Road Tests: Long-Term Test

New tires and rear brakes, a trouble-free 45,000-mile service experience and an intermittent rear brake light summarize the Passat ownership experience this month. Well, those things and the fact that Senior Editor Christian Wardlaw appears intent on buying the car when the lease expires at the end of this summer. (But he's always been all talk.)

The original 195/65R15 Continental tires had worn down to the wear bars when Wardlaw received the keys to his coveted ride. He dropped by Big O Tires in Valencia, Calif., to study his options with a friendly salesperson named Carrie.

Wardlaw didn't want the same tires that came from the factory installed on our Passat. The original Continentals were specified because they were quiet and offered a compliant ride. In turns, however, they tended to squeal excessively, which endlessly irritated our senior scribe. He likes the Michelin Pilot line of performance radials and decided to order a set of 205/60R15 Pilot XGT H4s.

Then he noticed a set of 205/65R15 XGT H4s sitting on Big O's showroom floor. Though this is taller than specified according to the "plus" method of tire sizing, Chris didn't want to wait for the special order and asked if the set in stock was available. Carrie responded that the tires in question had been special ordered by another customer, but that customer hadn't come by to get them. She offered them to our man Chris at a discount, and less than an hour later, our Passat rolled onto the road with set of new shoes. The cost? Including a tire disposal fee, mounting, balancing and tax, we paid $473.04 and can have them rotated for free every 5,000 miles as long as we return to that exact Big O Tires location.

The Michelins bring out the best in the Passat's handling, Wardlaw claims, exhibiting better bite in turns and significantly less howl when limits are pushed. Additionally, he thought road feel had increased. Admittedly, these improvements came at the expense of additional road noise; the Pilots rumble plenty on rough pavement, but Wardlaw seemed happy with the tradeoff. And when a rainstorm pummeled his city, the new tires effortlessly shed water, keeping the VeeDub's grip on the pavement secure.

Chris took the Passat's keys a few days before December, and the Wardlaw clan clambered aboard the Volkswagen for a Thanksgiving Day trip to Disneyland. Who wants to slave over a hot stove when you can be enjoying the holiday extravaganza that transforms "It's A Small World" into an attraction that adults can enjoy? A word to those too smart for their own good: Disneyland is not deserted on major holidays. Opposite Wardlaw's theory that his family was the only one in Los Angeles wishing to avoid the usual stuff-your-face-small-talk-with-relatives-watch-football-pass-out-on-couch Turkey Day ritual, Thanksgiving is Disneyland's third busiest day of the year. What's worse? Christmas Day and New Year's Eve.

Anyway, the family fit comfortably aboard the Passat, and the generous cube-shaped trunk swallowed a double stroller, a backpack, jackets and camera gear with ease. Automatic locking retractor rear seatbelts made cinching down the child seats a breeze, and though we never use it because of the dark tinted windows on our test car, a manual retractable sunshade stands at the ready to keep the rays from beating down on the little ones' heads.

After the holiday, Wardlaw made an appointment with Santa Monica Volkswagen to have the 45,000-mile service performed, which amounts to an oil change and a series of basic mechanical checks. He received an e-mail confirmation of his appointment date and time, and arrived at the dealership at the appointed hour, having forgotten the name of the supervisor with whom the visit had been scheduled.

No worries, as no fewer than four service advisors approached him in the first five minutes he was on the service drive, asking if he'd been helped and if there was anything they could do. Quite attentive, those service guys at Santa Monica VW. (And he wasn't even showing any leg!)

Unfortunately, a bug in the online scheduling system kept Wardlaw's name off the list of appointments for the day. Nevertheless, the staff made up for this snafu by promptly bringing the car into the service bay without an officially recorded appointment. An hour after dropping the car, Wardlaw received a call about the rear brakes, which had worn to 2 mm of thickness. He ordered the brake job, and by noon (four hours after dropping the car), the Passat was ready and waiting. They'd even washed it for him.

The cashier had the paperwork handy when Wardlaw arrived to pick the car up, processed the bill quickly, and the Passat appeared on the service drive at the same time he stepped out of the cashier's office. Of the service experience at Santa Monica Volkswagen, Wardlaw wrote in the logbook: "This was the easiest, quickest and most enjoyable service experience I've had in a long time. Santa Monica VW will seemingly bend over backward to please the customer, and that makes me want to return time and time again. Wonderful service experience. I highly recommend this dealership." The cost for the oil change and rear brakes was $218.29.

With new tires, new brakes (the fronts have only 6,000 miles on them), an amazing constitution for abuse at the hands of rev-happy automotive journalists and a lease buyout price of $11,000, the Passat beckons to Wardlaw. He claims first dibs on this car when our time testing it concludes in August 2002. But the man is, and always has been, fickle when it comes to cars. This week it's the Passat. Next week he'll be yammering about some Miata he found. The week after that his attention will turn to a Mustang GT. Then his "Jeep Thang" will flare up for a while. We'll just have to wait and see.

Current Odometer: 46,272
Best Fuel Economy: 26 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 22.5 mpg
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 25.8 mpg
Body Repair Costs: None
Maintenance Costs: $691.33 (oil change, rear brakes, four new tires)
Problems: Right rear brake light works intermittently.