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-   -   Driven: The 2011 Volkswagen Passat (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/99403-driven-2011-volkswagen-passat-12.html)

No that is not the cable I'm referring to... The usb port that you connect to in your glove box is actually a cable that you can replace with the ipod cable that I am talking about.... I'll provide pictures later if you need... But I'm sure your dealer knows about it

I don't know how you guys find the Passat stable. It is unstable as hell. If you encounter a rough patch, the car keeps wallowing :(

The suspension is too soft and does not keep up well on our broken roads. I also found the engine not great at all. All in all a big letdown as I had expected this to be a great car.

What are you comparing the passat with?

There's a difference in being unstable and wobbling on a rough patch, I think for that matter even a Land Cruiser would wobble on a rough patch, considering the roughness of these patches in our country.

Though I am still to sit in a Land Cruiser or an SUV of that class, I have driven the Passat at reasonably high speeds (where I thought it was safe!) and it is stable than most cars in its class! On rough patches too, it will perform just as good (if not better!) as a 3 or C or an A4. Maybe the Superb has a marginally better ride!

Hey 'AL'

Could you please post pictures of the cable you were referring to? That would be of great help. Thanks in advance!

Hey 'supercars'

I have done decently fast speeds (at 2am on an empty flyover) and I would never call the car unstable. The car felt very well planted even at those speeds. Sure it is not as much fun to drive as a BMW 3-Series, but it would be unfair to compare them both on 'driving-feel' grounds.

Calcutta's roads aren't exactly smooth as silk and I have to say that the Passat's suspension soaks up 90% of the bumps easily. Yes the suspension is a bit soft, but it isn't really such a glaring fault. Keeping in mind that the car is tuned more towards comfort than outright driving-feel (unlike the 3-series which is much more driver oriented).

Despite it's size, the Passat is a breeze to manoeuvre in rush-hour city traffic. The engine is more than adequate to manage start-stop traffic or overtaking on the highway.

My only complaint about the car is that it does manage to kiss most speed-bumps, if not approached carefully enough. But other than that I haven't had a single problem with the car in the one-year of owning and driving it *touchwood*.

Cheers!

Hey fordfreak,
This is the cable I got with the Jetta when connected.



This is the port



These are both the cables








The usb I got from the US while the ipod cable I got with the car.
What you are missing is the ipod cable which I think you will be able to source locally.

That's strange. My Superb (which is quite similar to the Passat in build configuration) hardly ever kisses the worst speed bumps. Difference in suspension layout perhaps.
You can easily get these cables from ebay for around 7~800 bucks.
ipod cable - http://www.ebay.com/itm/VW-RCD510-RC...848588&vxp=mtr
usb cable - http://www.ebay.com/itm/V-W-MDI-USB-...33c9d8&vxp=mtr

Locally these will be at least double the cost.

Thanks 'AL'! Never really noticed that it is a detachable cable! stupid:

Hey dkaile! Just to clear the picture, my Passat grazes speed-breakers on the under-side of the car and not on the chin. (Though I have grazed the chin a couple of times while descending down a steep ramp/path on the bit where the slope meets the road). Have you never had such an issue in your Superb?

Cheers!

90% of speed breakers are easily handled by the Superb. It usually scrapes on extreme ones on which all my previous/current sedans/hatchbacks also scrape or used to scrape. On any steep ramp, all cars would usually scrape and mine does too but at the bottom only, not on the chin. It is only my Fortuner which has never really grazed anything anywhere, even on quite steep ramps (one of which is in my house for my basement parking). But then that's an unfair comparison here.

I will just say that the owners of the Passat feel very strongly about their car if someone says it is not as good as it is supposed to be.

It is supposed to be E class rival in space in Europe. I just think for the price that it comes at; it should have better dynamics.
The salesperson who had come from the Dealership also felt the car wallowing all the time on the Test Drive. He totally understood as to why I was disappointed.

The Passat has been praised to the sky by the press & owners and yes the engine might be adequate but it is not as good as people make you believe it is:(

Dear Supercars

I suggest you take another test drive of the Passat and at another dealer.

I have the new C250 and Passat, and I would any day prefer to take the Passat on a long drive than the C250 (it has less space and the suspension is too hard for Indian roads).

I've also had a few other cars which the Passat normally gets compared to, such as the BMW 3 and Sonata, and I would rate the Passat above both of them.

Please understand that I am not defending a car which I own but trying to convey that the Passat is a lot better than you think.

So I guess something went wrong during your test drive and you should have another go at it.

Best

Spoke to the dealer over the phone and explained the situation to him (about my iPod not working on my Passat). He seemed to understand what I was explaining, but didn't seem to be very well informed. He suggested that the cable from the Jetta would not work on the Passat. However, he then went on to suggest that it would be better for me to personally visit the dealership and talk to the accessories people about the same. Will head there once I get some time. Lets see how this works out.

Cheers!

Hi Everyone,

One and half years back I bought the VW Passat highline after seeing reviews in this forum. I thought of sharing why I went for this car and my ownership experience here so far.

When I decided to go for the highline variant everyone around me raised their eye brows saying the badge is not that worth it. One of the odds that I fought with my relatives and friends is I need a laid back car which gives me more features and comfort than badge value. Having said that I clearly understands how good 3series is as a driver's car.

Since I made the decision, I quickly booked the car at EVM Trivandrum. The initial sales experience with EVM was not that great with sales guy over promising to make a sale. I even went to cancel the booking since they could never keep the delivery dates after 4-5 changes. Since I was switching from Innova to Passat, I was expecting a much better treatment but lately I could understand no dealers in Kerala can give as much customer service like Nippon Toyota. On that bright day, the manager himself came and apologised and gave me a sixth delivery date which they did adhere to. Even on the delivery date, there were some issues like vehicle was not clean and I had to literally bump my head at the wall and told the manager they need to have better processes and systems if they need to survive in this market where expectations are high when buying a 30L car. When it comes to the service ( which I was very worried about ) it was a totally different experience and trivandrum EVM is really good.

