Excellent handling! Roomy, comfortable, brakes on a dime, impressive appearance! Ya gotta love the key set,,HI YA !!! Dont let me forget the trunk space and outlet,,,keep them pops cool in the glove box!

hmmmmm,,,very little to mention here. The only thing I can mention as a weakness is the cup holder placements.

I absolutleyyyyyyyy adore this vehicle. I am an aggressive driver and this car can hold its own. The German engineering put this 4cyl. 5 speed 1.8 turbo over the top. Pass up all those mini-van drivers no problem. Everyone in minnesota go to westside to get your vw's! These people truely take care of you and your vehicle, come on, free oil changes?? I am impressed with this dealer as much as i am impressed with this car, and that can make all the difference when your buying new. We put a tow package on it,,,and i must admit i've pulled my 1900 lb. seadoo challenger with it, and towed it outta the lake with ease,,honest!! We get tons a snow up here and it can plow through no problem, just hit the asr control and your free sailing. When the lease is up I'm definately getting the late model passat,,,without a doubt! Highly recommend it.

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None

- Safety features - lots of airbags.
- Build quality. I am fortunate enough to be 100% trouble free so far. I did however scrutinize the car I bought before and immediately after purchase.
- Power and torque. Very good passing power, decent acceleration.
- Handling. Very agile for a midsize sedan.
- Details. There are a lot of small things in the car which when added up create a total package. For example, the new full size cup holders, the metal strip in the trunk, the lighting fixtures, etc. Some cars will have a few of these features, very few (none in this price range) have as many.
- 10 year/100K mile powertrain warranty.
- Large cup holders. Previous Passats had crap cup holders, this was definately addressed int the 2001.5 model

- FUEL MILEAGE :-o Don't get the 4Motion if you're looking for fuel economy. This care is pretty heavy compared to other cars in its class. It seems to be improving though.
- Can't turn off Daytime Running Lights (at least I haven't figured it out) :-P
- 192HP - Would it have hurt go give the V6 a nice, even 200HP? :-(
- Smart ass transmission (very minor). The adaptive transmission sometimes gets in the way of fun driving. :-|
- 24 month warranty. :-(

Nice european look and feel, solid car, tank-like powertrain. Very luxurious for a VW. People's first response is "that's a Volkswagen?!". More room, and features than expected. The Tiptronic transmission is idiot proof. Competes on every level with more expensive luxury cars. An excellent value considering a similarly equiped Audi A4 Quattro (virtually the same car) costs $2500 more. It's nice not seeing three more at a stop light (ala Accord, Camry, Taurus, etc).

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-Audi A4 - The Passats more athletic twin. The 1.8T Quattro needs to be revs to get going, the 2.8 Quattro costs thousands more.
-Nissan Maxima SE. A great car, but it came down to AWD, and Passat panache.
-Subaru Impreza WRX. Excellent acceleration from stop, horrible top gear (passing) acceleration. Too small, already have sports car.
-Mazda Millenia. Too slow and boring.

Strengths? I think not.

From the hood to the bumper-this car is JUNK!

I HATE THIS CAR! Nine months ago we were poor college students in desperate need of fairly cheap but extremely reliable transportation after our only car, a 1995 Chevy Corsica, was totalled in an accident. We needed a car to get my husband to school and work, which is about the only place he ever drives, so we're not hard on our cars at all. We chose the Passat because it seemed sturdy and safe and drove great during the test drive. It appeared to be a great car for a reasonable price. The salesman said that his wife had been driving it for months and swore up and down that it was a great car that would drive forever. (I'm hear to testify that everything they say about used car salesmen is absolutely true. Boy were we suckers.) Anyway, in the past nine months, just about everything that could have gone wrong with this car has. The drivers side side mirror just fell off one day. The passanger side sun visor almost fell in my lap about a week later. The air conditioning begun to only work on high and then a month later quit working all together. One day strong wind blew the bumper off. Both of the back door handles broke and won't open anymore. The water pump broke. The final straw was that two weeks ago the transmission went out completely. After searching the entire city for someone that would even touch this car, the dealer finally looked at it and said that the transmission has completely come apart and will cost $4,000 to repair. The piece of junk isn't even worth $4,000. So now we're paying off a loan on a car that is unfixable and unsellable. At the present time this car is sitting in the parking lot of our apartment complex collecting dust (and probably rust-I imagine that someday the whole thing will just crumble to the ground and blow away in the wind...) while we were forced buy yet another car that we can't afford. (which, by the way, was a much cheaper and older Ford Escort that drives GREAT!) Anyway, I'm here to BEG you not to buy a Passat. We've owned several cars in our marriage and this car was the biggest piece of junk we've ever come across. BEWARE!!!

