Price: £24,695
Top speed: 128mph
0-62mph: 10.8 seconds
CO2: 95g/km
MPG: 76.3
The vast Volkswagen group can be viewed as a pyramid of performance, and developments at the pinnacle trickle down through the layers. Bugatti sits at the top, above Lamborghini and Bentley, then there’s Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda and finally Seat. I’ve never quite understood the top-down analogy, as to my mind it means the good stuff inevitably pools at the bottom. Seat is the cheapest ride in the stable yet it benefits from everything above it. This year one of my favourite cars has been Skoda’s Superb. Above that sits VW’s new Passat, in many ways the same car with a different face. But the Skoda looks better, drives better and costs less. Maybe someone from VW HQ will read this and go: “Oh shite, Wolfgang, we’ve made a mistake…”
There’s still plenty of badge snobbery about, so the Passat will always have its fans. And this new estate does move the game on. It’s the Bluemotion variant, which means it’s the Frugal Dougal of the bunch. Thanks to super-slippery aerodynamics, a lower ride height, revised gearing and a rather humble 118bhp 1.6-litre diesel, you get an astonishing 76.3mpg. And yes, we know all about Dieselgate. But that hasn’t put us off – VW’s European diesel sales have only dropped by 4%.
However, to achieve 76.3 miles to a gallon, sacrifices have to be made. The interior of the Passat has been stripped to a Spartan austerity – it’s almost hair-shirted. You sit on scratchy grey seats which seem to have had the bounce knocked out of them. And where you’d expect most of the kit to be automatic, it’s all manual, from the gears to the wipers and the lights. On the central console there are 10 blanked-out buttons – a reminder of all the extras you have foregone.
But this Bluemotion is all about one thing: saving you fuel. And it does that spectacularly well. I drove down the M4 to Bristol from London, covering almost 100 miles before the car seemed to register that I’d used any diesel at all. Driving fully loaded for more than 250 miles I achieved an In Real Life economy of almost 60mpg. I’ve never had a figure that high – even in various hybrids.
In cities the Passat feels lethargic. I haven’t stalled so often since I was a learner. But on the motorway the deep gearing came into its own and it cruised happily, sipping fuel through its tiny straw. If I had a lot of miles to cover and a large family with a lot of stuff, I’d buy one. But I don’t, so I’ll take a step down the VW ladder and stick with the Skoda.
Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @MartinLove166
