While my octy is having the clutch fixed I've borrowed a Passat estate from work. Its a 53 plate TDI (red I) and I think is an SE trim level as it has climate control.

First impressions are that everything seems slightly more high quality. The switchgear all has a slightly smoother more solid feel to it as do the plastics and seats and the mechanicals are all tuned for a softer drive. The clutch , steering and gearbox are all smoother than the octy which makes for very nice relaxed driving but not so good for chucking it round the bends. The standard stereo is also noticably better sounding than the symphony that came in the octy with decent bass and pretty clear treble.

The big downside for me though is the engine. I think its a PD105 which does feel noticably slower than my Non-PD TDI 110 , especially up a hill on the motorway. My octy will still give a nice shove when you put your foot down at 70 in 5th but the passat just slowly accellerates. Also the fuel consumption is noticably worse. I was driving nice and gently and would have got around 60mpg on that journey in my car but only managed 45 in the passat which over the course of a year would make quite a significant difference.

The other downside that I noticed was that the darker interior was showing noticable signs of wear and tear after 33k where my octy at 37k looks nearl new. Of course that could just be down to unsympathetic drivers.

Ive got a 51 reg Passat TDI 130 in SE trim this weekend.. and your right, its a very relaxing car to drive..and even with 110k miles on it.. rattle free and it still sounds as sweet as the day it was made.

i do agree about the fuel economy.. struggling to break 40mpg

TDI 130 Passat saloon here, 2001 model year.

It's a "S" trim version, it's got climate. You two must have heavy feet, as I return about 50-60mpg........... :P

Nope , I assure you I was driving quite gently as I was keeping an eye on the trip computer. Perhaps it was because it has been stood around for a few weeks not being driven

Mid 40,s appear to be about right for the Passat/Superb. Only a decent run will give you a better return.

I wonder how this will compare to the new octy 2.0TDI?

I wonder how this will compare to the new octy 2.0TDI?

I can't remember if I posted this or not.

I got one on the '24 hour test drive' thing.

3 hours 34 minutes driving time. A bit around town, then Rugby and back at 85-90 mph, then a bit more around town. Average 50 mph, 179 miles, 49.8 average mpg.

Obviously I'm not used to driving diesels so I probably wasn't getting the best out of it.

BTW It went like the clappers

Nope , I assure you I was driving quite gently as I was keeping an eye on the trip computer. Perhaps it was because it has been stood around for a few weeks not being driven

Could be - mine's been sat for a week and I've just been pootling around town running a little taxi service.....

avg over the trip = 37.9mpg......................

Still better than my petrol octy though..........

I ran a 110 TDI 1999 V plate Passat SE.. When I sold it at nearly 80K miles..

the car looked as new.. the plastics are very hardwearing.. I really liked the car.. but it was let down by the awfull headlights ( not much better in the Octy ) the steering and the damping was to soft... I used to get between 50-60MPG.. And the only replacements were service items....

Having said the steering and handling was not brilliant.. I could easyly keep most cars behind on the twistys....

Dazz

I did a regular (mostly motorway) journey this morning.

In the octy this is 123 miles that averages 55 to 58 mpg.

In the pastie today it showed as 119 miles despite taking the exact same route and only managed 44 mpg. This was mostly motorway and A Roads doing no more than 77 mph.

Quite a big difference , and more than I would have expected based on the weights of the cars

I had a PD130 estate in Portugal earlier this year. Pretty nice, and I looked at some recently, when looking for a replacement car. I was put off by the attitude of the dealer, mainly!

Phil

always thought the symphony stereo was very poor.stereo or is it just the speakers :confused:

I did a regular (mostly motorway) journey this morning.

In the octy this is 123 miles that averages 55 to 58 mpg.

In the pastie today it showed as 119 miles despite taking the exact same route and only managed 44 mpg. This was mostly motorway and A Roads doing no more than 77 mph.

Quite a big difference ' date=' and more than I would have expected based on the weights of the cars[/quote']

Now that is interesting...

Difference in load?

The Pastie (i like that name, suits the roly-poly handling) down to london at a fairly constant high-speed with two adults and gear avg - 50-55

Fully loaded 4-up and gear - more like 40-50mpg........

Seems strange the discrepancy with the distances - is the mile-ometer as "optimistic" as the speedo? :P

No load other than me and my laptop in either car , although obviously the VW estate is a heavier car than the octy.

No cruise on the VW which usually saves me a bit of fuel by maintaining a nice even speed so that might be one or two mpg , but I was a few mph slower today as I was being careful not to let the speed creep up so that should even things out.

I'm at a loss to explain it , and the missing few miles still wouldn't affect the fuel consumption that much.

The Octy is based on the Golf, The Passat is a passat therefore how much heavier is the basic car let alone an estate, just a thought