat BlueMotion 2 is in the 18% Benefit in Kind bracket while the Passat S is in the 19% BIK category. It means Passat S drivers will pay £33 a year more on their annual tax bill, but it'll please their company's bean-counters who saved £465 saving on the purchase price.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Passat
wrote on 06 06 2006