Passat is gone. longwinded explanation.

**tryingavw** · 10-09-2010, 09:52 AM

I have some sad news to report:

wifes passat has been written of by my son 4 weeks ago. I would rather not go into details about that part of it.

As we were very happy with the car, and the insurance has paid out for a new replacement, we would have got another passat.

However after extensive searching there are no new or demo Passats with: diesel, sat nav, xenons, RVC other than a white one in the country. My last 4 cars were white/black leather and my wife doesnt like white so we have had to look elsewhere. Also we would order one and wait again but VW are not taking orders for passats ( wagons at least)

The contenders were Passat ( nothing available), Skoda superb wagon, audi A4 wagon, bmw 3 wagon, merc c wagon.

Long story short we have just taken possession of the merc and it is a great car.

Here is a summary of what we found;

1. Passat- still the best option if you can get what you want
2. Skoda- incredible value. a bit ugly at the front, drove kinda weird. cannot explain but after a few drives i was liking it less and less to drive. Appointments and interior excellent lots of great features. if you're not fussed about the drive just buy it.
3. Audi A4 wagon. Every time i go into an Audi dealership i reckon they're wankers who think their cars are **** hot. no different this time. they weren't interested in negotiating on price, i just don't get these guys. the a4 wagon would have been 5k higher (new ) with less features than the merc.
4. BMW3 wagon. runflats UG, also not so keen on 3 series looks, long experience with high depreciation and problems with bmw. 3 wagon is ok value but is a bit smaller.
5. Merc wagon; got lucky and found a demo with 3k and they dropped 18k off new price. in fact the one we got is same specs as a quote i got 12 months ago for 83k and i paid low 70's . so we paid about 10k more than passat

. New upgraded twin turbo 2.15 diesel motor is lovely. has sat nav, RVC, xenons, tint, not full electrics seats

.

So i guess i will not post so much here but enjoy your cars!

**team_v** · 10-09-2010, 10:09 AM

Shame about the passat but at least you got all teh options you were after in the Merc.
They are a very well appointed car, congrats on getting such a steal with 18k off.

**OilBurna** · 10-09-2010, 10:10 AM

great choice post some pics I have found MB very good to negotiate with in the past, agree re Audi and BMW.

**tryingavw** · 10-09-2010, 11:42 AM

i have found MB very good to deal with on both occasions- not sure if their list prices are there to shock you or to make you feel good when you get a big discount! Also VW are usually good to deal with and drive a bargain.

As i drove out the merc demo ( it was only registered 7 july) he told me the list price i had pretty much decided it was too expensive. in fact the wife took a look and said "nice- too expensive take it back", so she never drove it.

So a general question- how are Audi increasing market share? ( according to them)

**tryingavw** · 14-09-2010, 07:44 AM

one little item; this cars now has 17" ;the current model comes with 18" wheels which i swapped over to my 320cdi ( she wont notice!

)

**doctor.dork** · 14-09-2010, 01:18 PM

Nice.
I reckon if your not going passat, then the MB wagon is the only other way to go.

**okisub** · 14-09-2010, 03:16 PM

Nice car. At a quick glance the interior looks a lot like the Passat I think. I bet the MB rattles a bit less.

**Leagle** · 16-09-2010, 04:46 PM

Wow thats some discount! Like the interior and agree about your comments regarding Audi dealers - I found they were a little conceited too and definitely not as good value as the Mercs let alone VW. The only thing that annoys me about Mercs is the exorbitant increments in pricing if you want a higher performing/larger engined car, though I have to admit some performance Mercs (eg C63) still represent comparatively good value as an overall package (hopefully Rocket is not going to read this...)