[pnredkar]

It has been more than four months since I got possession of my new car. I have been postponing writing up the review for my purchase for some time now. And as they say, better late than never, so here goes...

It all started about one year ago, when I had completed more than 6 years with my manual geared petrol Vento 1.6 MPI. About then, frequency of our highway trips had increased. Since my wife is more comfortable with an automatic car, we decided to change to an auto-geared car so that the burden of long drives is shared. While we are at it, why not also upgrade to the next level of cars. It was decided that we will look at cars for which the top-end automatic comes under 30L on-road. Safety was paramount: minimum six airbags along with some form of ESP was mandatory. The other mandatory requirement was a flat highway ride as we are a family that easily gets car sick.

With the priorities sorted out, we started to shortlist our options.

[pnredkar]

I first test-drove the cars that would be a baseline for the rest of evaluations.

Test-drive of Volkswagen Vento 1.2 TSI Highline Plus:
I test drove the most familiar car first, but in a different avatar than the one I currently own. I did not intend to buy this one as it did not have the required safety kit, but it was a good reference point and I intended to get a car that elevated the ownership experience in most key areas. The actual test-drive had me impressed. Even though this was the least powerful engines I tested, I felt this was the most refined engine/gearbox combination. Slightly better than even the Octavia 1.8TSI which I will cover in a later section. Also the ride quality was as expected, not the most cushioned but flat on undulating surfaces.

Positives:

• Cost
• Refinement
• Driving range of 1000kms/tankful (tank capacity * ARAI mileage), may not be achievable in reality but a good comparison parameter

Negatives:

• Airbag count, safety credentials as compared to others in this test. This was a deal breaker.

Test-drive of Volkswagen Vento 1.5 TDI Highline Plus:
The test drive of the diesel version happened immediately after the petrol version. I was looking forward to it after the glowing official review (for the 1.6 avatar) & in general positive comments. But, what a let down! The engine was noisy and seems to have a peaky torque curve. I just floored the accelerator from standstill; you could feel the gear shifts and that little let-off before accelerating again. There are push-backs/push-forwards in your seat which would be tiresome on long drives. I don't have an idea about how the 1.6 TDI DSG was, but the 1.5 TDI DSG would be for those whose mileage considerations supersedes comfort. While, the petrol gave me a high benchmark for smoothness, the diesel version gave me pitfalls to look out for in other road tests.

Positives:

• Cost
• Truly stellar driving range of 1218kms/tankful

Negatives:

• Airbag count, safety credentials as compared to others in this test. This was a deal breaker.
• Engine roughness

The other cars that were considered and rejected:

• Hyundai Creta: No automatic equivalent of the top-end manual (SX(O)), available best automatic variant (SX) had only 2 airbags
• Hyundai Tucson: Not too keen on SUV, did not feel special on showroom inspection & pricing for top-end over 30L.
• Toyota Corolla: A safe car, nothing special. Heck, I am buying a car after a long time and plan to keep it for long; I need a car that feels special!
• Skoda Octavia L&K Diesel: Though the DQ250 six speed may give me peace of mind over the DQ200 seven speed (based on published material, no personal experience with either), the inferior rear suspension as compared to the petrol put me off. Also most on this forum prefer the petrol over the diesel version. And since the on-road price in Bangalore was above 30L, I dropped it off the list of my test drive vehicles.
• Skoda Octavia vRS: This car has higher power than the regular 1.8TSI, uses the DQ250 six speed, what's there not to like? Sadly, there were no test-drive vehicles even when the car was available; and I cannot buy a car without having some prior exposure to it. Now that the car is sold out and no sight of the next batch, I had to let it off my list with a heavy heart.

[pnredkar]

Next on my list was the test drive of cars that I was serious on evaluating.

Test-drive of Hyundai Elantra 2.0 SX(O) Petrol:
Hyundai (along with VW and to some extent Skoda) are masters of high quality fit-n-finish. While VW make the interiors simple and classy, Hyundai tries to add a bit of zing. Though exteriors are important, you interact more with the interiors and they should make you feel good. I was impressed with Elantra interiors; you would like to spend your time here. It was suitably feature rich too. However, the actual drive was left wanting. No doubt the Elantra is more powerful than the Vento, the noisy transmission was a let down. There seemed to be a delay between you asking for power with a firm tap on accelerator and the car responding to it. The ride quality was good, but I was not convinced that it was flat. Though it was a notch above the Vento in safety department (with NCAP 5 star rating) and other creature comforts, I did not find it as engaging to drive as the Vento TSI even with a more powerful engine.

