Superb fit and finish, upscale interior (w/ leather pkg), eye-catching exterior, european handling, fun to drive, fantastic Monsoon system, night-time interior lighting is way cool, folding keys

slight hesitation on initial acceleration from dead stop; reliability ratings not quite as stellar as the Japanese models

I am so impressed with this car. I almost bought a Nissan Maxima instead of the Passat, and actually got to drive a brand new Max for 3 weeks. While the Maxima is very nice, it was also very boring. Reliable, yes. Fun to drive, no. The Passat is much more exciting to own. It turns heads. It is a pleasure to drive. You look for excuses to take a ride. There aren''''t a ton of them on the road. Driving at night is especially romantic with the lava-lamp glow of the instrumentation. The leather/wood on the GLX is superbly crafted, and makes the car look much more expensive than it was. Dollar for dollar, with the quality and features you get on this car, it is a true bargain.

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None really, this is new territory for me. I''''ve had luxury cars, but always American (Buicks mainly)

Great ride, just enough power in the engine. Great German Design

The only complaints I have would be the cupholders, and that the turbo lagas a bit when starting off

5 Speed, 4 cylinder turbo, with all the basic options. only extra was the monsoon stereo system. Car came fully loaded, big plus. This was a big change for me, i normally drove american cars, but after driving the VW Passat, I realized that I really never expierenced the driving sensation. This car is a dream to drive. It not only is comfortable, but has the quick response on the highway when you need it.

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92 Chevy Cavalier, Jeep Cherokee, Oldsmobile Achieva, Volvo 240, Chevy S10 and Blazer, Chevy lumina, Ford Taurus

Quiet, comfortable ride. Nice Blue color.

Service, Reliability, Ease of maintainance.

I''ve never been more unhappy with a vehicle in my life. Just like the majority of people that I know and read about, I too feel the same way about this car. Since we''ve purchased it, I have spent more time in service departments than on the road. In the beginning we had several things go bad at once. The transmission was repaired, the mass airflow sensor was replaced and the sunroof tracking was replaced after the entire lid tried to leave the vehicle at speed! My newly aquired problems are windshield washers that work when THEY want to and a glovebox door that is falling off. Let me tell you if you want to work on this thing yourself good luck. Everything is so hard to access, you practically have to take the car apart to do an oil change. 27k on the car and the tranny fluid was literally black! Now I''m going nuts trying to find where to fill it. Never again, Never!

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Ford Probe

Steering, transmission, killer looks, heatable outside mirrors, optional Monsoon sound system, extras such as a heatable/coolable glove box, sunroof. Absolutely the best, funnest car I have ever owned. I''m 46 years old.

No trunk net. Tiny interior storage areas. No cruise control reminder light on dash prior to year 2002 Passat (hey I''m getting old!).

V6 Tiptronic transmission is flawless. Everything runs great on it. Plenty of power. Consumer''s Report magazine again rates the Passat on top of Camry and Accord and Altima (4-speed and V6). Love the tilt/telescoping steering wheel. I am 6" and wife is 5''1 and both can adjust it to our personal satisfaction. My Passat has about 4,000 miles on it. VW and/or Passat enthusiasts write pro/con info online at clubb5.com and vwvortex.com.

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Chevy Malibu (1997 Motor Trend''s Car of the Year)

Performance, handling, comfort, acceleration, styling, stereo (Monsoon). TipTronic is the best automatic transmission I''ve ever used.

Sensitive fuel filler cap / check engine light. Slow windshield defrost, compared to my Dodge Spirit. Mechanically and electronically complex.

Best (and most expensive) car I''ve ever owned.

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1988 Dodge Aries (K-Car) wagon. Don''t laugh -- wonderfully reliable, elegantly simple, cheap transportation with incredible cargo room, including a 51"-wide hatch opening. We drove it 50K miles and g

1. Value (the features you get for the price) 2. driving experience 3. safety features & ratings

1. poor reliability 2. poor dealer service

I just won my lemon law arbitration hearing against VW of America. My 15-month old Passat has had one problem after another since I purchased it. The problems have included: electrical system/cluster panel problems, peeling door handle, vibrating driver''s side mirror, misaligned driver''s side doors, an engine failure light that came on, and a persistent, loud "chirping"sound coming from some place in the passenger''s side dashboard. This latter problem has proved irreperable. My car was in for repairs for 44 days during the first year of ownership. I chose to have VW replace my car with another, new Passat rather than buy back the car. After seeing the reviews on this website though, I''m having second thoughts. I hope that the updated 2001.5 & 2002 Passats have proven more reliable!

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1989 Toyota Corolla, 1996 Honda Accord

1.8 turbo engine, fit and finish, overall design, quiet ride, not Accord or Camry!

