Sportwagon or Passat WE DECIDED ON ?

After driving the sport wagon TDI a few times and a Subaru Outback Limited we decided on 2010 passat wagon white gold with black interior. I have owned VW diesels since 81 and still own my 98 Jetta TDI with 250 k but we are retired 58 and don’t drive any where the mileage maybe 6 k a year on this vehicle since it will be mostly used for nice rides or vacations. It wasn’t easy for either my wife and I to turn away from the TDI wagon but the Passat wagon kind of sold itself after the dealer Heart VW in Kingston NY let us drive the dealer car over 70 miles. Heart also had a number of TDI wagons in stock if anyone is looking I dealt with Tammy very easy to get along with no high sales pitch. The second thing that I liked was VW is holding dealerships pretty close on the prices they charge I can’t stand after purchasing something finding out later I could of gotten the same thing thousands less. I did check around even out of state and some had tricks to make you think the car is less but when all is even they seem to be within a few hundred bucks. Its hard to believe this good size wagon which heavy with a 2.0 turbo 200HP premium gas gets 25 city and 31 highway and have seen different customer reviews of the vehicles getting 37 HW. Always interesting to read all the different opinions.

steveditt said:

Its hard to believe this good size wagon which heavy with a 2.0 turbo 200HP premium gas gets 25 city and 31 highway and have seen different customer reviews of the vehicles getting 37 HW. Always interesting to read all the different opinions.

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What's interesting is that the Passat is only 103 pounds heavier than a Jetta Sportwagen -- 3331# vs. 3228# (according to vw.com.)

TDIclub member 'Plane Crazy' from Canada regularly gets good highway mileage with his 2.0T Passat wagon. However, his also has a manual transmission, which helps. They were supposedly available in '07 and '08 down here, but in a search of autotrader and cars.com, I couldn't find a single manual-tranny Passat.

Glad you like your Fahrvergnugen anyway, even though you are a traitor and went to the dark side.

frugality said:

What's interesting is that the Passat is only 103 pounds heavier than a Jetta Sportwagen -- 3331# vs. 3228# (according to vw.com.)

TDIclub member 'Plane Crazy' from Canada regularly gets good highway mileage with his 2.0T Passat wagon. However, his also has a manual transmission, which helps. They were supposedly available in '07 and '08 down here, but in a search of autotrader and cars.com, I couldn't find a single manual-tranny Passat.

Glad you like your Fahrvergnugen anyway, even though you are a traitor and went to the dark side.

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I had an 08 passat wagon with a stick and avg'd 32 mpg in it. I almost cried when an SUV lost control and broadsided the car, totalling it. I take that back: After my irreplacable car saved my life, I almost killed the driver of the SUV that hit me. I'm actually on 911 tape records resonding to the questions:
"are you ok?"
- "I'm fine"
"is the other driver ok?"
- "he's fine now, but you better get a cop here quick"

Curse VWoA for not offering the Passat wagon with a stick anymore, and curse Audi for the same crime with the A4 Avant!

Congrats on the new wheels. At least you stayed with VW.

I had a Subaru for 9 months and absolutely hated it. It felt like an appliance and the thing had more rattles than my 2008 R32 which is saying something lol!

Recently, I test drove a Sportwagon and a PW back to back. It's really a tough choice. The price difference between a loaded JSW and the PW is only about $1k. I can't see that the TDI has much of an economy edge anymore, except maybe on the resale side- time will tell. Both vehicles are DSG automatics. It's a shame the Passat can't be had with a manual. If I had to choose between the two, it comes down to the transmission vs size. From my observations, the diesel advantage is pretty much gone.

Last September I saw an AWD TDI Passat wagon with a flat-folding front pax seat. Exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately it was at a VW dealer in Hamburg, Germany.

_________
2010 JSW TDI DSG

truman said:

Recently, I test drove a Sportwagon and a PW back to back. It's really a tough choice. The price difference between a loaded JSW and the PW is only about $1k. I can't see that the TDI has much of an economy edge anymore, except maybe on the resale side- time will tell. Both vehicles are DSG automatics. It's a shame the Passat can't be had with a manual. If I had to choose between the two, it comes down to the transmission vs size. From my observations, the diesel advantage is pretty much gone.

