2004 Volkswagen Passat Sport from UK and Ireland - Comments

Service indicator went faulty very early on and had to be replaced.

Intercooler pipework popped off on the M3, reducing performance to a crawl.

Intermittent "ticking" noise from top end of engine. Dealer noted it at service time, but hasn't managed to trace it and fix it yet.

A new one this week - temperature gauge has gone faulty. It works fine for about half an hour, and then the needle drops slowly back to zero until the ignition is switched off and back on again.

A very nice car in a lot of ways. It has a good quality interior, and the excellent 130 TDI engine and six speed box give very lively acceleration. It's also a refined, smooth drive, and in my opinion is still a good looking car.

What it isn't is either particularly reliable, or particularly enjoyable to drive. I estimate 95% of my driving is on motorways or major A-roads, and in this environment, the Passat excels. Noise levels are low, the tall 6th gear gives lazy cruising ability, the engine's torque makes overtaking effortless, and the seat comfort is excellent. However, on a recent run down to Cornwall which forced me onto the smaller, twistier roads, the Passat was no fun at all. It bounced and floated over uneven roads like a 250,000 mile minicab, and this combined with brakes and steering that have way too much assistance make it hard work and unrewarding in the lanes. Yet, the second you get back on dual carriageways and motorways, it returns to being smooth effortless transport again. For those who think that the Passat is just a family car and shouldn't be fun to drive, I did the same route in the (then 110,000 mile) Focus last year and came back grinning.

Reliability hasn't been horrendous, but neither has it been particularly good. Abnormal engine noise was picked up by the dealer at service time, but they could find no physical reason for it. It seems to perform okay, so fingers crossed. The intercooler pipework falling off was just embarrassing and smacks of poor quality control (it wasn't tightened properly at the factory apparently), and the temperature gauge can no longer be relied upon.

The Focus wasn't a paragon of reliability, but it was better than this in its first year. I still like the Passat, but its weaknesses are very frustrating.

An update on the review above:

15,000 miles added to the total, with the car now approaching 45,000 miles. I am now experiencing a clutch judder when taking up drive. When the clutch gets hot, such as during a prolonged period in stop/start heavy traffic, this becomes severe enough to rattle loose change in the ash tray or cause rear seat passengers to comment.

Spoke to VW whose attitude was not particularly helpful. The very first thing they did was to quote me a staggering cost of £750 + VAT for supplying and fitting a replacement clutch kit which is not only about three times as much as I've ever heard of a clutch costing, but they didn't even seem to entertain the idea that it could be a warranty chargeable fault. I've never had clutch failure on any of my three "owned from new" cars, and all had over 100k when I finished with them. I also spend most of my time on the motorway, during which my clutch foot sits on the foot rest. It is booked in for next week where the clutch will have to come out for inspection. I had to argue for a courtesy car while this was being done.

Whilst in the dealership making these arrangements, I also made some enquiries about the 60k cambelt swap and what the cost would be. The reply was "around £400 with the VAT". How a company that calls itself "People's car" can charge the kind of service and maintenance prices that you normally find on exotic sports cars frankly mystifies me. On both the Focus, and the Peugeot 306 I had before, the cambelt swap cost £200 at main dealers.

So, the car needs £1150 + VAT spending on between now and 60,000 miles, and I'm waiting to see whether the warranty will pick up £750 + VAT of it. If not, I am tempted to part exchange the car "as is" for something different. If it's giving me four figure bills at 60k, what's it going to be like at 100k? VW's engineering quality is clearly not what it was.

Update on above:

Car went into the VW dealership where I was grudgingly given a courtesy car - a 1.4 Polo with no fuel in it that reeked of stale tobacco.

Got a call that day to say they had found only normal wear and tear on the clutch, but evidence of excess heat (whatever that is), and two weak springs.

VW argued that the heat build up evidence constitutes signs of abuse and that they won't pay (never mind that the weak springs are what are actually causing the problem). They can't tell me what this evidence is, and to be honest, I no longer like the car enough to be bothered arguing so I had them put it back together whereupon I collected it and drove across town to the local Ford dealer. It was used in part-ex against a year old, 6,000 mile Mondeo 2.0 TDCi 130 Zetec which I collect next week. The car I should have bought in the first place to be honest.

The impressive residuals of the Passat and freefall early depreciation of the Ford got me a newer car for very little outlay. A friend has one and it has never gone wrong. Oh, that's a sweet, sweet thought.

You are right about the high maintenance cost of the Passat

And you do not have the V6 engine which I have. There all bills are a nightmare. Well if this will calm you down Audi charges more...

I recently drove one of these for the first time and while amazed by its torque and acceleration, could not believe how crude, vibratory and agricultural the engine was. Almost enough to ruin what was an otherwise very pleasant car. It would be enough to put me off at least.

As far the Passat B5 and B4 concerns, the only decent one is the 1.8 Turbo 20 Valve with the 5-speed manual. Might I suggest to go for the Passat B5 (2001-2004) which got a an extra 20 Bhp compared to the 150 Bhp of the Passat B4 (1997-2001).

The Tiptronic gearbox operates smoothly, but it doesn't work at all mated to the 1.8T 20V engine.

There is no point going for the 2.8 V6 30 Valve engine because not only it will guzzle more fuel, but its performance is hampered by the extra weight of the four-wheel-drive system (4Motion).

So what about the Diesels? Well the 1.9 TDI is slow and noisy, so the 2.5 V6 TDI is the one to go for, although still isn't fast, again, due the extra weight of the 4WD system.

Forget anything powered by 1.6 8V, 2.0 8V, normally aspirated 1.8 20V, 2.3 V5. Basically don't bother with any normally aspirated 4-cylinder or 5-cylinder stuff.

If you can afford the fuel bills and find one for a decent price (only 300 were sold in the UK market) the Passat W8 is quite a car. 280 Bhp and 4WD under the rather anti-septic body of a Volkswagen Passat... brilliant!

Referring to the above comment:

The Diesels may be noisy, but the 130 version certainly ain't slow! 1.8 (turbo or not) and 2.0 versions frought with coil problems and leaks, and anything over 2.0 in UK pointless because you WILL be stung by expensive Road Tax especially the W8 which will run at £400 p/a.

I'll stick with my TDi130 thanks!

Original reviewer here. I forgot all about this review until I stumbled back across this site recently.

Still have the Mondeo - now it's on 66,000 miles and apart from an injector needing recoding (warranty job no questions asked) it literally has not missed a beat. Servicing is half the cost of VWs, and the dealer doesn't look at you as if he's found you smeared on the sole of his shoe.

The Mondeo is not as plush inside as the Passat, and some of the materials used are cheaper feeling, but I genuinely feel it's a much better engineered car under the skin. More refined, equally fast, smoother, better riding, infinitely better handling, and every control is almost perfectly weighted and modulated. I In fact if my memory serves me correctly, this has better damping and body control after 66,000 hard driven miles than the Passat had when delivered.

The new Passat looks appealing, but I will never give another penny of my hard earned to Volkswagen after their disgraceful customer service. I accept that on a product with so many wires and moving mechanical parts, the odd thing will go wrong, but I don't expect multiple faults in a short time, and certainly not to have to argue to get them fixed. Whatever I choose to replace it with, I will never go back to VW.

I see the passat came 67th place in the driver power 2008 survey, owners complained of soggy vague handling and unreliability. The Mondeo came 49th not brill but everyone is under the illusion that the passat is a better car when this is clearly not the case. Vectra 69th enough said.