Hi,

Me and the girlfriend are going down to one car. We have a couple of dogs so need a hatchback or an estate. We have 6-7k to spend. I want something that will be comfortable as a motorway cruiser first off, economical, cheap to run, won't loose too much money, and big enough to accomodate a 6ft 3 bloke in comfort. Sportiness would be nice but isnt the most important factor.

I have narrowed this down to a 1.8T sport Passat Estate. They seem to have all the toys, return mid 30's, cheapish to run and insure, good motorway cruisers and reasonably quick/handle well.

You seem to be able to get a 98/99 with 50-60k on the clock for this sort of money. They seem to be a cracking bargain to me.


What do you guys think to these and what else would you suggest?

Thanks,

Steve

 

They are a pretty good if boring car. I had a few as company vehicles, the 1.8T was one of the best.
I preferred the sport spec to the SE. Not the best to drive, in fact pretty numb steering and wooden brakes and not very nimble either. But not a bad motorway cruiser although all the cars I had seemed to tramline quite badly. Nice and comfy though and I liked the gamma sound system and purple dials.
Don't expect a sports car and you'll be well happy. Have you also thought about an A4, they don't seem to cost much more and drive better IMHO.

 

I had thought about the A4 but on autotrader they seem to be 2 or 3 k more expensive for the same year/spec car as the Passat. I also liked the idea of the Passat as it is bigger than the A4 isnt it?

Cheers for the reply though.

 

Passat estate seemed to have more room than the A4 Avant to me. Although I believe they are essentially the same car. You do have to pay a bit more for an Audi but that really isn't all that much for the extra quality and hopefully better resale value. The Audi I had was better built than the passats too.

All in all I liked both of them but as I said be aware the Passat is a slow witted car.