Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £15,150 to £32,780
Excellent diesel engines, roomy and comfortable, classy-looking cabins
Not as reliable as it should be, near to replacement by all-new model
Good value for money as pricing/equipment levels get more competitive.
A Passat is much more valuable come trade-in time than the Mondeo and Vectra, thanks to the big demand.
There's lots of used examples to choose from, but you'll need to look outside the VW franchises and consider something with a fair few miles on the clock (not a problem if properly maintained) to get a real bargain. Estates and diesel models are especially sought-after and expensive, and diesel estates are the most prized of all, so if buying from a dealer, it's well worth having a haggle over petrol models and the saloons as they can be more difficult to shift.
The biggest performance bargain secondhand could be the W8, which is likely to depreciate rapidly, even if it will cost a fortune in fuel.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Passat
wrote on 06 06 2006