Used 2012 Volkswagen Passat Consumer Reviews
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80,000 Care Free Miles
Brian Reed, 03/02/2016
updated 03/09/2017
2012 Volkswagen Passat SE PZEV 4dr Sedan (2.5L 5cyl 6A)
5 of 6 people found this review helpful
I am the original owner of this 2012 Passat SE 2.5 6A and it is still the best car I have ever owned. Everything it does is effortless. I am a big guy with long legs and sit far away from the steering wheel and yet my friends, also tall, can fit comfortably behind me in the backseat. Long trips or commuting, both are easily handled with this car. Now, to be fair, I have had one repair after the warranty expired. It was a software update for $50. That's it. That is the total amount I have spent on repairs. This car is rock-solid reliable. The 2.5L 5 cylinder is an underrated engine in my opinion. It makes good torque down low and thru the midrange making for good acceleration off the line as well as passing power, when needed. Also, the car climbs grades, long, tall grades like they were flat. That is when I use the manual mode of the transmission, shifting it from 6th gear into 5th and letting the cruise control pull the car over the grade. It started its life in Utah and traversed those passes with ease in snowy or dry conditions without drama. MPG - That always seems to be the knock on this engine but I haven't seen that. The worst MPG I have ever seen from this car is 24. Most of the time, I get 30 combined with 34 - 36 mpg on road trips. The car only needs 87 octane and just hums along. At 75 mph, the tach barely turns at 2,200 rpm. Seriously, this car is the total package - comfortable, power, efficient. *Update - March 2017 This car has been incredible. Completely reliable and I think is getting better with age. Interior shows no signs of wear at all. In fact, when we drive for double dates, our passengers always compliment on how nice the car is inside - roomy and clean. I use it as a part time commuter car now. My commute is in heavy Los Angeles traffic driving the 91 freeway from Riverside County to Orange County everyday. My total commute round trip is about 102 miles. With stop and go traffic and some highway speeds, the car gets 29 mpg. The SiriusXM shortens trips. Radio everywhere. When I want to listen to iTunes, bluetooth is a great option with excellent sound quality both in music as well as for phone calls. Two words - GET ONE You will not be disappointed.
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Diesel engine. VW dealerships are scammers
Richard Fleming, 04/28/2016
2012 Volkswagen Passat SE 4dr Sedan w/Sunroof (2.5L 5cyl 6A)
5 of 6 people found this review helpful
Not sure why I couldn't select anything but gas models from the drop-down list here but I have the 2012 TDI SE with automatic. The car was in the dealership so many times for repairs and recalls that the salesman joked about how he saw us there all the time. Very amusing. The windows got noisy when moving them up and down. We had wind noise from the windows that took two trips to the dealership to get corrected. The vehicle came to us from the factory with damage to the interior trim in five places. We had ordered ahead of time and that's the thanks we get? The "leatherette" vinyl looks nice but is very stinky for years from off-gassing. The rubber matts are very smelly, too. Cloth wasn't available with an automatic transmission which is stupid. You're forced to buy a sunroof you don't want and smelly vinyl seats. I can go on but the real scandal is how we started having problems with the emissions system near the end of the warranty. We took the vehicle to Fairfield Volkswagen three times for "repairs". The first one was them turning off the issue in the computer and telling us to wait and see. The same problem happened again (the urea system told us it would shut off the car in X miles). The third time they said they had done this and that. Well, then the warranty expired and the same problem happened again. I took it to another VW shop in Cincinnati and had to fight to get VW to cover the repair under warranty. Well, apparently that "repair" didn't actually repair anything. My spouse, when it acted up again, took it back to Fairfield because we started having tire pressure warnings. They replaced all four tire sensors, claiming they were faulty. They also claimed the entire urea system needed to be replaced. He ended up paying $2400 for these repairs – repairs that had allegedly been done already by the other dealership under warranty. The reason the tire pressure light had come on? There was a nail in the back tire that VW never found and repaired. None of those tire sensors were actually bad. I bet the urea system had already been repaired by the other dealership and Fairfield knew it could scam my spouse because he's too nice a person so they probably either ripped out the replacement system or just charged us for something they didn't even do. So, we have a car with poor resale value thanks to DieselGate and it's a ticking time bomb, knowing VW's legendary reputation for reliability. And we can't rely on the dealerships to even remove a nail from a tire rather than charge us thousands for alleged repairs to things that should have been fixed before and which weren't a problem in the first place. VW doesn't just lie to the world its dealerships have a reputation for lying to customers.
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2012 Volkswagen Passat for sale near you
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- SEL PZEV SedanMSRP: $7,45087 mi away
- SE SedanMSRP: $5,99997 mi away
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WISHING FOR MORE
rjtrepanier80, 11/07/2014
updated 05/09/2016
2012 Volkswagen Passat SE 4dr Sedan (2.5L 5cyl 5M)
5 of 6 people found this review helpful
My biggest complaint about my passat is seat comfort. Terribly supportive seats uncomfortable for trips longer than 4 hours and unbearable for anything over 8. The resale is the worst of any vehicle I have ever owned. I love the gas mileage and the tech on the car. It is quiet and I do enjoy the manual, although I wish it had 6th gear but thats my fault for purchasing the 5 speed. So far its been very reliable. I have put on around 15,000 miles and the car was used when I bought it. So its now over 60,000 miles. I pile the miles on. All in all not my favorite car but not my least favored either. Def worth consideration if you find the seats comfortable. Update: I sold this car and was never so glad to be rid of a vehicle. It was a poorly made Americanized version of what once was a great German brand. Never again.
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Just got my Passat TDI SE
cracovia, 10/01/2011
2012 Volkswagen Passat TDI SE 4dr Sedan w/Sunroof (2.0L 4cyl Turbodiesel 6AM)
23 of 34 people found this review helpful
Two days ago I picked my 2012 Passat TDI SE. Did not fancy more options than those that came with the standard options package. Did not care much for a motorized glass sunroof that one has to take if one wants a 6 speed GSD transmission, but accepted it after trying how it works on a demo car. The car is phenomenal. On the way to work (20 miles one way) twice in the row I got an average of 45 mpg. hitting in some places 50.8 (what the gage said anyway). The inetrior is as roomy as my old 2003 Infiniti I35 that I was parting with. Got as many or more features. Quiet, soft but sensible ride, good road adhesion and styling. If f you have to chose between this car and Camry or Accord buy TDI.
Like the car but very poor headlights
caseydog3, 11/21/2012
2012 Volkswagen Passat SE 4dr Sedan w/Sunroof (2.5L 5cyl 6A)
12 of 17 people found this review helpful
i bought this car in July and overall I've been pleased with it EXCEPT for one extremely important thing. The headlights are terrible. I traded in a 1999 Nissan altima for this car and never had one problem seeing at night. Not only did the passat not come with foglights, but the low beams aren't the projector type. The combination of the two is very poor. Now I had to go to a specialty shop to inquire about custom headlights just so I feel safe driving at night. I did a test drive during the day with this car and all the others. I never even considered this would be a problem. I called the dealership about it and they don't even make upgrade headlights for the passat in U.S.