Positives:

• Safety - NCAP 5 star rating
• Ventilated seats
• The AVN system
  

Negatives:

• Driving range
  
• Transmission noise

Test drive of Jeep Compass Limited Plus DDCT Petrol:

I am not a SUV person. The Jeep Compass somehow made to my list because I like the way it looks. Also they had just added Limited Plus to their portfolio that had six airbags against the front two offered in all the lower variants. The actual test drive impressed me more than I thought it would. There was a good surge when you pressed your foot down. The ride was flat and the body roll also seemed to be well controlled. There was some roughness in the drive train, despite this being a petrol engine and a dual clutch transmission; definitely not as smooth as Vento TSI. The interiors though decent, were a notch below that of the Elantra. Since I was not enamoured with the SUV form, I did not find any compelling reason to pursue with this option.

Positives:

• Safety - NCAP 5 star rating
• Engine has enough grunt
  

Negatives:

• No paddle shifters, sports mode or cruise control
  

Test drive of Skoda Octavia L&K Petrol:
This was the test drive that I was looking forward to the most due to both: the richness of specifications/features and positive reactions on our forum. The safety credentials were on par or better than the rest, it also had the highest airbag count of 8. It also had the highest power of all cars considered. The interior quality was on par with Elantra, if not better. The test drive was all that I had imagined and more. There was the drive train smoothness that was almost on par with the Vento TSI. But the surge on putting your foot down was on the next level. The engine is very linear and a sudden surge is experiences when you put the foot down at any speed right from standstill. The ride was flat and the body roll was well controlled. This is out-and-out a driver's car, one that would bring a smile on your face on open highways as well as around winding roads. Your fellow passengers will also not be seriously inconvenienced when you are having fun due to sorted out dynamics. I understood all the hoopla about this car on our forum and returned with a hugely positive opinion. This car jumped right to the top of my list.

Positives:

• Safety - NCAP 5 star rating
• Driver engagement - enthusiastic engine and sorted dynamics
• Extremely well kitted
  

Negatives:

• Driving range (seriously a 50L fuel tank for such a car, even the Vento has a 55L fuel tank)
• The notchback type boot mechanism - On security checks when the boot is opened, the rear passengers are accessible.
  

[pnredkar]

During my laboriously slow process of test driving the cars (about 1 per two/three weeks), few announcements happened. First, the massive price cut on the Volkswagen Passat was announced. The Comfortline version was priced ridiculously close to diesel Octavia not to consider. It is pretty well packed with features and compared well against the L&K version of Octavia, the only two notable features missing were the sunroof and the reversing cameras. Of these, the latter was a deal breaker. Also the difficulty in actually finding one available with the dealers meant we had to forego it and only consider the Highline. The Highline version had a significantly higher price, but it provided Dynamic Chassis Control, 360 degree camera, voice commands and a sunroof which sort of justified the price difference. We decided to test-drive the Highline version.

During this period, the newer version of Civic was also launched. Since it fell squarely within my price range and the fact that I was enamoured with the previous version, I decided the check this one out as well.


Test drive of Volkswagen Passat Highline:
I consider the Passat as one of the most elegant cars (irrespective of price) available on the market today and was very excited about the test drive. The safety/security/feature list was comprehensive and there was absolutely no feature missing in the Highline version. The build quality, the fit-n-finish and the quality of the interiors were top-notch, better than all other cars that I had evaluated (it better be for the price it commands). The drive itself was very smooth and none of the diesel clatter was felt or heard inside the cabin. The engine pulled nicely at all speeds except from absolute standstill. It was not as super-linear as the Octavia TSI, but there was no let-off in the acceleration or pauses in power delivery (in comfort mode) that I had encountered in the Vento TDI. The sports mode held onto the gear a little longer which made only a slight improvement in the power delivery. I guess this mode is more useful when you need engine braking, like in the ghats. I also drove along the traffic packed and narrow roads, but did not find the size to be bothersome, the 360 degree camera being a great help here. It was only during the tight turns that you had to be slightly more careful.

