Like the ID.7, the Passat has all the latest safety assistance features. One is autonomous emergency braking (AEB) to mitigate or avoid low-speed collisions with other vehicles or pedestrians. There’s adaptive cruise control to keep you at a safe distance from the vehicle in front, plus a lane departure and lane keep system to keep you within your lane on the motorway. Blind spot monitoring is also standard, warning you of vehicles in your blind spot when you attempt to change lanes on the motorway.
Additional side airbags for rear seat passengers are a £400 option that’s bundled in with the addition of a tyre pressure monitoring system.
| Euro NCAP safety ratings | |
| Euro NCAP safety rating | Five out of five stars (tested in 2024) |
| Adult occupant protection | 93% |
| Child occupant protection | 87% |
| Vulnerable road user protection | 82% |
| Safety assist | 80% |
Our best buy: Volkswagen Passat 1.5 eTSI Elegance
Even though estate cars like the Volkswagen Passat have fallen out of fashion in favour of SUVs, the latest Passat still cuts it as a great family car that’ll cope with a long motorway trip just as easily as a jaunt to IKEA for some oversized flat-pack furniture, and it’s filled with tech, giving it a greater breadth of ability than ever before. The plug-in hybrid offers a useful electric range and low (on paper, at least) emissions, providing company car drivers with an affordable offering.
If you are a company car driver, then the least expensive 201bhp 1.5 eHybrid plug-in hybrid (PHEV) is your best option. All versions of the PHEV cost over £40,000 when new, so you might as well pay a little bit more for Match trim because it’ll have the same annual vehicle excise duty (VED), but come with some welcome extras. Private buyers will undoubtedly opt for the more affordable 1.5 eTSI mild-hybrid petrol, and appreciate the better long-term residuals and high equipment level of the Elegance trim.
Those who mostly drive around town completing short journeys will be on the more frequent fixed service plan, which requires yearly trips to the dealer for servicing, or every 10,000 miles. Anyone driving more on the motorway will be on a variable service scheme, with longer two-year maintenance visits, or every 18,600 miles.
Volkswagen Passat alternatives
While the Passat offers a lot more practicality and higher equipment levels than similarly priced premium estate cars, such as the Audi A5 Avant, BMW 3 Series Touring and Mercedes C-Class Estate, it’s pricier than the closely related Skoda Superb Estate.
The Superb has a greater choice of engines, and, according to our data, should hold its value similarly well. The Superb also has a more user-friendly interior owing to having more physical controls, so we’d suggest you try a Superb first before committing to a Passat. You can also opt for the Superb Estate with four-wheel drive in both 2.0 TSI petrol and 2.0 TDI diesel forms, which may be particularly important for those who tow regularly on damp grass on caravan sites.
Volkswagen Passat pictures
Frequently Asked Questions
The standard Volkswagen manufacturer’s warranty is three years or 60,000 miles, which is beaten by many manufacturers that offer five years or more of coverage.
