2012 Volkswagen Passat 36l V6 Sel 2 Review
2012
The Auto Connection
Best Car to Purchase Nominee
The Car Connection Practiced Review
Editorial Managing director
May one, 2011
Likes
- Astonishing rear-seat leg room
- TDI's hybrid-beating fuel economy
- Spare bodywork's minimalist details
- Steers and rides, for the most part, like the old Passat
Dislikes
- V-cylinder's deadening responses
- Plenty of grainy plastic inside
- Wind and road noise
- Features list is total of potholes
Buying tip
features & specs
4-Door Sedan 2.0L DSG TDI SE westward/Sunroof
iv-Door Sedan 2.0L DSG TDI SE due west/Sunroof & Nav
iv-Door Sedan two.0L DSG TDI SEL Premium
A massive rear seat and better-than-hybrid highway fuel economic system mask the slight loss of refinement and nimble route experience in the 2012 Volkswagen Passat.
Volkswagen'due south set out to completely re-engineer its core products for America, in the hopes of grabbing some of the momentum that's vaulted South korea'due south Hyundai and Kia into the center of the mid-size sedan marketplace. With the Jetta upsized and repositioned, it's now the Passat's plough.
German-engineered is a central phrase for the 2012 VW Passat, the company'due south beginning American-made vehicle since 1985. Issuing forth from a billion-dollar mill in Chattanooga, Tennessee, this Passat grows longer and wider, and reverts to some stalwart engines and suspension designs, then that it can be manufactured more than simply, and more inexpensively--which should help VW bring the base toll for the big new sedan downwards to about $20,000.
The Passat's certainly gained status in some important means. The rear seat is tremendous, bigger than the bench in an Azera or an Avalon, with the kind of ease of entry and get out we're used to getting in a minivan. The trunk's also pretty vast. Road manners are as close to the approachable Passat as they possibly can exist, given the stretch in wheelbase--and the automaker's TDI diesel wows even hybrid drivers with an estimated 43-mpg highway fuel economy rating.
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Like the Jetta, the Passat'southward taken a footstep back or two from some of the heights of VW's contempo past. Its sheetmetal can read elegant and timeless--or in the wrong color or from the incorrect angle, tiresome. The interior's better honed and more than finely graded than the 1 in the Jetta, but only roughly the equal of the motel in a Fusion or an Altima or a Legacy, and cipher similar the outgoing Passat'due south tightly grained, rich-feeling surround. Equally it keeps options and models to a bare minimum, Volkswagen'southward omitted some features in some combinations we'd similar to see, fifty-fifty equally options. Desire a base of operations Passat TDI with textile seats, satellite radio and a USB port? It doesn't exist.
With either of the tested engines, acceleration'south mid-pack at best. We'd have no problems recommending a base Hyundai Sonata automatic for roughly $22,000, merely the Passat'southward grumbly five-cylinder and its second-tier gas mileage make the TDI the improve selection--and that means a base price of almost $25,000 instead. For that price, you lot'll get a sedan with virtually 800 miles of driving in each tank of fuel, and limousine-like rear-seat room, with a dash of the handling panache you'd expect from a Volkswagen. If those attributes top your shopping listing for a new family sedan, the Passat rules--knowing there are better values, improve lookers and improve straight-line performers out there, but none bigger.
In 2015, Volkswagen admitted diesel engines in this model illegally cheated federal tests and polluted beyond allowable limits. As part of unprecedented settlements with federal and state governments, Volkswagen agreed to buyback from owners diesel-equipped models of this vehicle. To determine eligibility for all affected Volkswagen, Porsche, and Audi models, Volkswagen set VWDieselInfo.com for owners. (Owners of affected vehicles can enter their VIN numbers to meet if their cars are eligible for buyback.)
You tin can call it elegant or you can call it dull; either way, the 2012 Volkswagen Passat sits in stark relief to the dramatic shapes coming from Korea and Japan.
Volkswagen wants you to see the new Passat as an island of placid, timeless design, and when it's parked side past side with the competition, it holds true. When information technology'south on its ain, though, the Passat can appear a little afar and plainly.
Each time y'all read the Passat's side view and study its surfaces, yous'll see echoes of some distant VW--mostly, of the quondam Quantum sedans, and maybe the Chinese-market Santana. In that location'southward a mutual outline with the Chevrolet Impala, and it'south nearly the same size but far more than cohesive than the Honda Accord. No affair what, you notice the starkness, compared to the Sonata and Optima and Fusion and Altima, and it can read a little ho-hum. The long glass in the rear doors flattens out the shape in an unflattering mode, but the clean accept is expertly detailed up front, and almost Volvo-similar at the rear pillars. VW thinks this look still will await good in a few years when flashier themes accept waned, and we're inclined to concord--even if that runs counter to the American idiom.
