2005 Volkswagen Passat consumer reviews

This is a good wagon that drives like a car. Love the leather interior and the front seats being heated! Following Volkswagen's maintenance and service schedule can drain your pocket book, but will keep this car running for a long time.

You have to watch it on the freeway, somehow it goes faster than you feel it going! Such effortless power. Diesels also last so much longer. ONly flaw is that dratted torque converter likes to go out.

This is such an awesome car that is perfect for a family. It has a huge trunk that fits a lot. It looks great inside and out. Very spasious car. Drives perfectly and has a great price.

I had the 1.8t with a manual transmission and i loved to drive it. It had great power and handling all around.

Comfortable and durable. Impressed with the interior comfort and the low cost of maintenance. Great family vehicle.

I've had nice cars but when I drove my Passat for the first time it was sold right away. It just makes me feel good about my self. I feel special. It handles so well. And with it being 4 wheel drive I can make it to work when it snows. It's a complete luxury car. It is top of its line and has won car of the year in 2005 and in 2012 as well. 190 horse power at 6,000 rpm!

My VW is a dream. It has great get-up-and-go, gets pretty good mileage (25-29) all round, and is comfortable for my big frame and long legs. It's just as much fun to drive as my Audi!

Gets about 35mpg average and 41 mpg on the highway. Has good power. I installed two more seats in the back so you can haul 7 people. Even fully loaded you still get great mileage. Has plenty of leg room and is very roomy inside. The car has 115,000 miles and uses no oil. I replaced the balance shaft assembly with an ALH oil pump. The balance shaft assembly is really the only weak spot in the car. Use a good 5w40 motor oil and it is a very reliable car.

Bought 2005 TDI new from dealer about 9 years ago. The car handles really well and has an upscale feel (at least for a 9 year old car). At 50k miles the dashboard cluster was replaced since the screen fades when it gets hot. The real problems started right after 60k miles. We found out -too late- about the little plastic tensioner for the oil chain. Cost 2400 USD to replace the chain for a gear (Dealer came down on labor price a little, VW did NOT for the part, even though all European passats and other cars that use the same engine had switched). This car is sold with a 100 percent failure rate and a stalling engine on a freeway should be considered unsafe and therefore a respectable and customer caring company would issue a recall. Anyway at 100k miles the transmission was replaced. At 110k miles the driver window fell down. The wire cable that moves the window runs over 3 metal rollers with the 4th being plastic... guess which roller failed. Now at 154k miles the oil pump failed and the engine is shot. Free oil changes for life were included by dealer so this was done at the right time/interval. Outer CV boots are replace every 6 months - I do it myself now for about 100 USD. VW's are not bad cars (any brand has lemons) but they are not standing behind their product. Total cost for repairs (incl the total loss of the engine and therefore no trade value): 12000 USD.

Others here who have commented on "How to drive diesels" "Great car" just have not had the problems yet. I challange them to keep the car for say another 3 years, come back here and then tell us what you think when the oil pump fails, because it WILL FAIL and wreck your engine. In Europe VW fixed the oil pump without any admission of a problem, in North America they decided not to fix the problem. If you are thinking of buying one of these cars make sure that the oil pump has been changed. not the water pump, the OIL PUMP. Please Google 2005 VW Passat diesel Oil Pump problem. If a previous owner has changed the oil pump to the latest spec AND upgraded the torque convertor then it is a good car to buy. The timing belt change at 80,000 miles is a must. Other known defects are the window winder fails. I agree that these cars save you money at the pump but save that money in a glass jar under the bed and use it for the repairs you will have to do. If you must have a diesel buy the gulf or Jetta in 5-speed version. Last year my Golf 1.9 2003 model averaged 51MPG.