Off the top of my head I think it was 2004....probably wrong

Yes, it was 2004, but later.

Mine's an 04 plate and hasn't got them, but I have seen 54 plate models with the folding seats

Almost right then!!

Mine is a 54 plate and it has the rear folding seats. I think it was the 54 plate that signifies the introduction of folding seats but I seem to think it was 05 54 plates and not 04 54 plates - does that make sense? That could be a load of nonsense though because I'm not sure if anyone really knows, and the date your car was registered and the date that the car was built and parked at the docks, could bear no relation to each other at all! The one thing that gets me down is the noise of the 1.9Tdi and the difficult access to the boot which is something that all Passat owners must have been suffering too, however, I have a friend with a Merc C180 (I think) and it's a pretty poor car to be honest, this is the problem, every time I compare the Superb to something, the competition doesn't put up much of an argument in favour of changing it. Manufacturers, Germans in particular, are building cars that are long on engineering and extremely short on passion. As somebody said earlier, it's a bit souless, actually, this might be an interesting question - think I'll start a new thread.

My dad gets his 54 plate one on Friday, I will have a look and see if his has them, his is a December 04 registered one.