{"id":1792538,"date":"2026-02-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1792538"},"modified":"2026-02-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:00:00","slug":"volkswagen-passat-estate-long-term-review-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1792538","title":{"rendered":"Volkswagen Passat Estate – long-term review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Due to the unique way deadlines and publishing schedules work, I\u2019m writing about how my Christmas holidays went \u2013 but to avoid the report feeling outdated or tinged with nostalgia, let\u2019s actually not mention presents or question why I packed the family into the Passat and spent a fortnight visiting parents, parents-in-law or Center Parcs.<\/p>\n

So, for a reason I can\u2019t otherwise fathom, I randomly packed my wife, our kids, and lots of plastic toys wrapped in paper into the Passat, and spent two weeks not sleeping in my own bed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The packing part comes easy to the Passat, as the boot, to use a technical term, is bloody massive. Aero requirements and\/or a designer\u2019s flourish mean it\u2019s not quite the square box of an old Volvo, but it\u2019s bigger (at 690 litres) than the Swede\u2019s recently discontinued V90, bigger than a Mercedes E-Class Estate too, with only the Skoda Superb Estate (with which it\u2019s twinned) on par. That means your typical big suitcases can fit one atop another length-ways, leaving plenty of space for all the other boxes, soft holdalls and plastic bags that seem to appear only after my wife declares \u201cso that\u2019s everything you need to fit in the car\u201d.<\/p>\n

Once packed, the Passat is equally adept at the touring part of any big trip. Not least because on the motorway (i.e. away from a diet of short school runs) consumption improves by at least a quarter. Two tanks at the start of this month (well, December, but let\u2019s keep this report\u2019s subterfuge going\u2026) averaged a smidge under 30mpg but freed to cruise we manged a smidge under 40mpg. That\u2019s 600 miles on a tank \u2013 of petrol, no less \u2013 and a world away from the 200-250 I was getting from a Porsche Macan Electric last time I went to see the \u2018rentals. Plus that figure doesn\u2019t go down as the temperature drops.<\/p>\n

On the subject of petrol vs EV, without the need to charge I couldn\u2019t schlep off for an hour\u2019s peace from the in-laws in a random car park, while at Center Parcs there was no option of a dedicated EV parking space near the entrance. On the plus side, the charging didn\u2019t work last time I took an EV to Center Parcs anyway, and the Passat more than doubles the real-world range of most EVs.<\/p>\n

The only advantage for an EV in this narrow-use case study? The lack of cabin pre-conditioning in the Passat, as for those who haven\u2019t been, CP is a car-free zone during your visit, so on the morning of the en-masse departure, a chilly walk to collect the car was followed by a chilly wait for it to defrost.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, that minor grumble has done nothing to dissuade that neither an SUV, an EV, or a combination of the two, is necessary when Passat is still thoroughly fit for purpose.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Due to the unique way deadlines and publishing schedules work, I\u2019m writing about how my Christmas holidays went \u2013 but to avoid the report feeling outdated or tinged with nostalgia, let\u2019s actually not mention presents or question why I packed the family into the Passat and spent a fortnight visiting parents, parents-in-law or Center Parcs. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1792538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1792538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1792538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1792538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1792538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1792538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1792538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}