Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £15,150 to £31,825
Good looking, feels like a high-quality item, strong image and good diesels.
Not the world's best petrol engines and manual gearbox a bit floppy, newer rivals better to drive, replaced in 2005.
Reasonable car but not as good as latest rivals. High feeling of quality and image means that it'll always find fans though. Petrol V6 and W8 models mostly pointless.
This Passat debuted in 2000 and, although not all-new at the time, was more than just a facelift of the preceding model.
It was replaced in 2005, but is still not without its merits. Chief among these is its excellent turbodiesel engines, closely followed by a feel-good interior. Customer satisfaction surveys show that the car is perhaps not quite as reliable as it should be, but is not poor in this respect.
Depreciation is a major worry on cars in this sector, but the Passat fares a little better than most because of its strong image.
The diesel estates are the pick of the bunch.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Passat
wrote on 06 06 2006