Quality Issues, Dealers suck, How is VW gonna sell $70K Phaeton lux sedan when they don''t have the service to go with it. Most VW dealers will need complete overhaul!

This car is fun to drive. However, I am not certain about the quality of the car. For example, the CV boots ripped after 40k miles, dashboard light bulb poped, engine misfires often and ABS kicks for a second when braking on a steep incline.

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Honda Integra 1990, Honda Integra 1995 (great cars, quality is excellent)

Excellent handling for the size. The brakes feel a little underpowered with a full load of cargo and passangers, but manage to stop you perfectly fine. Upgraded pads and rotors fixed the problem with no loss of reliability - 35k on them so far and plenty of meat left. With 120k on the car, a new set of struts really picked things up, and the car feels like a much smaller one. Good feedback from controls. I have seen highway mileage over 30mpg on premium gas at 65mph, even with the VR6 engine. Beautifully smooth VR6 engine. Wonderful speaker placement. Rock-solid basic reliability. The only time it left me stranded was when a chuckhole bent one of the aforementioned already-damaged suspension components - and even then it would still move, just not drive straight without a fight.

Small problems with switchgear, door handles. I can tell the front passanger window motor is going to give out eventually, and these are a weak point on this car. The EGR valve has failed and occasionaly sets the check engine light, but isn''t worth replacing at about $300, since it doesn''t effect mileage and there is no emissions test here. Around 80k, the secondary coolant pump failed at an aftermarket cost of about $175. I put it in myself in less than twenty minutes. The original clutch is stilghtly warped but still works fine so far, at 120k. Won''t replace it until it gives out. Had to replace a small clip in the heater controls which flew off somewhere when I was installing an aftermarket stereo. Even though it was a $0.26 part, it took two weeks to show up at the dealer.

Dealer problems but overall a great car. I continually get compliments from friends on how nice of a car it is - they don''t believe that it is over seven years old. Purchased in March of 2000. It had bent front-end components and a rear stub axle which took a set of tires (at the dealer''s expense) as well as three trips to the dealership to admit they needed to fix the problem. Repairs would have totaled over $1500 but dealer finally picked up the tab after threat of legal action. These problems were really with them trying to pass off a damaged car, not with the build of the vehicle itself.

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1990 Honda Accord (totally reliable and very boring) 1986 Pontiac 6000 (wallows like a pig but totally plush, and survived on no maintinance - not mine)

Ride, handling, efficiency of 1.8T engine, comfort.Great winter traction with Bridgeston Blizzak tires.

Hard to read radio station at night due to blue light.

I boutght my 2000 Passat GLS Wagon form a lease co. with only 2300 miles on it. I now have 58K and I enjoy this car more than any car I''ve owned sinci I drove a 61 Mercedes 220 in 1967-68. I average 500-700 miles/week and have NO major issues. Some small annoinances certainly, but all handled VERY well by Wyoming Valley Motors in Larksville, PA.

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Ford Taurus (4) in sales career. Passat greatly superior in every way!

Good looks, Power V6, smooth, good handling, nice interior.

SERVICE, Reliability, costly to maintain, cup holders suck (front and back), bad electrics (go Japanese, they''''re the best. Dash lights went out). They go out of the way to say it is German engineered and charge accordingly. It''''s no BMW or Mercedes, but it is in cost of maintainance.

Looks like we bought a lemon, but judging from other bad experiences with VW, I''''m not alone. Dealer support is troublesome at best and for each thing I brought my vehicle in for, it took days to weeks to repair or diagnose. I have 56,000 miles on the odometer and here are the list of problems we had SO FAR. Went through THREE Transmissions, although covered under warranty, it took months to fix and weeks for the Service writers and technicians to convince I had a problem. The triptronic seems to be the basis of the problem. At 50K miles, the brake pads needed replacing. With brake rotors turned, for all 4 brakes, the cost was over $600. The pads alone were $400 because of computer chip sensors in the pads, highway robbery in my opinion. Then the engine started making a scraping sound at 50K miles. Turns out the water pump was leaking on the timing belt and the belt was fraying hitting the shroud. Again covered under drivetrain warranty,but they had my vehicle for another week. The car has been in the shop almost as much as we''''ve driven it. We are waiting for the next thing to go wrong. Unfortunately, I''''m a cancer patient and need reliable transportation to get me back and forth for my treatments. All this happened during those treatments. The service dept in the beginning was unhelpful and when finally treatened with law suits as well as complaint letters to the Bureau of Automotive Repair, they finally paid attention to my problems. VW has a lot to learn about customer service. I''''ll never buy another VW again.

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Honda Civic Mazda 324 VW Rabbit ''''80 (it sucked as well. I thought after 20 years they would improve; I was wrong.