Volkswagen Passat Estate long-term test

The car VW Passat Life 1.5 TSI eHybrid 204 DSG | Run by Max Eldeston, senior photographer

Why it’s here To see if the Passat’s reputation for comfortable and spacious transport endures in its latest generation

Needs to Function as a mobile office, have space for all my photography kit, and be comfortable enough to spend long hours at the wheel

Mileage 665 List price £43,335 Target Price £43,335 Price as tested £45,160 Test economy 48.2mpg Official economy 755mpg Options Metallic paint (£825)

22 January 2025 – Hitting my marks

Here at What Car?, we focus our reviews of new cars on the areas our data tells us matters to car buyers. When we’re reviewing sports cars, for example, we spend a lot of time discussing the balance between performance and agility, but for an SUV, we’ll spend less time on that and more looking at space and practicality. 

Interestingly, some of the areas which matter most to estate car buyers – boot space, interior quality and comfort, align perfectly with my needs as an automotive photographer. Namely, I need lots of space for my kit, a comfortable driving position so I arrive at my shoot location ready to work, and given that I’ll be spending hours behind the wheel, an interior that’s well put together.

All of which leads me to the Volkswagen Passat which is currently parked outside my home. Co-developed alongside the latest Skoda Superb, the new Passat is only available as an estate car. And while some company car drivers may mourn the loss of the traditional hatchback, it’s good news for me because it means more space. Indeed, with an official 510 litres available, I can fit more into the back of my Passat than I could into the far pricier BMW 3 Series Touring or Mercedes E-Class Estate. 

I would have even more space to play with, but my boot is smaller than that of some Passats because of my other key consideration: running costs. You see, covering thousands of miles every month means I want my car to be as efficient as possible – and that meant that when it came to choosing what powered my Passat, I went straight for the plug-in hybrid model.

This gets me a 1.5-litre petrol engine, which will take most of the strain on longer trips, but for pottering around town or commuting to the What Car? Office, I’ll be able to travel on electric power alone. 

Another benefit of my car’s starship-level proportions is its big battery. At 19.7kWh, it imbues my car with an official electric range of 81 miles – more than most rivals, and definitely enough for my commute and then some. And while I have no hope of getting close to the Passat’s outrageous official fuel economy figure of 755mpg – to get close to that I'd need to keep the battery topped up all the time – I am hoping to see a helpful reduction in my running costs compared with the diesel-engined Ford Ranger Raptor I ran previously. 

Speaking of the Raptor, it had the same 201bhp as the Passat at its disposal, but the Volkswagen feels noticeably more urgent when I put my foot down, helped by the instant pull of its electric motor. The Volkswagen is also noticeably easier to weave along tight city streets than the behemoth Ford, and miles easier to park in the multi-story car park opposite the What Car? office. 

There was no need to look beyond entry-level Life trim when speccing up my Passat, because this comes with everything I could want, including three-zone climate control, ambient lighting and adaptive cruise control. And given how many hours of my working week I spend in traffic, that last feature should be extremely useful.

I could have spent thousands pounds extra on everything from Alcantara leather trim to an opening panoramic roof, but I’ve eschewed those luxuries and instead only opted for one extra feature: metallic paint. The Maripost Green colour of my car is one of eight metallic options available, and it’ll make my car endlessly more interesting to photograph over the coming months than the sea of white, grey or black models I’m otherwise used to shooting.

My early miles in the Passat have been wonderfully comfortable, and despite the hectic shooting schedule of our Car of the Year Awards, I’ve arrived at each location, sometimes after three or four hours spent driving, feeling fresh and ready to work. I’ve had plentiful space for all of my kit, too, and have used some of the Passat’s handy boot hooks to stop bags from keeling over in transit.

For this photographer’s assistant, then, the future holds big miles over varied terrain. I’ll be hoping that the Passat will keep me comfortable and stress-free, and hopefully save on my running costs too. If it can do all that, it will be serving the areas I need most brilliantly - and in doing so prove to be my ultimate company car.

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