2003 Volkswagen Passat Sport from UK and Ireland - Comments

Absolutely nothing.

I had a 1999 Passat and this new model just strengthens my faith in the VW brand.

Unfortunately this is what the fleet company call a pre hire car, which means I only have it for 10,000 miles or until whatever car I have chosen is delivered. This was out of my price range so I have had to settle for a Mazda 6. It will have to be one hell of a car to beat this.

Its the estate pump deause engine, quick, economical, smooth.

It is finished in the nicest shade of metallic blue.

The only down point on the entire car is the useless wipers. They are a new design with no metal parts, just like a big blade. They shudder, smear and jump off the screen at anything over 50mph.

Brilliant car though, Buy one.

I fully concurr with the remarks regarding the new syyle of wiper blade.

What was wrong withe the previous tried and tested blade?

I will probably end up replacing the wiper arms so I can use a universal blade.

In my experience you saw the best of this car in that you had it from new, and kept it only for a short time. Had you hung on to it, I'm sure you would have had a taste of the exorbitant costs required to keep it running, and the ongoing list of niggly, stupid problems.

You'd have known it was only a matter of time before it dumped a big bill on you, and sure enough, that little clutch judder that was just about perceptible at around 40,000 miles was rattling items in the glove box by 50k. You'd hang your head in despair at every traffic jam knowing that after about five pull aways, the clutch would become like an on/off switch making the car near impossible to drive. You'd know through internet sources and the idle chat of your local dealer technicians that it's "a fault that affects about half of all Passat and Audi A4 130PS 6 speed TDI's".

Because of stratospheric (read scarcely believable rip-off) parts prices, and VW's telepathic ability to tell that all clutch faults are "fair wear and tear" and not covered under warranty, you would get a lovely bill for as close to four figures as makes no difference. You would know in your heart of hearts that doing 40,000 motorway miles a year, and never having had a clutch failure before 120,000 miles on any other car, the clutch has had virtually no wear and tear and is faulty. Proving it, without losing your car for months is impossible however.

I will never buy a VAG product again! My Passat has been a disaster, and VW are experts at piking out of warranty claims, and also at the art of not returning phone calls.