Nuclear Chicken
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2010
- Messages
- 403
Nice motor but I guess not many people on here would buy one with their own money. Enjoy it while you can while someone else (sort of) foots the bill.
I recently got a new company motor and the best all rounder I could get for the £28.5k and CO2 limit was a Passat Estate (SE Business 150PS). My key requirements were decent boot (dog, children, stuff) and decent MPG and a bit of grunt. The only other possibilities (from what were were able to select from ) were the pointless BMW X1 and probably the Tiguan. They all have the same issues as I see it: shit boot space and a crappy parcel shelf thingy (instead of retractable cover) and useless centre seat for a given size of car. (The centre (half) seat is an item of mystery to me. My youngest hates been perched on it and it's not much better in the VW than the smaller SUVs. Why can't there be 3 equal sized smallish seats a la LC120 or XC90)? Most of these small SUVs (in diesel and petrol form) are also 2WD which is just daft. It's been a while since I had the chance to poke around a few brands and it made me realise just how many stupid pointless versions of cars exist in each brand.
The Passat has the Bluemotion gubbins in it and tbh it works well and is nice and seamless. 60+MPG is quite easy to achieve! However, if a private owner, DIY servicing is getting tricky as even the rear handbrake needs a laptop to do a pad change for example; a bit like Chris lifting the bonnet and closing it again.
Chris made the valid point about a few of the niggles and there's one that the Jap cars seem to have and it drives me nuts. Its the one where one-touch only seems to apply to the driver window and the rear window on/off button disables everything, even from the driver switch. Bloody cheapskates! The Euro cars, bad and all as some of them are, beat the Japs hands down when it comes to the finer details of day to day use. It's been a while but rant over!
I recently got a new company motor and the best all rounder I could get for the £28.5k and CO2 limit was a Passat Estate (SE Business 150PS). My key requirements were decent boot (dog, children, stuff) and decent MPG and a bit of grunt. The only other possibilities (from what were were able to select from ) were the pointless BMW X1 and probably the Tiguan. They all have the same issues as I see it: shit boot space and a crappy parcel shelf thingy (instead of retractable cover) and useless centre seat for a given size of car. (The centre (half) seat is an item of mystery to me. My youngest hates been perched on it and it's not much better in the VW than the smaller SUVs. Why can't there be 3 equal sized smallish seats a la LC120 or XC90)? Most of these small SUVs (in diesel and petrol form) are also 2WD which is just daft. It's been a while since I had the chance to poke around a few brands and it made me realise just how many stupid pointless versions of cars exist in each brand.
The Passat has the Bluemotion gubbins in it and tbh it works well and is nice and seamless. 60+MPG is quite easy to achieve! However, if a private owner, DIY servicing is getting tricky as even the rear handbrake needs a laptop to do a pad change for example; a bit like Chris lifting the bonnet and closing it again.
Chris made the valid point about a few of the niggles and there's one that the Jap cars seem to have and it drives me nuts. Its the one where one-touch only seems to apply to the driver window and the rear window on/off button disables everything, even from the driver switch. Bloody cheapskates! The Euro cars, bad and all as some of them are, beat the Japs hands down when it comes to the finer details of day to day use. It's been a while but rant over!
