Passat or V50?

BikerEd

SWMBO is looking for a nearly new estate car. It comes down to two - the VW Passat and Volvo V50. Both have similar 2.0 diesel engines, both are quite nice to look at and drive.

Opinions anyone?

hewhoisnotintheknow

vw will let you down and cost ypu lots

goldspanners

get over here

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

I've driven the Passat. I found it to be a hateful car.

I'd much rather have the Volvo, I've owned both an 850 and a V70 and they were stunning cars.

DealDrivers_company_representative

Having recently had both as 2.0D engines we'd go with the Passat every time. Better fuel consumption, bigger, comfier, much larger bootspace.
The V50 is built on a smaller platform, so is smaller in every way. A V50 boot space gives 417 litres capacity (717 with rear seats down), Passat is 513 (c1600 litres if packed to roof, with rear seats down).
Our V50 had to go in for electrical prob's 3 times (faulty wiring loom in A-post meaning doors & wing mirror on one side of car failed intermittently. This either effectively locked you in..or out..on one side of the car. 2 different Volvo dealers failed to fix it over 3 visits until Volvo issued a 'known fault' bulletin and they replaced the loom. But, I am sure they'll have fixed this problem in the current new model year build so is probably no longer a valid criticsm.
We waved goodbye to ours when a staff member's mother-in-law had to climb over the centre console into the driver seat to exit the car!

Nice ride but small in capacity for price and we had some concerns over the electrical problems.

First service cost on V50 was high, c£360, substantially less on the Passat (we had it done recently and from memory it was about £220). Replacement tyres also cheaper on the Passat in our experience. Not a single issue so far after 12k miles in the Passat, superb ride, lots of space, better rear legroom and luggage capacity, and economy. it has a lot of smart design features too and a lot of internal storage areas (the V50 had a natty set of carrier bag clips in the bootspace but that was about it).

As with any request to get car v.car opinions, you'll get a lot of short emotive answers with not much to back them up apart from just not liking something, so hope this helps!

We have no allegiance to either manuf'r and sell both in roughly equal numbers. Volvo have some great cars at the moment (C30, XC90, XC60 etc, they are always great at 'big' cars) but we preferred the Passat over their V50 we had, for all the reasons above. As other posters have said, it's not really a fair comparison as both cars are significantly different from a size perspective. Go and get test drives and you'll get an idea for your own needs and your own comfort. What one person loathes, another 5 will love, but only the negative experiences usually emote people enough to make the effort to come online and comment.

Always go and look, see, drive, and make your own decision based on your own needs and preferences. You may find the Passat a little too big, if parking isn't your strong point..so the V50's more compact size may better suit you...try them out!

AdrianHi

I have not tried the latest model Passat, meant to be a vast improvement over the older model.
I too would described the old model as "hatefull".
Comfortable smooth ride but the lack of communication with the road surface and steering that has absolutely no feel at all made it a disconcerting car to drive in anything but a straight line.