USED Volkswagen Passat Estate (99 - 05)

My car

This car has great design, but the dealers are appalling, and the car has excessive oil consumption (VW quote 600 miles per litre of oil as acceptable).

My car has had lots of niggly electrical problems, water ingress problems, creaky suspension, and faulty sensors. VW UK and my dealer seem unwilling to acknowledge or sort the problems under warranty (even to the point that the dealer was rude).

I have bought VW for years, even owning a 1997 R-registered 1600 S Passat, with no significant problems.

However, I will never buy a VW again, simply because of the dealer's poor attitude and VW UK's lack of communication.

My car

I bought my Highline estate new in January 2006 - one of the last. My first diesel, it gives good economy (though nowhere near my brother-in-law's Fabia estate with the 100 HP version of the same engine), and is comfy, roomy and smells lovely!

It has great power delivery when you're in the right gear at the right speed but the 'nothing-zoom-nothing' torque curve catches me out on occasions.

My biggest complaint is that I am also suffering the knocking from the nearside over rough surfaces reported by other reviewers, particularly noticeable at low speeds. It has been there since new and is not fixed yet.

My car

I bought this car new in November 2005, to cover 20,000 miles per year and tow a 1400kg caravan. At four days old it needed a new gearbox, clutch, and master and slave cylinders. Last week, it had major problems with the rear suspension collapsing - not nice, as I had the caravan on the back at the time.

Would I buy another? Definitely not - I had a Skoda Octavia 110 TDI previously, which was absolutely faultless. My advice is to save your money and buy the Skoda.

Now I'm left wondering now what else is going to go wrong. The car is on a par with a 1997 Vectra I had the misfortune to own - it's truly awful.

My car

I bought the tiptronic automatic version. I thought it might be thirsty, but gives middle 30s to the gallon no matter what. It sounds great and is very comfortable. Get one if you can find a good one! A mate who owns a VW specialist garage gave me the recommendation. He was right!