New Passat impressions

Stallingrad

Sat in a new Comfortline the other day (no test drive), was interested to compare it to the previous (B7) Comfortline.

Came away a little disappointed, nothing major, but they added up for me.

Steering wheel is a button fest, now incorporating cruise control. Now doubt you would get used to it but previous stalk arrangement was very straightforward.
Light controls are now smaller and at an odd downward angle, I had to really had to peer down in daylight to see what did what.
Central armrest cubby is now half the size.
Seat fabric looks cheap.
A lot of chrome embellishments are gone, window switches, door pulls, just black plastic now.
Clock looks cheaper.
Touchscreen seems a bit laggy.

Ergonomically it seems like a backward step.

Styling is OK, nothing to get excited about, much like the previous one. Didn't like the fussy fuel flap, the car also looked more 'under wheeled' on 16's than the B7 for some reason.

Good points inside, more legroom in the rear, better quality plastics evident, sunglasses holder now a decent size.

Overall nothing that would have me reaching for my chequebook anytime soon.

MuppetCheck

Saw a comfort line last week and it looks worse than the old model - terribly underwhelmed.

My uncle went to town on a highline with practically every extra so looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Comhrá

Externally I think it looks nice enough - inoffensive and a bit bland - but the front grill is downright ugly, imo, too big and messy,sort of reminiscent of a tastless American auto grill design from the past.

Side and rear view looks nice enough if nothing extraordinary. Rear cluster design is boring though. Could have done with more interesting styling there.

I'd consider buying one though. Looking forward to reading a few decent test-drive reports. Would need the 2.0 TDI engine minimum to make any sort of interesting drive, I'd say.

JoeA3

These big Saloons (new Passat, new Mondeo), are huge cars now with big flared wheel arches. They need 18" wheels at a minimum to avoid the couch-on-castor-wheels look. It's hard to believe that the Mondeo and Passat of the early '00's probably came with 14" steelies as standard and they looked acceptable

The Highline is the one to go for too if you want a few nice touches.

Truckermal

I ordered 18" wheels with mine allthough herself wanted the 19" ones..

Stallingrad

JoeA3 wrote: »

The Highline is the one to go for too if you want a few nice touches.

True, HL has all the trimmings but is a fair whack over Comfortline. Bar the seats there was not much in it between the old CL and HL inside, not the case anymore.

Tea 1000

Truckermal wrote: »

I ordered 18" wheels with mine allthough herself wanted the 19" ones..

19's are daft. Especially on VW's, they create an over firm ride. Then typically people balk at the price of replacement tyres when it comes to it, so go for cheap muck triangles or some other p!ss. Classic example of fur coat, no knickers!
Especially the 19's with the 1.6 diesel, bearly able to rotate them!

Truckermal

Tea 1000 wrote: »

19's are daft. Especially on VW's, they create an over firm ride. Then typically people balk at the price of replacement tyres when it comes to it, so go for cheap muck triangles or some other p!ss. Classic example of fur coat, no knickers!
Especially the 19's with the 1.6 diesel, bearly able to rotate them!

Lol I only buy premium tyres anyway 1.6 is 120hp this time round but I went for the 2.0..

JoeA3

Tea 1000 wrote: »

19's are daft. Especially on VW's, they create an over firm ride. Then typically people balk at the price of replacement tyres when it comes to it, so go for cheap muck triangles or some other p!ss. Classic example of fur coat, no knickers!
Especially the 19's with the 1.6 diesel, bearly able to rotate them!

Not necessarily, as I bet the tyre profile is much higher now on the new Passat than it was on the old one, as the wheel likely has a larger overall diameter... so, chances are the 18/19" wheel has a similar tyre profile to an older Passat on a 17" wheel.

Good point on the cheap-skating on the replacement tyres though. 19" premium tyres are costly.