Positives:

• Safety - NCAP 5 star rating
• Absolutely nothing missing in the features department
• All occupants and not just the driver would feel pampered
• Fuel tank capacity of 66L gives an excellent driving range of 1150km/tankful
  

Negatives:

• Size, turning radius
• Overpriced for my budget (though well priced for what it provided)

Test drive of Honda Civic ZX CVT Petrol:
I hated the styling changes that Honda has done to the new Civic, specifically when I just love the looks of the older version. I cannot get over Honda's fetish for the chrome mustache, and it looks particularly bad on the Civic. There were few missing features too: no memory for driver's seat, no foldable back seat, etc. The drive itself was uninspiring. The engine itself is under-powered as compared to others, but the biggest letdown was the CVT gearbox which took its own sweet time in transferring the power down to the wheels. The rubber-band effect was a killjoy, a conventional gearbox would have made more sense here. Maybe I was not completely unbiased in evaluating the Civic, but I would not enjoy owning it. As mentioned by me in some thread elsewhere, I rate the Hyundai Elantra above this.

Positives:

• Safety - NCAP 5 star rating (I assume)
• [Nothing else really comes to my mind]
  

Negatives:

• Looks (I thought that the older Civic was one of the best looking vehicles ever, but they have messed this version)
  
• Drive, engine and gearbox
• Miserly 47L of fuel tank
  

[pnredkar]

So it was finally down to two cars: Skoda Octavia 1.8TSI L&K vs Volkswagen Passat 2.0TDI Highline.

Size and other physical characteristics:
Octavia was shorter in length by significant margin, but the width of the two cars were very close. It should be marginally better to own Octavia in the city. However, the notchback design of the Octavia was a big downer. On security checks at offices campuses/hotels when you open the boot, the rear passengers are exposed. My family was not very comfortable with this aspect. The Passat seemed to have a sturdier build quality and better thud to the doors. The turning radius of the Octavia at 5.2m is better than the Passat (5.85m) and even the Vento (5.4m).

Engine & drive characteristics:
Though both are equal in power, the Octavia shows urgency right from standstill. The push back feeling is relentless right from lower RPMs. The Passat on the other hand seems a bit hesitant at standstill and only after you build up some RPM and speed, the response times improve. The Octavia is more engaging to drive of the two. Both have the slightly stiff European suspensions (that I have come to like in Vento), but the Octavia handles better than the Passat due to smaller size. Some body roll is definitely experienced in the Passat in the comfort mode of DCC. Things get better in the sports mode as the body roll is better controlled with the chassis getting noticeably firmer and the steering getting heavier. To put things in perspective, the comfort mode is softer than Octavia while the sports mode is firmer. Octavia somehow has got the right middle ground.

Driving range:
The Passat really excels on this parameter with its 66L fuel tank and a ARAI mileage of 17.4kmpl gives a truly phenomenal theoretical range of 1150km. On the other hand, Octavia really tanks here with its 50L fuel tank. Heck, my Vento had a bigger tank of 55L. With an ARAI mileage of 15.1kmpl it gives a theoretical range of 750km. More comments on this later in the ownership section.

Safety and security:
Both cars excel in the safety department. Octavia with 8 airbags and Passat with 9 airbags are ahead of the competition. Both are equipped with all the electronic aids to help you in tricky situations. Both have LED headlights with automatic operation and cornering function. Both have auto-dimming IRVM & ORVM, rain sensing wipers, cruise control, remote locking etc.. Equal marks here: both have the best safety/security features at this price point. Only differentiating point worth mentioning (but does not contribute much to decision making) is the spare wheel in the Highline Passat is a full sized alloy.

Comforts and conveniences:
Though the Octavia is very well kitted, the Passat pulls slightly ahead here. First of all the all black interiors of the Passat look more premium than the beige interiors of the Octavia. The Passat has 3-zone air-conditioning against the Octavia's 2-zone. Both have electrically adjusted front seats with memory function for drivers seat (3 in Octavia & 2 in Passat). The Passat also has heated/ventilated front seats (very useful) with the driver's seat providing a massage function (not very useful). The rear sunblind is electrically controlled in the Passat vs the manually operated one in Octavia. Also the Passat has manually operated side-window shades built in the rear doors. We know the value of this feature after using dupattas in our Opel Corsa and contoured blinds in the Vento.

All the above points are equally applicable to the Comfortline Passat, but the Highline Passat pulls ahead with the dynamic chassis and 360 degree cameras. There is also a voice command control in the Passat that may be useful. The other features that are identical in both: sunroof, some form of auto-parking, android auto/apple carplay, huge boot size, etc.