For the past one and half years, I have clocked more than 15000 kilometers. The car has never given up. Some issues which I faced were

1. Getting adjusted initially to the start/stop system in hilly traffic areas. The engine cuts off and if the signal comes green that exact split second if you try to accelerate, there is a delay from the engine to start, the car will roll backwards and very likely you hit the vehicles on the rear. The first day, I almost hit a jetta on the rear. Best way to tackle this is, depress the brake to half which starts the engine, only after the engine is on then take leg from brake and go for accelerator. If it is hard to do it, switch off the Start/Stop completely when in hilly traffic or when there is a slope on the road.

2. Headlights gave me some issues since we cannot adjust the beam. Since I am a tall person I had to adjust it as one of my long drives from Trivandrum to Bangalore I could understand I need more visibility and had the guys in cochin EVM adjust it for me.

3.When you start and stop the vehicle, the wiper blades have a quick impulsive movement which is clearly not vibration, even the VW guys have no idea why that happens.

4. When I took the car for my first service, the only complaint I had was some rattling from the doors which they clearly fixed it and showed me over some really bad roads [call it gravel road with no Tar]. Again since the highline crosses in to the territory where the 3 germans rule, rattling I have never heard of from a merc owner so far.

5. Suspension gets a little harder over the run and the guys fixed it. They also complained to keep the air pressure to 32 since I drive solo most of the days. They mentioned the air pressure gauges in most of the fuel outlets are wrong. When I was in US, I bought an amazon essentials "digital pressure gauge" which also shows the dealer readings are wrong.

6. Automatic self parking works but I have used it only 4 times so far to show it to my friends. I can park the car in 10seconds while it will take more than a minute to do so with automatic parking. This feature is more of a marketing feature and I doubt whether any one uses it in India.

7. Even at high speeds I have always found the car to be responsive and always easy to handle.

8. Fuel economy always surprises me, something my friends with petrol accords are jealous of.

9. I have experienced excessive smoke from exhaust couple of times during monsoon but there were no big issues.

10. Ipod never works only option is Aux in. [Sales guy promised me Ipod support is there while making the sale]

11. A big lesson I learned was never to get the car repaired by anyone not authorised. My front tyre got punctured, it basically got cut on the side, I am expecting while steering it got cut because of a sharp stone or even nail. I had the local mobile puncture repair guy to come fix at my house. He removed the tyre and while putting back damaged a speed sensor which created a major hurdle the next day. Dashboard showed lit up like christmas lights, major functions like ABS, stability control, park brakes, reverse parking cameras, tyre pressure gauge all turned faulty. This was fixed next day by changing the speed sensor. Pirelli tyres are very expensive and currently I have the spare tyre for front. Dealer insists to change both front tyres and I am thinking of just having one new tyre for the spare wheel. I am thinking even about michelin or bridgestone for spare wheel instead of pirelli - can anyone help me with this decision?

So far I am very happy with the vehicle. Parking in the city is a nightmare, so I have my driver take me to city on my fiesta. I have never let anyone else drive the car since I love it like anything.

Only damage to the vehicle so far, some random car hit it on the front while it was parked in the city. The front sensors went inside the bumper and number plate got bend. Labor charge of 2000INR was charged for disassembling and assembling back the bumper. First service cost was 10000INR which is not bad considering its 15000kms or one year.

The thing I dont like about VW is - They dont have an extended warranty program for Passat yet. The sales guys and managers promised to most of the owners (including me) to make a sale but still this hasn't come yet.

Service & Maintenance from EVM Kerala is very good. Sales guys most of them have no clue what they are selling. When ever I take a new car, I always take in my hand one cd full of devotional songs. The way the sales guy tried to load it in the 6cd changer, I had to stop and show him how to do that. Also you get really surprising answers like cruise control is only for climbing the hills by setting the speed to 20.

Vehicles I test drove before taking Passat :

1. Skoda Superb - Very good car, more space in the rear but scared of Marikar service in Kerala. After hearing from fellow owners, I never want to go any where near them.

2. Merc C220d - Very good car, I was worried about maintenance costs also another 5lakhs to shed from pocket.

3. BWM 3 Series - New model was not available in India yet. Didn't want to buy one and months later guys rolling out with the new 3 series. Also I am scared about run flat tyres in Indian conditions.


I have seen about people trying methods to bring in needle sweep and similar functions. Would look forward to hear more on those. As of now I havent done any alteration.

Thanks,

Anoop Menon

Hey anoop,
I have already mentioned about the ipod compatibility in passat a few posts above. You can try to get something similar. Fordfreak here is trying to work on that. Let's see how it goes.
May you have many more happy miles!
Btw shocked to know a vw sales person does not know what cruise control is used for.

Hi AL,

Thanks a lot for the quick reply.

It was indeed scary to see VW guys clueless about the features of the car. Last time I had to teach them that head lights should be ON for the headlight washer to work when I took for first service. They kept demanding the system is faulty and it will be marked in the service sheet. I told them its broad daylight and headlight is not ON in auto mode and manually showed it.

I am all ears to hear more about the USB cable to make Ipod work. That will be a good feature to have.

Also have anyone seen the attention assist work? I have seen coffee break symbol once or twice when driving for long hours. But never heard the alert sound shown in the TV ads when driving close to dividers.

Thanks,

Anoop