The motel's prime assets are divided on a northward-south axis. Above the shoulder line, the Passat wears nicer, more tightly grained plastics; the harder, open-textured stuff lives below that line. At that place'due south an beauteous straightforwardness in the controls, something Volkswagen's managed to preserve since the mid-1990s while sis brand Audi's gone totally off the role/form reservation. The dials are big and readable at a glance, with thin chrome bangles to prepare them off the night backdrop. Woodgrain or metallic treatments panel the broad dash, and the ancillary controls have logical dials placed in logical places. Function of the new Passat's frugal, traditional have means there'south little of the complexity of, say, the Sonata's dash to rein in, and none of the iPad homages we'll make it some versions of the 2013 Ford Taurus. It's buttons and switches, right where you lot expect them to be, like a swig of automotive throwback Pepsi, circa 1994, correct downwardly to the handbrake on the centre panel.
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The TDI lends the Passat a lively feel, even if the v-cylinder'southward faster--and treatment'due south a cut above near of the contest.
It's one of the better-handling vehicles in its class, and the TDI is a clear winner in the 2012 VW Passat lineup, just the base engine'due south a flair-complimentary has-been.
When its American whorl-out is complete, the front-bulldoze Passat volition have a trio of powertrains under its belt. Since the 280-horsepower, 3.6-liter V-6 version arrives later in the model year, Volkswagen could not provide a test car equipped with the biggest engine. The promise: a 0-60 mph time of half dozen.5 seconds, and a top speed of 130 mph.
Of the Passats we've driven, the clear winner is the turbodiesel two.0-liter iv, fifty-fifty though information technology's a few ticks slower to 60 mph. The usual diesel specifications sound light on horsepower, but heavy on the torque and high in fuel economic system. With 140 hp to dole out while it twists out 236 pound-feet of torque, the TDI edition nearly matches the base car's acceleration while it adds about ten mpg to gas-mileage numbers. VW promises a 0-sixty mph for the TDI at nine.3 seconds with the manual transmission, and 9.ane seconds with the dual-clutch automatic, and estimates a top speed of 118 mph. In a long driving loop of mixed four-lane interstates and limited-access highways, with some country roads stitching them together, the diesel Passat rumbled with the usual low-speed diesel experience, and pulled smartly, with a more energetic feel than the acceleration numbers bespeak.
But dual-clutch TDIs were available for testing, but our opinion of the transmission hasn't inverse much over fourth dimension. The only affair to take away from its split-second shifts, well-spaced gears and suitability for mid-speed sporty driving is the lack of paddles for shifting.
At 43 mpg estimated for the EPA's highway cycle, the TDI'due south slightly slower straight-line performance seems similar a off-white trade-off, especially when information technology'southward compared with the lackluster five-cylinder alternative. VW's five-pot feels like information technology's been around forever, and information technology's tired. Throttle responses are sluggish, power delivery's flat and unexciting and at that place's merely every bit much vibration as the diesel provides. With the vi-speed automatic manual, VW says it can advance to 60 mpg in 8.7 seconds; a manual could drop it to viii.2 seconds, merely probably wouldn't make information technology experience any more than engaging.
Ride and treatment are a cut higher up all the domestic, Japanese and Korean competitors, with the possible exceptions of the Nissan Altima and Ford Fusion. With 17-inch wheels and hydraulic steering, the five-cylinder Passat sounds pedestrian but has the nuanced ride control and body roll that distinguishes it from the still-learning Korean brands. If y'all drove a Sonata, back to back, you'd feel the Passat'south superior balance; information technology's a little more compliant over minor bumps, which really stands out on interstate drives. On the TDI, the steering goes electrohydraulic, which lends fuel-economy benefits and a slightly zippier steering feel. The TDI Passat had the best heft-to-accurateness ratio of its kind, up there with the all-electrical steering in the Fusion. The brakes seemed a little numb on the prototypes we tested, but in all, the Passat's eager plough-in and trunk control are improve than cars half a foot shorter in wheelbase.
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The 2012 VW Passat has limousine-like rear leg room; it could utilize more sound wearisome to get with its supersized duds.
VW believes Americans even so like big cars. So while the balance of the automotive earth is at least paying lip service to downsizing, the Passat's growing upwardly and out, across the boundaries of large-auto standards into a size class information technology shares but with the Honda Accordance.
By the numbers, the new Passat is 191.7 inches long, with a 110.4-inch wheelbase and an overall width of 72.2 inches. A current-generation Honda Accord checks in at 110.2 inches in wheelbase, and 194.ix inches overall length, while a Hyundai Sonata has a 110-inch wheelbase, and an overall length of 189.8 inches. Both of the latter sedans are nearly exactly as wide every bit the Passat.