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We now own an old, cheap Ford Escort that drives beautifully.

Just like the commercial said, $1,000,000 car for $25,000!! What a deal.
Fit and finish is unreal. Not a flaw on the car.

I would of liked a standard CD player. Most of the other cars I was looking at had them as standard equiptment.

This is the first car I have ever owned where I get excited to drive it 2-3 hours before I actually have to go out. I have owned a 1999.5 New Golf and a 1999.5 New Jetta. The 2001.5 Passat is so smooth. I have the 1.8T with a 5 speed. The acceleration is awesome, it handles like a cat. The gas mileage is great for such a large car. I also love that it does not drop brake dust all over my wheels!!

I was also treated very well at Schmelz Countryside VW in St.Paul,MN. My sales guy Brian was awesome. Best car buying experience I have ever had.

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I can only compare this to my other VW's I had in the past. The 2001.5 Passat with the 1.8T is fairly powered where I feel like my other VW's with the 2.0's were underpowered.

The speed!! The Handeling!! Luxury of space on long trips to college and back!! I just love the guages!!

I came from a 4X4 Ford Ranger and never had a problem with it. I expected nothing but the same from my VR6. A few small repairs like the crank shaft position sensor, $160, and fixing a wire on my rear window motor, $50, other than that its just a few small things. my rear inside door handle still doesnt work. my trunk lock is screwed up but I amagine i could get them fixed but i got better things to do, like drive around looking for races.

I love this car. I go to college in Hartford connecticut and if you've ever driven there you know you need highway speed. Just Drop it into third and pass whatever you want. But what impressed me most is just the overall feel and control you have over the car. I have never once felt out of control while driving to its extreams. The car gives you good "road to driver" feedback. I have put a wetterauer chip in it which increased horse from 174 to 192 and increased tourgue about the same. Also a Neuspeed P-flo air intake which claims about 8 horse. So with close to 200 hundred horsepower hitting the ground, she really moves. And still its not bad on gas. Now obviously its not a cobra beater but I can hang with my buddies bran new civic Si. and for how heavy this car is in comparison to that car, it speaks wonders about german engineering.

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Now clearly a BMW M3 is the ultamite driving machine. But i had a chance to drive one and besides the fact that it would blow my doors off in every way. IT had the same sort of feel. You can tell what the car is doing on the road and what you need to do for it. Thats why I love my VR6. And just a word of advice. IF you have a chance to buy a jetta Glx VR6 of the same year and all you care about is performance and not cabin space. BUY THE JETTA!!! I wish I had. Only because its the same engine but almost 1,000 less pounds of car. But dont get me wrong I love my Passat.

Driving experience--nice handling on the highway.
Styling - Great.
Solid build - feels like a safe car.

This car is expensive to maintain. I've had to replace the front rotors at 50K, not because of warping, but because they wore out.
* Wheel bearings went out at about 45K miles--NOT covered under power train warranty (Warranty on VW is useless)
* Problems with left rear window
* Cracked windshield
* Airbag light came on
* Battery lasted only 50K miles
* Premium gas required
* This car is $$expensive to own!

The car was well designed and initially performed very well. I received lots of compliments from strangers as to how nice the car looked. Overall the car should be avoided, in my opinion, in favor of a more reliable car. If you are seriously considering a VW Passat, be aware that it will be expensive to own. My advise: Avoid it!

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The Passat does not compare favorably with my experience with Mazda, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota products I've owned.