Fluence v Passat, budget of 3k

newboard

I'm between these two so just wondering what you think.

I slightly prefer the look of Passats but seems to be a lot of variance in price and they usually have very high mileage.

Important factors for me are high mpg (diesel) and low tax. Will primarily be motorway driving.

Fluence I'd be going for Tom Tom model but not sure what the equivalent would be for Passat.

Thank you

colm_mcm

Passat will be more comfortable anyway and feels more premium inside.

Laguna 3 would be a fairer comparison and tbh I’d rather one to both if doing long journeys.

Mad_Mike

I had a lot of Passats, but my last Passat was the newer B6 version (2006) and from a mpg point of view, it was the lowest of all my Passats
Mine was a 2.0Tdi and I averaged around 42-46mpg, where the older 1.9 B5 Passats used to return over 50 and one of them (1999, 90bhp) up to 60mpg doing the very same journeys.
I'd imagine the mpg from a Fluence would be better, but as Colm said, you aren't comparing the same size/class of car. The Laguna would be the closer equivalent.

The Passat, while decent enough inside, I just find the seats don't offer great support for longer drives.
My regular drive used to be about 1hr 20mins and after 45 minutes or so, I'd always be praying for that last half an hour to go by!

bazz26

OP, have you test drove either of these cars yet?

beggars_bush

Megane diesel 1.5
Bullet proof engine

Casati

I’d recommend the Laguna but v hard to find. The Megane/ Fluence are good cars and although a class below a Passat they might be more comfortable- I had a Megane 2007 and although it suffered electrical faults the seats were comfy and the suspension was also very good too. Any of the post 2009 are meant to be v reliable too

naughtysmurf

As regards the Fluence, we've one since 2011, nearly 300k on it now, it's frugal on fuel, haven't needed to replace any suspension parts, mainly motorway use, other than an annual service the heater blower had to be replaced last year & the odd bulb from time to time