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Or until fuel goes back to $3.50-$4.00 a gallon. Oh, I forgot -- that won't happen again...

mostchillin said:

Or until fuel goes back to $3.50-$4.00 a gallon. Oh, I forgot -- that won't happen again...

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We're only one world crisis away. Could happen at any moment....

FWIW, the current Passat 2.0L turbo is NOT the same engine as the previous 2.0L turbo. So any MPG comparisons may not be accurate.

Congrats on the new ride!

It almost seems to me as if VW is killing the passat (at least the wagon) with the JSW. There's just so much less difference between the Jetta and Passat than there ever used to be. Edmunds' specs show almost identical, except for a few minor differences:

Rear leg room: Passat has 2 inches more (which I'd love in the Jetta)
Cargo Volume: Passat has 3 cf more (seats up) and amazingly 5 cf less (seats down)
Overall Size: Passat is 8.5 inches longer and 200lbs heavier (TDI vs. 2.0T)

Not sure how overall cargo volume is higher in the Jetta with the seats down...it's just unbelievable. I had a salesman tell me that when I was at the dealer getting snow tires and I thought it was just a sales pitch of some sort.

Also, FWIW, I'd recommend Heart VW in Kingston, NY as well. We bought the 2003 there, and the experience was really nice. He laid out the (correct) invoice and the sticker...said what will it take to sell the car, and we went from there. It wasn't quite as pleasant as dealing with Chris at Langhorne, but OTOH it was only 20 minutes away at the time...vs. 3 hours.

If you drive the current Jetta and current Passat back to back, there is little doubt the Passat is larger. I would compare it to the A3 and B4 differences.

TDInownow said:

It almost seems to me as if VW is killing the passat (at least the wagon) with the JSW. There's just so much less difference between the Jetta and Passat than there ever used to be. Edmunds' specs show almost identical, except for a few minor differences:

Rear leg room: Passat has 2 inches more (which I'd love in the Jetta)
Cargo Volume: Passat has 3 cf more (seats up) and amazingly 5 cf less (seats down)
Overall Size: Passat is 8.5 inches longer and 200lbs heavier (TDI vs. 2.0T)

Not sure how overall cargo volume is higher in the Jetta with the seats down...it's just unbelievable. I had a salesman tell me that when I was at the dealer getting snow tires and I thought it was just a sales pitch of some sort.

Also, FWIW, I'd recommend Heart VW in Kingston, NY as well. We bought the 2003 there, and the experience was really nice. He laid out the (correct) invoice and the sticker...said what will it take to sell the car, and we went from there. It wasn't quite as pleasant as dealing with Chris at Langhorne, but OTOH it was only 20 minutes away at the time...vs. 3 hours.

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I thikn the cars are close enough now that it explains why you can't get a 2.0T in the JSW but you can in the Passat wagon for the 2010 model year. It's probably that way to keep the cars from canibalizing each other's sales.

I think they killed the SEL because it was pretty close in price to a base Passat, so yeah, that's a really good point.

Can you get a PANO in the Passat? Silly enough, that was one of the factors in me getting a JSW vs. the sedan, and I really love it.

All of that said, if there was a TDI option available for the Passat, I certainly would have considered it, because I really like the aesthetics of the car...but at 30k/year it just didn't make sense to pay more for 10 MPG less (and an AT).

Passat probably makes sense if you often take long trips with 3 passengers (or 2 tall passengers) in the back seat.

Ray

Resale the TDI hands down the best the dealer said they drop 7 percent compared to the Passat at 13 percent. Fuel mileage can't compare but for that wagon its pretty good. We drove them back to back and for a distance as I said the dealer let use drive the Passat over 70 miles the sportswagon not as much but we gave them a fair test. It really wasn't easy to make the final decision but comparing the vehicles side by side and the small difference in cost and our driving needs and most important the wife really liked the Passat so the decision wasn't that hard !It would have been the perfect car with the TDI but time will tell. It appears that the German Passat is finished this year and a new Model will be build in the new plant in Tenn.it's larger and cost less than the 2010 Passat . If I keep waiting to make a decision I'll be to old to drive .

steveditt said:

most important the wife really liked the Passat so the decision wasn't that hard !

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this topic should have been much shorter if you stated it in initial post.