Final considerations:
The two cars are very close based on technical considerations. The Highline Passat justifies the premium over Octavia mainly due to the addition of Dynamic Chassis, 360 cameras and more premium interiors. I also re-considered the Passat Comfortline which was priced closed to Octavia but lost the reversing camera that my wife considered a must have feature.

Finally two factors helped us finalize. First, 6-speed DQ250 of the Passat is considered more reliable than the 7-speed DQ200 of the Octavia. Second, in my city (Bangalore), VW has a better service reputation than Skoda. I personally have dealt with VW service for few years now and have no major issues to report.

So the decision was made: we were going to buy a Volkswagen Passat 2.0 TDI Highline!

[pnredkar]

I had expected the buying process to be long as this was going to be a company purchase and they process the applications only few times a year. The actual elapsed time was even longer. I will skip the details, but after finalizing on the car end January 2019, I actually got the possession of the car end May 2019.

Outgoing Vento:


Incoming Passat:


Getting comfortable
The driver seat is nicely contoured with good lateral and lumbar support. The dead-pedal is wide and correctly angled such that you don't feel cramped or uncomfortable even after a long drive. The first thing that I did after getting the delivery of the car was to find a comfortable seat position and store it in memory. My wife did the same on her first drive and stored it in the second memory. We have also set the driver profiles and assigned the keys so the seats & external mirrors are set based on which key is used to unlock the car, a clever feature. When the car was delivered, the passenger airbags were disabled. There is a switch on the passenger door side of dashboards that can only be accessed when the door is opened. I used a small coin to toggle this switch and enable the passenger airbags. I also disabled the DRLs as I am not a fan of them. I reviewed other car settings in the car menu and let them be at their default settings.

Our car gets ventilated seats that were not available on the team-bhp preview car, but misses out on the extensible base for under-thigh support. I don't miss the latter as the under-thigh support is already good. Just for reference, my height is 6'0".

I have also set the left-side mirrors to auto-tilt on reverse. This setting is optional and stored per driver. Moreover, this feature is activated only when the external mirror knob is set to L-position. When the gear is in reverse, you can use the switch the mirror knob between L & O position to toggle the mirror adjustment. Pretty nifty feature for me as my daily parking slot is against a pillar on the left side.

Power, ride & handling
I let the car ride a few hundred kilometers before letting go. There is a little hesitancy at standstill, but then on there is an immediate surge of power when you ask for it. It travels sedately if you drive it with a light foot, but is ready to unleash when you push your foot down, be it 'D' or 'S' mode. The 'D' mode is generally good for city roads and open highways; it's only for the ghat sections where engine braking is required that the 'S' mode is required. There are paddle shifters and tiptronic shifter if you need more control of the selected gear, but I have rarely required it so far. The car feels very stable at high speeds and mildly rough/potholed roads do not upset its composure. The added heft of the car and superior suspensions must be responsible for the rock solid highway ride.

The ride in comfort mode of DCC is similar to Vento; maybe a tad bit softer, but it's tail doesn't kick out over speed breakers. However, you notice small amount of body roll presumably due to its longer length. The sports mode is noticeably firmer, and does a good job of minimizing the body roll. However, the steering also has a lot more weight in sports mode (more like the Linea). Since I have now gotten used to the relatively light steering of the Vento, I find the heaviness a bit disconcerting. Luckily, you can tune the individual mode in DCC to your likings; so it is sports suspensions and comfort steering for me when I am in the mood else the DCC stays in comfort mode. The superiority of the rear independent suspensions is seen over the highways; well this is based on the feedback from my family as I have never actually sat in the rear seat on a drive.

Mileage, range, etc:
I am not one to be too concerned about the mileage, but the car returning good numbers does not hurt you either. I recently completed a Pondicherry trip from Bangalore and did not have to refuel even once on the way. The round trip was about 800km, and I drove another 100km in Bangalore before the low fuel warning propped up again. The tankful-to-tankful method gave me a mileage of 14.5kmpl. Most of my Bangalore city drives are about 1.5km from cold start to stop where the engine does not get enough time to warm up to its optimum 90degrees and I do not get even 8kmpl on those drives as per my MID. Rough calculation leads me to believe I would have achieved about 16kmpl on my Pondicherry trip. That's phenomenal mileage for a 1.5 tonne car.

