Here are my thoughts after 3 months & approx 6,000km in my MY12 TDI B7 Highline Sports Pack Wagon. I chose the Passat as I needed a car which offered a degree of luxury, was acceptably sporty and fun to drive, with the ability to tow a boat over longish distances. The V6 4 Motion would have been perfect but was out of reach, as mine is a company car and the V6 was too expensive. So how is the diesel Passat to live with?
The acceleration from low speeds & revs is good fun and can surprise unsuspecting passengers at times. It’s not an outright ¼ mile rocket but quick enough most of the time in its own grunty way. It even sounds OK. Using Sports mode on the DSG brings the car to life, but even in “D” it can still get moving quite nicely. See further comments below.
Fuel economy is simply incredible. Not unexpected I know, but it is equaling the claimed urban consumption of 6.7 l/100km. Calculated consumption so far has been 6.6, 6.8, 6.7, 6.7 & 6.6 l/100km on each urban tank (excluding towing) and the climate control has been used continuously. I have never owned a car where the manufacturer’s claimed urban figure was achievable; now I don’t understand why these claims are not more commonly challenged by consumers, as they were recently in the US. The MFD, on the other hand, is a bit optimistic & consistently shows average consumption of around 6.1-6.2 l/100km for each tank. 950km on each tank in urban (Sydney) driving is amazing.
Economy when towing is also extraordinary. I have a 750kg boat/trailer which I occasionally tow between Sydney & the mid-north coast. My previous car was a Mazda CX-7 Luxury which used 18 - 20 l/100km towing my boat on the same journey, even though I did my best to minimise consumption by allowing speed to drop back a bit over large hills. The Passat used only 8.5-9 l/100km on the same trip in January and was incredibly strong towing the boat over the larger hills. Having max torque at 2,000rpm is sensational and the TDI is easily the equal of a previous 5.7l V8 Commodore SS (also around 18l/100km with boat) for grunt when towing. Makes you smile, really!
The DSG is quite effective and I like it, but it has a couple of quirks. The DSG offers the choice of “D” for Don’t waste even a single unnecessary drop of fuel or “S” for Supersprint/race. An additional option (or MFD program choice for the “S” setting) somewhere between the two would be nice. I find it easy to slide the lever back to “S” when merging onto a freeway or any time I feel the need for a quick burst of acceleration and tend to use this more than the flappy paddles. Although the changes themselves are rapid, the DSG is not always super responsive to requests from the paddles. I tend to use the paddles mostly for an earlier change-up when in Sport mode, or to go back a gear if in D and its lugging a bit.
By way of comparison, the 6-speed “Activematic” in my previous CX-7 was outstanding in almost any situation, and its ability to read my mind on challenging roads was amazing. Even the Great Ocean Road was a joy to drive with the tranny in “D” as it changed down & held gears when descending/cornering to perfection. I never thought I would be singing the praises of an auto transmission! The DSG can do the same, but effectively only when in Sport mode which really is a bit too aggressive for extended use.
The DSG is also a bit clumsy if you need to inch the car forward slightly e.g. if parking uphill towards a building wall such as in our work car-park. The creep from a torque converter is more helpful here, otherwise the DSG gear changes are good & it seems fine, even in stop-start urban driving.
The Auto Stop/Start is reasonably easy to live with too. You have a degree of control over whether it activates by using only light brake pedal pressure if you expect to start again quickly. I rarely use the disable button and mostly in car-parks where you tend to stop & start several times in succession. It just makes sense when stopped at lights for the engine to be off with no fuel use & no unnecessary pollution. I just hope the battery & starter motor is up to the task over the long run.
Comfort is a major success in the Passat. It is easily the quietest car I have ever owned & the seats (Sport Pack) are brilliant over long distances; they are very comfortable and the car is much less tiring than the CX-7 on a trip, even though the CX-7 was a good thing to tour in. The MFD is excellent too with lots of good info easily accessible.
Quality issues have been minimal. The only real annoyance is a buzz/rattle in the dash near the steering column/ignition key/light switch. Sticking a finger between the dash & steering column seems to help but this is clearly not a great solution. It seems that they nearly all Passats have this issue, so surely someone has worked out a fix. If so, I’d like to hear from you! I don’t really expect the dealer will fix this at the 15,000km service 
. Other than that, the design of the flat roof on the wagon can sometimes deliver an unwelcome stream of pooled rainwater directly onto the back seat when opening the door after/during rain. Not exactly perfect, but will just have to live with this. Maybe Nanolex treatment might help (or maybe make it worse?). The windscreen wipers were making a loud rubber on glass squeak at each end of their travel which was really annoying initially, but this seems to have reduced a fair bit over recent weeks. I think the “RainX” treatment I applied has probably almost worn off by now too!
The Dynaudio is my only real disappointment. The Bose system in my previous CX-7 was great but the Dynaudio is pretty much a waste of money & I agree with all the comments made by FSI 220. Where is the rich sound I was expecting? It has reasonable sound at high volume levels, but is very average at normal volume & not what I was expecting when I selected the Dynaudio option.
Finally, the Sports Pack is a great option pack for me. The ride is still good even with the lower profile tires & slightly lowered suspension & the appearance greatly improved over the standard car in my eyes. I wasn’t too keen on the Vicenzas when I placed the order & would have changed to the Kansas wheels in a flash if the choice was offered, but really like them now I wouldn’t have anything else on my silver wagon.
The XDL is also surprisingly effective when called into action on a wet corner, no doubt at the expense of some brake pad/rotor life. You can really power out of a corner, even in the wet, when the need/desire arises, much better than a FWD wagon should be able to manage in my experience.
Overall, it is a great car & very enjoyable on a daily basis. The diesel is still a fun car to drive and the incredible economy makes the level of performance it delivers more than acceptable. As is, I would rate it an 8 out of 10 and I am very happy with my choice. If it had a rattle free dash, the option a “normal” sunroof (with a proper opaque cover to block heat/sun) & a better (equivalent of Bose in CX-7) stereo, it would rate a 9! A few more kw/nm say (170kw/450nm) could even get it to “10”. Maybe not, you always want more grunt, no matter how much you have!
MY12 B7 Tdi Highline Wagon | Reflex Silver | Sport Package | Dynaudio | Towbar
Volkswagen Fan
Originally Posted by dopey
(march 3rd)
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