Road Tests: Long-Term Test

While America couldn't seem to make up its mind on who it wanted to be its next president, the Edmunds.com editorial staff was resolute in its support during the month of November of its new '99 Volkswagen Passat. Both democrats and republicans had good things to say. Is there someway we can get our Passat on the 2004 ballot? Passat for Prez!

First to laud our silver Passat was photo editor Scott Jacobs. Scott is planning to buy a used Audi A4 in the near future, but he is also considering a used Passat. Driving our long-term Passat was a good chance for him to see if he liked the car enough to actually buy one.

"The qualities of this car are very similar to cars that cost five grand more," said Scott. "The Passat gives you a sampling of what an Audi A4 or BMW 3 Series are like without costing too much. It's a decent-sized car that has a lot of youthful appeal to it. In fact, the entire VW marketing plan is aimed at my age group, so I'm supposed to like it, right? I don't pay much heed to the advertisements, but I do like this car for its driving characteristics. For the price, you can't really go wrong."

Scott continued to say that he felt the Passat's interior materials are far superior to those of similarly priced American and Japanese makes. The only things he doesn't like are the flimsy cupholders and the Euro-style seat adjusters. "Can Volkswagen please get rid of the rotating-knob seatback adjuster?" Scott pleaded. "I had that in my '88 Jetta and I hated it!"

Features editor Miles Cook thought the seat adjuster was just fine. He took a weekend trip in the Passat to Santa Barbara, about a 180-mile roundtrip from Los Angeles. "The Passat is a great highway car," said Miles. "It glides down the highway at 75-80 mph with consummate ease. The ride quality is perfect. The only thing is that the engine revs higher at these speeds when compared to a V6. A six-speed would be welcome in this machine, or, at least, a taller fifth gear. The shifter is a little rubbery when you first try it out when the car is parked, but once rolling and actually moving through the gears, it works quite well. Throws are on the longer side, but not too long."

Since Miles recently evaluated a Volkswagen Passat Wagon 4Motion with an automatic transmission, he wondered what a Passat Sedan with the V6 and a manual transmission would feel like. "I can't decide if our Passat needs more power," he said. "I go back and forth on this. Sometimes our car feels quite peppy, and then other times I wish it had more Wheaties. If I had to pick, I'd say that the engine is just a tad burdened in the heavier Passat. It's perfect for the smaller and lighter Jetta, though."

Senior features editor Brent Romans, another writer to get seat time this month, was a big fan of the 1.8-liter engine. "You know how Nissan touts the Maxima's V6 in ads as one of the world's 10-best engines according to Ward's Auto World? Well, the VW 1.8 turbo is one of the world's best four-cylinder engines according to 'Brent's World.' The low-end torque is what I love best. You don't expect a four-banger in a family sedan to have any grunt. But thanks to the quick-spooling turbo, the 155-foot pound torque peak starts at 1,750 rpm and stays there until 4,600 rpm. Around town, I can maximize fuel economy by shifting early and using a wide throttle opening."

Brent also thought about owning the Passat for a long period of time. "If I owned this car, I would feel comfortable about the turbo's long-term durability," he said. "Do I have any research data to back this up? No, but as long as you perform good engine maintenance, a turbo will live for a long time. Additionally, Volkswagen is now offering the 1.8T in nearly all of its small-car products. This includes the Golf, Jetta, New Beetle, Audi TT and Audi A4. That's a lot of product, which means parts and knowledgeable mechanics will be plentiful for a long time to come."

Mr. Romans did agree with Mr. Cook that it wouldn't hurt to have a little extra oomph, but even this was meant as a compliment. "Another bonus to the 1.8T is that it has a lot of support from aftermarket performance companies," Brent said. "Since the turbo is electronically controlled, it is very easy for aftermarket companies to develop computer chips that increase the boost pressure. For around $300, you can buy a chip that will increase horsepower by about 30. And since the Audi TT's 1.8T engine has 180 horsepower from the factory, it's a good assumption that our Passat's engine, which is otherwise identical to the TT's, could easily handle the extra power."

Backing up last month's commentary, both Brent and Miles noted that the clutch engages little late during the pedal travel, though this might just be the way it was designed. "Maybe an inspection on its next dealership visit might not be a bad idea," said Miles.

Actually, Brent took our Passat to a dealership for its scheduled 25,000-mile service, though he neglected to have the clutch checked out. He reports on the service experience: "I knew there was a VW dealership near our office, but I didn't know the phone number to schedule the service. I used the national VW Web site to locate the dealer and get the phone number. I called Santa Monica VW. It took a long time to reach the operator, and then the service department never answered the phone after about 15 rings. Not a good experience so far. Then I saw on the Web that Santa Monica VW had its own site. After clicking there, I saw that the dealership had an option to schedule service online. It sounded interesting, so I gave it a shot.

"The online form requested the basic stuff, such as the type of car, type of service needed, and what day I would like to have it done. One issue I had was that the online form only allowed appointments to be scheduled at least one week out. If you want something sooner, you'll need to call, I guess. The VIN was an optional field. I requested that e-mail be my form of communication with the dealership. The dealership called back the next day. The woman calling from the dealership said she didn't have access to e-mail. Regardless, she confirmed my appointment and told me who my service advisor would be.

"I showed up at the dealership about one hour late for the appointment. I had to wait about 15 minutes to talk to my service advisor, as he was busy with other customers. Once in his office, the process of entering our Passat into the dealership's records was straightforward. It was actually pretty interesting. Even though our car had never been to this dealership before, the VW database had information about the car's service history from the original Capistrano dealership where we bought the car.

"I left the Passat and the service advisor said the car would be ready that afternoon. When he called that day, he informed me that the technician had noticed that the oil cooler's seal and gasket were leaking, and that they had been replaced under warranty. I picked up the Passat, and everything went smoothly. I think that the dealership might have caught on that I worked for Edmunds.com, though. The service manager called the next day just to make sure that everything went OK. That was very nice, but it seemed that he was being overly nice for something as simple as an oil change."

The month of November ended with us putting about 1,300 miles on the odometer. Not too shabby. If for some reason the electoral laws of the United States change, remember, "Passat for Prez!"