Estimated DTE:


Distance after refueling, look at the DTE:


Comforts and conveniences:
The auto-dimming IRVMs and ORVMs are very effective for cutting out the glare from the cars behind you. However, I feel there should have been a switch to disable it. If there is a car with high-beam behind you, the auto-dimming kicks in and it becomes difficult to spot the weak-lit auto-rickshaws and scooters in the evening traffic. I would have preferred to switch if off in city traffic and enable it only for highway drives.

The auto-hold feature is pretty useful in stop and go traffic. Once enabled, you need to bring the car to a complete standstill to activate it. Then you can lift your foot off the brake and the car will continue to hold. You need press the accelerator to come out of this mode. More importantly, there is a dead pedal like area to the right of the accelerator where you can rest your right foot while you wait for space ahead to move. Depending on the condition of the traffic, you can opt for the normal mode where in the car moves as you lift the foot of the brake or the auto-hold mode where the car will not move unless you press the accelerator. The auto-hold takes some time to get used to if you have not experienced it before.

The three zone air-conditioning is also more useful than I had earlier thought. This is especially true on long drives when you have members that prefer opposite ends of the temperature spectrum. The third zone temperate control is locked in certain modes - I still have to figure this one out. The electronically controlled rear curtain and the manually operated rear side curtains are a boon on long drives.

Additions and add-ons:
This car came with a Volkswagen Connect dongle that pairs via Bluetooth and transmits various parameters/warnings back to the Volkswagen app on phone. You can also use the app to track your trips, rate your driving style and also keep track of your refueling details.

There are two other additions that I did on my car. The first was to get it a good dash-cam, I obtained a Aukey DR02 along with a Samsung PRO endurance 64GB micro-SD card that is recommended for demanding applications such as dash-cam. I got the wiring done at the service station during the first months inspection.

Then I got it coated with Car Pro's Cquartz Finest Reserve. It is not available off the shelf, but has to be applied only by certified detailers. I got it done from Mohsin (a team-bhp member) of Ultimate Detailerz after reading good review about him on a related thread on team-bhp. The added advantage was that his studio is very close to where I stay. Here are the results:





Other observations:
This is a typical Volkswagen car, where you discover nice/hidden features when you spend some time with it. I have tried to list some that I find worth mentioning:

• The seat retracts to its farthest position when you open the door for easy egress, and resets to the last set position when you close the door and start the car.
• There is an elaborate method to set the auto-tilt feature for the passenger mirrors. Once you have set it, the mirrors auto-tilt to selected positions if and only if the adjustment know if in L position. With the gear in reverse, you can change between L & O to toggle between the two mirror positions.
• The floor mat in the boot has a hook that you can hang while accessing the spare wheel. Pretty convenient. And did I mention that the spare is a full size alloy?
• The LED headlamps have a nice throw in both the low and high position; they are so much better than the "blind" Vento. In addition the cornering lights are pretty useful on unlit roads.
• The lock/unlock sensors on all doors is a convenient feature. More over long press (hold?) of the finger sensor also closes all windows.
• Phone calls are loud and clear. The mic is also sensitive and nicely calibrated, the other end hears you clearly.
• Voice commands are interesting and they work well. But I rarely need to use them as the steering mounted controls mostly work for my need.
• You can set separate volume level for music and navigation prompts from android auto/apple carplay. This helps as you can set the volume levels for the navigation prompts to be heard over the music.

Few things that I find strange or lacking:

• The one thing that I find strange in this car is the size of glove box. Vento had a bigger and more accommodating glove box than the Passat. A bigger sized glove box would have been appreciated. The deeper and bigger space under the driver's armrest partially makes up for this.
• The interior lighting is weak. The black interiors and the weak lighting makes it hard to find any items dropped on the floor mat. You have to use your phone or flashlight to see. Wish they were a little brighter.
• The instrumentation lights do not turn on when the parking lights are on. They are illuminated in the Auto of full headlamp mode. It is a little strange but something that you get used to.
• I think that the finger sensors are disabled if the car is not used for a long time (after about a week). You need to press the unlock button on remove to unlock the car. The finger sensors are then activated again and behave normally.
• I could not find any way to remote open all windows. This feature was present in the Vento and was very useful when approaching a car parked under the sun.

It's been four months with the car now and I have covered close to 3000km in the car. Overall, my family and I are happy with our purchase decision. I can't wait to take it our for another long drive

That's it for now. Hope you have enjoyed reading!

- Prasad

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[saisailendra]

Congratulations Sir for earning the new Passat. I'm personally a fan of Sedans. And Volkswagen, since they look dignified and also because we have two of them in our family.

