Faults:

Not counting tyres and brake pads as they are wear and tear you would expect with any car. Basically no major faults. Wouldn't expect anything less on a low mileage modern car. Full service history is a must as with any car, do not buy one that has missed anything.

General Comments:

The Modern Passat has all the things you would expect. Always liked these, used Passat's as a private car for work and leisure for years, cannot fault them. Just very functional and does the job. Some would say boring, but give me reliability any day.

My only regret is not going for the 2.0 TDi. It is a faster engine with decent economy. This 1.6 TDi can do between 60 and 70 mpg which is wonderful, but I feel a little under powered for a car of this size.

Interior is absolutely gorgeous and has all the electronic equipment you would expect, SE Business model is mid range I believe. Exterior is dark blue with nice alloy wheels, really looks great.

Had this a while now and plan to keep it long term; my previous Passat's managed in excess of 100,000 miles with no major issues; this should be no different if I take care of it.

Faults:

All the buttons on the steering wheel stopped working, requiring a replacement 'module'.

Also the LCD display in the centre console would periodically refuse to turn on, although the next time you drove it, it would spring into life.

The petrol cap flap wouldn't also click shut.

General Comments:

A nice car, and driving it on the electric motor was particularly enjoyable due to the silence and quick acceleration from rest. Performance below 80mph was very good, with lots of acceleration which easily overwhelmed the front tyres - it really needed 4WD.

Battery range was supposed to be 32 miles, but the best I ever saw was 26 miles on a warmish day whilst driving fairly sedately with no air con on. In the winter with the heater and air con to demist the windows, I once got down to 9 miles range. On the motorway it average about 40 MPG or so.

This was a company car, and I wouldn't buy one myself as it was expensive and had few electrical gremlins, which I would worry would get worse with age, after the warranty had expired.

It made sense for me to have it at the time, as it saved me a load of company car tax due to the low emissions figure, but I am not sure it makes sense for a private buyer unless you can run it just on the electric power, which is difficult since the range is poor and you seem to be always charging it up.