Used 2012 Volkswagen Passat Sedan Consumer Reviews
Used Passat for sale
Owned Since May 2012
Brian Reed, 10/03/2018
2012 Volkswagen Passat SE 4dr Sedan (2.5L 5cyl 5M)
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
This has been the best car I have ever owned. Mechanical: I have the underrated 2.5L 5 cylinder with the 6 speed automatic (not DSG). While this transmission is not particularly quick shifting what it does do and do very well is smoothness. It shifts right when I'd want it to and doesn't wait to downshift when I need it to. The manual mode also holds gears clear up to redline as well as when I am climbing grades. I live in Utah so, there are many, many grades to climb. The Passat handles them all. I have 115,000+ miles on this car in the 6+ years I've had it. I have had zero issues. I change the oil regularly and keep up with the service schedules for everything else. This engine gets awesome MPG too. Throughout its life with me, I consistently see 28 mpg city/36 mpg highway. My highest mpg I've gotten is 44.1 on I-80 from Reno to Wendover. This car has great torque down low too so it squirts off the line. Stick the shifter in Sport mode and all that torque will squeal the tires and match revs as it speeds away. Manual mode is a blast too. It is a controllable Sport mode. Interior: Rattle-free to this day. I am a big guy. I have long legs and like to stretch out as I drive. I do not want the keys to hit me in the leg. In other cars, this driving position clobbers rear seat legroom and limits it to a duffel bag on the seat as the only thing that fits. In this car, I have friends, some of which are 6 foot 6 inches tall, sit behind me there and still have room - knee, foot, whatever. The car is a limo. The seat material has held up great. No tears, no split seams, nothing. The only issues I have with the interior are the lack of rear seat HVAC vents in the center console. That and the metallic coating on the front passenger door latch has started to come off. EVERYTHING else looks like new. This car has been used in grizzly Los Angeles rush hour traffic, 1,000+ mile road trips, dogs, suitcases, packages, BBQ grills, whatever. It still looks new!!! Recommendation: I wish VW still made this car with the 5 cylinder. I love this car and highly recommend it to anyone looking for something reliable, roomy, and economical.
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Reliability Issues
as0723, 12/04/2014
2012 Volkswagen Passat S 4dr Sedan w/Appearance (2.5L 5cyl 6A)
11 of 15 people found this review helpful
Purchased new and in the past 3 years have had a wheel bearing replaced, suspension makes creaking noises, and the vehicle starts very rough and has even not started several times when cold. The last two items listed (suspension and starting issues) have been dismissed by the dealership service and VW as normal. Even when it wouldn't start and I had to have it towed to the dealership, they eventually got it to start, said they couldn't find anything wrong, nothing they can do and even that the vehicle is operating normally. Normal for it to not start? That's not normal to me for a new vehicle, and not what I want out of a new car, I expect it to start every time and provide reliable service.
2012 Volkswagen Passat for sale near you
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Avoid this car!
Cameron Davis, 09/11/2018
2012 Volkswagen Passat V6 SEL Premium 4dr Sedan (3.6L 6cyl 6AM)
7 of 9 people found this review helpful
I brought a 2012 in 2013. It had 15K miles. It was fun to drive and pretty much trouble free until I got to about 110K miles. Check engine light came on in October of last year. Needed catalytic converter and brakes. It set me back 3500.00 I was hesitant, but didn't want to trade it because it was worth about 5000.00 and I owed about 10,000.00. In January after sitting for about 5 days while I was on vacation every light on the dash came on. ABS, airbag, traction control and tire pressure. The dealership said it may be the power steering rack. May be? They wanted another 4000.00. I said no way. The service adviser at Piazza Volkswagen in Ardmore Pa said, well it has 135K miles". I gave up. I'm now driving a 2018 Honda Accord EX. I will never buy another European car. No BMW, no Mercedes, Audi... Stay away from VW is my advise. I want a car that I can pay off and still drive. The Passat is not that car. No resale value and too expensive to maintain.
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Great Car
belaircarguy, 10/30/2012
2012 Volkswagen Passat SE 4dr Sedan (2.5L 5cyl 5M)
7 of 9 people found this review helpful
Traded my 2009 Jetta for a manual (5 speed) Passat SE. Car is well built, good visibility, and quite on the highway. I would say the ride is medium firm, as compared to the Jetta, which was firm. Seats are very comfortable for long trips, with no backaches after a 3-4 hour journey. Huge trunk, and giant backseat with loads of room.
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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