We have a Vento and Jetta and I can stretch out my neck and say, the Jetta feels, drives and ages better than the Vento by any Standards and that's expected for the price difference. I can only imagine how better the Passat is !

I absolutely love and adore the feature where the ORVMs are tilted and lowered on the Jetta and Passat. I've seen several carwow review videos where the host (Matt Watson), feels bad for not having the auto tilt function on several more expensive models from Audi, BMW as well. It makes me smile knowing that I have such a convenient feature in my car.

As you said, the lighting is no where comparable to Vento. The lights on these bigger cars are just engineered way better, or maybe I should say it the other way round.

And also congratulations on the CarPro ceramic coating as well. I personally am a fan of CarPro and Gyeon products.
Though I didn't get the Ceramic coatings , I use a few products like ECH20, MultiX and PERL from CarPro and they're second to none in quality. I use WetCoat from Gyeon and it's great as well. I am not associated with the brands or products but I used them and felt other BHPians could benefit from my experience, and so shared my view here.

May I know why you didn't consider the Skoda Superb ?

Hope you have a great memorable time with your car for the years to come.

Looking forward for more pictures of your car, because, who doesn't love pictures of cars ?

[docprashant]

A splendid thread of a gem of a ride!! The Passat is truly an understated beauty at its finest. The proportions of this car are spot on which gives it a nice stance. Also the white colour is something which looks smashing on this luxo barge. D segment sedans unfortunately are a dying breed but for me personally are pretty alluring.

Slightly OT any reason you did not chance upon the new 3er, an A4 or a Merc C with all the discounts pouring in (for the Audi and Merc i.e)?

Wishing you a happy ownership experience.

[NICHE]

Congrats Prasad for the brilliant choice. Wish you lots of happy and safe miles in your new ride

[itwasntme]

Superb, and no pun intended! Excellent crisp breakdown of your/your wife's criteria and the subsequent evaluation. The Passat looks stunning and wish you thousands of kilometers of motoring :-).

Quick query - if I remember correctly, you also TD'ed the Superb. Any thoughts comparing the 2?

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by pnredkar

It has been more than four months since I got possession of my new car. I have been postponing writing up the review for my purchase for some time now. And as they say, better late than never, so here goes...

Congrats pnredkar on your latest acquisition...looks truly elegant in that shade

One of my friend owned this range topper few years back, and I have driven this quite extensively. It truly is VWs flagship offering, and quite literally pampers you through & through. I did happen to explore the features on the latest version at a dealership during my car service, and was literally blown away by the kit on offer.

This is quite a rare car, and probably a bit rarer in this shade...which deserves heck a lot of pics!!

Wishing you many more happy & fuss-free mile munching.

[nikhilthegunner]

Hi congratulations on the car! Looks amazing in the white and a great upgrade over the vento. I think it's probably one of the best looking cars in its price range. Hope you have a fuss free experience! Do you plan to be chauffeur driven one of these days?

[Deep Blue]

Originally Posted by pnredkar

However, the notchback design of the Octavia was a big downer. On security checks at offices campuses/hotels when you open the boot, the rear passengers are exposed.


Comforts and conveniences:
The auto-dimming IRVMs and ORVMs are very effective for cutting out the glare from the cars behind you. However, I feel there should have been a switch to disable it. If there is a car with high-beam behind you, the auto-dimming kicks in and it becomes difficult to spot the weak-lit auto-rickshaws and scooters in the evening traffic. I would have preferred to switch if off in city traffic and enable it only for highway drives.

Congratulations on the car and thank you for the crisp review!!

The aspect of the notchback design that you highlighted is an interesting one. I hadn't thought of that at all.

I too agree with you on the need to have the ability to switch off the auto-dimming O & IRVMs. I always thought it was a boon, but now when I have a car with this feature, I feel it is a bane and would have happily preferred that simple toggle switch on the IRVM.

Did you drive the Octavia 2 TdI and Superb? What are your thoughts about these cars vis-a-vis the Passat?

[pnredkar]

Originally Posted by saisailendra

Congratulations Sir for earning the new Passat. I'm personally a fan of Sedans. And Volkswagen, since they look dignified and also because we have two of them in our family.

We have a Vento and Jetta and I can stretch out my neck and say, the Jetta feels, drives and ages better than the Vento by any Standards and that's expected for the price difference. I can only imagine how better the Passat is !

