By: Henrie Geyser

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It certainly has a heck of a lot going for it in terms of German engineering, build quality, comfort, reliability, luxury and safety, yet a large slice of the buying market regards it as a boring old man's car.

OK, so it's not the most exciting looking car on the road and performance-wise it doesn't exactly knock your breath away, but then the same goes for many others in this league, including Toyota Avensis, Volvo S40V, BMW 3-Series, C-Class Mercedes-Benz, Mazda6 and Honda Accord

But quite frankly these cars are not made for sweaty palm driving, babe pulling or snob value. Their function in life is essentially to provide comfortable and safe family and mid-executive transport, with a touch of class and without credit card melt down.

In this market segment, boot space, airbags and fuel economy weigh much heavier than rubber-burning zero to 100km/h time, go-kart handling and sleek and sporty lines.

And the Passat models right across the range score well in all the departments that count, yet sales plod along at a mild to mediocre rate. So, for instance, only 11 Passat models were sold in June and the year to date sales are hovering at about 170.

Last year a total of only 670 new Passats were sold, with the 2.0-litre diesel proving to be the most popular model in the range.

The Passat (or “Patat” as many South Africans call it) has been around in its new shape since 1999 and if you weigh it up against the opposition, it's a seriously good value for money option.

Recently I spent 10 days scooting around Cape Town in a 1.8-litre FSI Tiptronic and enjoyed it immensely. It really is an exceptionally smooth and pleasant car to drive and actually not all that Plain Jane in looks.

It is a perfect commuter car, but where it really excels is with four adults on board, a couple of suitcases, a few cases of wine and other odds and sods in the boot, and a nice long stretch of road. It is a delightful touring car: quiet, comfortable and even at high speeds, not at all thirsty.

Not that it doesn't also behave impeccably through the corners. It holds the road well, the brakes are good and the feedback from the speed sensitive power steering is a tad better than one would expect.

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The 1.8-litre turbocharged engine has got enough oomph to get out of the starting stalls quite sharply and with 118kW and 250Nm on tap it sprints quite happily from 0-100km/h in 9 seconds and on to a top speed of 215km/h, which makes it quicker off the mark and faster at top end than both its direct competitors Mazda6 and Honda Accord..

Volkswagen makes fabulous transmissions and the six-speed tiptronic shift on our test car was amazingly smooth. It offers standard automatic, a sports choice for tap-tap changes and, in the case of the optional extra on our test vehicle, paddle shifts on the steering wheel.

At times we were pushing along quite hard to our overnight destination where a cosy pub with a log fire and lots of red wine awaited our arrival and yet our fuel consumption was remarkably good.

For the next day or so when we drove in more gentlemanly fashion we managed to get consumption down to just over 11 litres per 100 kilometres.

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We liked its comfortable seats, snazzy instrument layout (a la blue lights and all!) and the convenience of the simple press-button handbrake which functions so much easier than the conventional handbrake or the one that you have to stomp down with your left foot.

In terms of bells and whistles the Passat passes with honours thanks to features such as a good quality, six-speaker sound system (with MP3 compatibility), a whole parliament of airbags, a “press and drive” starter key, cruise control, safe home lights and easy to operate dual airconditioning.

Over and above all its good standard features, our test vehicle had been substantially jazzed up with expensive optional extras such as acoustic front and rear parking sensors, a removable towbar, a wooden multi-function steering wheel, leather trim and a Bluetooth phone kit which pushed the purchase price up from R271,000 to R311,480.

If it was my own money, I would probably only have spent the R3,340 extra it cost for the fancy steering wheel with the gearshift paddles and the R9,760 for the leather trim. To my mind R6,360 for parking sensors, R6,160 for a towbar and R6,050 for a phone kit are a little over the top.

But even bog standard the Passat makes a lot of sense, particularly for those who have ankle-biters in the back or a touch of grey at the temples.

The only real vote against the Passat is its price which is substantially higher than the 2.0-litre Honda Accord automatic and the 2.0-litre Mazda6 Active.

Photos courtesy of motorpics.co.za click to enlarge

This, coupled to its more staid image, is probably largely the reason why it doesn't sell all that well. And of course one has to bear in mind that it also goes eyeball to eyeball with the cheaper Jetta from its own stable.

Choosing a favourite in this segment is not easy, because so much comes down to personal preference, individual needs and driving style.

With the buzz that a new Passat is due on our shores, maybe even before the end of this year, my leaning would be towards the Mazda6 and the Accord - with the Mazda6 probably pipping them all at the post on looks and price.

The Passat's price includes a three-year/120,000km warranty, a 12-year corrosion warranty and a five-year maintenance and service plan.

[24 Jul 2008 17:31]

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