Road Tests: Long-Term Test

Late September and early October saw our milky-silver Passat utilized by Senior Road Test Editor Brent Romans as a viable alternative to air travel, what with all the troubles we've been having lately. "I used the Passat to travel to Denver with my girlfriend after my flight was cancelled. We had two suitcases, a couple of duffle bags, a garment bag and associated road trip junk. We ended up using both the trunk and rear seat to hold all of our gear.

"The trip was about 2,200 miles round trip. We drove from Los Angeles to Vegas and up through southern Utah. Even though the car has only 150 horsepower, it never felt winded. Thanks to the turbo and its forced induction of air, driving over the Rocky Mountains was very easy. We got great gas mileage, too. Cruising at a constant speed, we were getting 30 to 32 miles to the gallon.

"All was not peaceful, however. About 30 miles outside Beaver, Utah, I started to hear a humming noise from the rear of the vehicle. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but it didn't sound good. I glanced over at the passenger side mirror and instantly knew what the problem was; chunks of rubber and blue smoke were shooting from the rear tire and wheel. D'oh! I slowed the car down and pulled off to the side.

"I tried to get Claudine (my girlfriend) to change the tire just for her own edification, but she wouldn't comply. Dag. Fortunately, a few things were in my favor. I had brought work gloves for just this sort of occasion. I had a tire pressure gauge with me. The jack was in the vehicle. And, best of all, the Passat has a full-size spare, and it actually had air in it! I was really dreading having to drive slo-mo to the nearest town on a flat doughnut spare.

"The original tire had completely disintegrated. I suspect that we picked up a nail or something that caused a slow leak, causing the tire to lose air and then overheat. As Explorer owners will tell you, overheating is a bad thing. Other than having to break the lugs with the short wrench supplied, changing the tire/wheel was really easy.

"We pulled into a gas station in Beaver that happened to have a tire store attached. I was planning just to adjust the pressure of the spare, but the guys at the tire store were really helpful. They inspected the condition of all the tires and suggested four new ones. The tires were certainly worn (original tires with 40K miles, I'm sure), but I figured they were good enough to get to Denver and back. The tire store did offer to replace the blown tire with a used tire for $30 installed. Can't go wrong with that! And, rather ironically, our spare tire is now in better condition than the other four remaining tires.

"Otherwise, the trip went smoothly. I loved the Passat's soft and pleasant ride, perfect for this type of driving. But I HATED HATED HATED the front seats. They were, by far, the most uncomfortable seats I've ever sat in for a long-distance trip. They were too hard and not properly contoured. I had constant neck and upper back pain, and later, butt pain. Also, the car has only one power point, which was annoying when we wanted to plug in both a cell phone and a radar detector. The cupholders (on this 1999 model) are useless, as we've said before, and they block the power point when in use. Rear cupholders are also useless. Insufficient interior storage is another problem."

For the rest of the month, the Passat was in the charge of Road Test Editor Liz Kim, who keeps discovering new toys in the Passat to delight her inner archaeologist. This time around, she found the multi-function trip computer, which displays outside temperature, momentary fuel consumption, average fuel consumption, and distance and time traveled. It's controlled by two buttons on the windshield wiper stalk. She also enjoyed the heated front seats which kept her buns toasty on nippy Los Angeles evenings (when the thermometer dips south of the 70-degree mark — call us wusses, but complaining about mild weather is a luxury of living in Los Angeles). "It's a great alternative to cranking up the heater, which really dries out your skin."

We'll have to replace the tires soon, and the Passat is soon approaching its 45,000-mile mark, at which point it'll have to go in for its regularly scheduled service. Otherwise, this excellent family sedan continues to please its drivers.

Current Odometer: 42,777
Best Fuel Economy: 33.0 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 22.9 mpg
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 25.9 mpg
Body Repair Costs: None.
Maintenance Costs: $30.00 (replace spare tire).
Problems: None.