Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £15,150 to £27,015
Much better to drive than previous model, build quality, enormous boot.
Styling on the dull end of scale, rear seat legroom not brilliant.
With hugely improved dynamics and excellent perceived quality, the Passat takes the fight to Mercedes and BMW.
Meet the sixth-generation Passat, the latest member of a family that goes all the way back to 1973. And as the Passat formula is one that has worked well for Volkswagen, the company felt no need to deviate from the model's traditionally conservative, restrained design. The result is an inoffensive, albeit somewhat anonymous, exterior that will ensure middle-of-the-road, middle-class buyers won't be spooked.
The new Passat is bigger, too. It's 62mm longer, 74mm wider and 10mm taller, but thanks to the use of aluminium for some of its suspension components, the new car is no heavier than the old one. Inside, VW has strived to take the Passat's quality feel even further upmarket, with extensive use of soft-touch surfaces and a bold new dash architecture with echoes of the range-topping Phaeton. And unlike previous Passats, which were based on Audi platforms, the new car is built on a strengthened version of the latest Golf platform. Which is good.
Conservative it may be, but the Passat does have a more distinctive nose, with wrap-around grille chrome and gently rounded headlights. It's quite a colour-sensitive shnoz, though, with dark body colours creating too much 'bling', whilst lighter metallics wear the chrome well.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Passat
wrote on 06 06 2006