Thank you for your wishes. I too am a fan of sedans. If you like a fast corner, MUV/SUV just doesn't cut it! I had good experience with the Vento, hope the Passat experience is equal or better.

Originally Posted by saisailendra

I absolutely love and adore the feature where the ORVMs are tilted and lowered on the Jetta and Passat. I've seen several carwow review videos where the host (Matt Watson), feels bad for not having the auto tilt function on several more expensive models from Audi, BMW as well. It makes me smile knowing that I have such a convenient feature in my car.

I did not know this. I assumed it would be standard feature in higher cars. This makes me feel even better

Originally Posted by saisailendra

As you said, the lighting is no where comparable to Vento. The lights on these bigger cars are just engineered way better, or maybe I should say it the other way round.

This is true at least in the VW world. My other car, the WagonR has better lighting than the Vento. The Passat lighting is definitely better than the WagonR.

Originally Posted by docprashant

A splendid thread of a gem of a ride!! The Passat is truly an understated beauty at its finest. The proportions of this car are spot on which gives it a nice stance. Also the white colour is something which looks smashing on this luxo barge. D segment sedans unfortunately are a dying breed but for me personally are pretty alluring.

Thanks! I sincerely wish that the sedan market remains alive in India, but that seems to be a diminishing possibility. That's why I bought one while they are still available.

Originally Posted by NICHE

Congrats Prasad for the brilliant choice. Wish you lots of happy and safe miles in your new ride

Thanks for your wishes!

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Superb, and no pun intended! Excellent crisp breakdown of your/your wife's criteria and the subsequent evaluation. The Passat looks stunning and wish you thousands of kilometers of motoring :-).

Thanks Sanjeev!

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Congrats pnredkar on your latest acquisition...looks truly elegant in that shade

One of my friend owned this range topper few years back, and I have driven this quite extensively. It truly is VWs flagship offering, and quite literally pampers you through & through. I did happen to explore the features on the latest version at a dealership during my car service, and was literally blown away by the kit on offer.

This is quite a rear car, and probably a bit rarer in this shade...which deserves heck a lot of pics!!

Wishing you many more happy & fuss-free mile munching.

Thanks a lot!

Originally Posted by nikhilthegunner

Hi congratulations on the car! Looks amazing in the white and a great upgrade over the vento. I think it's probably one of the best looking cars in its price range. Hope you have a fuss free experience! Do you plan to be chauffeur driven one of these days?

Thanks for the wishes! No, I do not intend it to be chauffeur driven in the near future.

Originally Posted by Deep Blue

Congratulations on the car and thank you for the crisp review!!

Thanks a lot!

Originally Posted by Deep Blue

The aspect of the notchback design that you highlighted is an interesting one. I hadn't thought of that at all.

To be fair, this issue is present in almost all cars that are not sedans. But then why a notch-back, when you can make a proper sedan!

Originally Posted by saisailendra

May I know why you didn't consider the Skoda Superb ?

Originally Posted by docprashant

Slightly OT any reason you did not chance upon the new 3er, an A4 or a Merc C with all the discounts pouring in (for the Audi and Merc i.e)?

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Quick query - if I remember correctly, you also TD'ed the Superb. Any thoughts comparing the 2?

Originally Posted by Deep Blue

Did you drive the Octavia 2 TdI and Superb? What are your thoughts about these cars vis-a-vis the Passat?

I did consider the Octavia TDI as mentioned in one of my post, but discarded it on the near unanimous vote in our forum that the TSI is the better version to have.

I did not consider the Mercs, BMWs and Audis because they were higher priced than the Passat even with the discounts. And that too for the lower trims, which I generally avoid so as not to have a buyer's remorse later when you see a better kitted trim of the same car.

That brings me to why I did not consider the Superb. Multiple reasons. First, the Superb top end was actually turning more expensive than Passat even without the DCC. Second, I was looking for Octavia/Jetta sized vehicle which would have been a comfortable fit in my parking lot. The Passat at about the same width as Octavia and about 100mm longer was still able to fit in my parking lot. But the Superb being about 100mm longer than the Passat would have been a tight fit. Third and the most important for me, the Superb silhouette looks that of a stretched sedan which I did not find appealing. The Passat looks much more elegant of the two. The end result being I did not test drive the Superb. Sorry guys, can't help you much there.


For all those who have asked for more pictures, I don't have that many clicked yet. I will surely click more in due course and post them on this thread.