Car of the Year Awards 2025: Estate Car of the Year
While estates lack the fashionable status of SUVs, they’re more practical. But an estate also needs to be a pleasure to spend time in, and easy to live with beyond the simple virtue of space...
Volkswagen Passat 1.5 TSI eHybrid 204 Elegance
Without wishing to sound too much like physicist Brian Cox, space is continuously expanding. It can be difficult to believe, given how incomprehensibly vast it already is, but it’s true.
Think of it in our language: at 4.7 metres long, the previous Volkswagen Passat Estate was already a big car, yet this new generation is even bigger. Professor Cox and his colleagues might scoff at that analogy, but that’s where our interest in space lies. And, aided by an overall length of more than 4.9 metres, the latest Passat – now available only as an estate – is extremely spacious inside.
With heaps of head and leg room, front and rear, even a family of six-footers will be able to travel in comfort. There are plenty of practical touches, too. For instance, rear passengers get a fold-down centre armrest with two cupholders and a tray that can hold a smartphone in landscape orientation, so you can watch a film on it. Meanwhile, the boot is massive, with 690 litres of space beneath the parcel shelf in the mild hybrid petrol model.
Choose a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version and this shrinks to 510 litres, in order to accommodate the big battery beneath the boot floor. However, it still compares favourably with most rivals. For example, the Mercedes-Benz E300e Estate makes do with 460 litres and the smaller C300e Estate just 360 litres.
In fact, our recommended Passat is a PHEV, specifically the 1.5 TSI eHybrid 204 Elegance. With its 0-62mph time of 8.1sec, it’s respectably quick – enough to negate spending extra for the more powerful eHybrid 272. What’s more, you get an impressive 80 miles of official electric-only range, beating the Volvo V60 T8’s 57-mile official range by a considerable margin.
Due to the weight of their batteries, PHEVs can sometimes have lumpy rides, but the Passat doesn’t. It’s very comfy – even better than the already cushy Skoda Superb Estate. Stepping up to R-Line trim brings adaptive suspension and an even plusher ride, but this isn’t really necessary.
The Passat’s focus on comfort means it’s less sharp and fun to drive than the BMW 3 Series Touring. Still, the Passat handles with enough composure and grip to give confidence on a twisty road. It’s far from wayward.
The Passat undercuts the 3 Series and C-Class on price, too, and its huge electric range means it attracts a lowly 5% benefit-inkind tax rating, making it a cheap company car. The equivalent Superb Estate is also taxed at 5%, but most other rivals are in the 8% band or higher.
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