In the front, the Passat'southward stock vinyl seats were the but ones fitted to early on prototypes--and they're good in the usual VW ways. They're firm and simply stitched (and molded), and good for hours-long road trips. Levers and knobs for adjustment can exist swapped out for power adjustments on higher trim levels, only merely base cars get material seats. No matter how fine the vinyl's grained and pleated, fabric seats are more functional, peculiarly for drivers in the Sun Belt.
The cabin's at present the same width equally a Honda Accordance or Chevy Impala, which opens up vast amounts of shoulder and knee room, though the chairs themselves are inset closer to the car's midline, instead of centered between the wide console and the door panels. There's a fleck less leg room upwards front, too: the Passat'south 38.3 inches of front leg room are helped past a more vertical dash and windshield, but information technology's still shy of the Sonata's 45.five inches and the Accordance'due south 41.4 inches.
The dorsum seat of the Passat is the biggest in its price class, even larger than some of the sedan-plus cars like the Hyundai Azera and Toyota Avalon. There's so much leg room it's possible that a 6-foot developed tin ride behind another six-foot adult and cross leg over human knee--and still accept a couple of inches of infinite left to spare. Information technology'southward a cavern back there, and it's the clearest signal that the Passat has a unlike mission in other countries, like in Communist china, where information technology will be pitched as a chauffeur-driven car. For the record, the Passat's rear-seat leg room measures 42.4 inches; the Avalon and Azera are well behind at about 38 inches, while the Honda Accord is about a tenth of an inch longer. That said, the Passat'south roof arcs downwardly right over the rear headrests, and very tall passengers will make contact with the headliner, even in cars without the optional sunroof.
Big cupholders hide under a flip-up lid next to the Passat's handbrake, and a bin ahead of the shift lever tin concord cell phones and keyfobs. The glovebox and door pockets are fairly large, and the Passat'southward trunk is nearly the biggest in its class at 15.9 cubic anxiety. It's a cube larger than the trunk in the Accord, a half-cube shy of the one in the Sonata and almost three cubic feet smaller than in the Impala. The seatback releases on most Passats are pull-blazon knobs mounted inside the trunk, where they seem to make better sense, just as yous'll discover when loading up a Sonata.
One distinct surface area of improvement the Passat's engineers need to focus on is wind and route noise. The Passat'due south big cabin is louder than it needs to exist; to exist fair, the Sonata can present a off-white amount of engine racket, only the Passat's wind ruffles over the mirrors, and over the B-pillar, of all places, stood out as unusual in the form. A thicker ready of windows could clean up the noise contour nicely, since it doesn't seem to emanate from the car'south wheel wells or the trunk area.
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Its advanced condom features lag, merely the 2012 VW Passat gets great prophylactic scores.
Official tests are in from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Found for Highway Rubber (IIHS), and the 2012 Passat earns excellent rubber scores--5 stars and a Top Safety Pick, respectively.
Each Passat comes with standard condom features including dual forepart, side and curtain airbags; anti-lock brakes, traction and stability control; and tire pressure level monitors. Manual-manual models have a hill-holder clutch.
For the first model yr, the Passat lacks the electronic assistants becoming more common on other family sedans--new features like front and rear parking sensors, a rearview camera, and blind-spot monitors. Some of those features will exist introduced on the sedan in its second model yr.
Visibility is one of the Passat's strongest prophylactic attributes. The large drinking glass areas, fold-down rear headrests and slim roof pillars give drivers a nearly panoramic view of the globe effectually them.
Simplicity helps go on the 2012 Volkswagen Passat on budget, but some drivers will miss out on leather seats, satellite radio, and USB ports.
Volkswagen covers most of the important bases on its list of standard features, but the options list tin feel overly lite in the course--and patchy, fifty-fifty puzzling, in some cases.
The 2012 Passat is offered in three trims: S, SE and SEL. Each of them has standard automatic climate control; ability windows, locks and mirrors; cruise control; sixteen-inch wheels; and Bluetooth.
Move up to higher trim levels and selection packages, and the Passat can be trimmed with 17- or eighteen-inch wheels; a power driver and power passenger seat; ambient lighting; woodgrain trim; and pushbutton start.
In society to make the Passat less circuitous--and thus, less expensive--to manufacture, VW's limited the mixing and matching of options between those trim lines. So while a cloth interior comes standard on the Passat South, the SE and SEL sedans are upholstered in vinyl trim, with leather seating surfaces offered only on the V-half-dozen edition every bit an choice. If you want fabric seats on a TDI diesel or a Five-6, yous're out of luck. Likewise, if you're looking for satellite radio or a USB port on the base car, you lot'll accept to resort to a plug-in version from Best Buy, since VW omits that feature from base cars entirely.
On all Passats, an AM/FM/CD player is standard. The SE version adds a 6-disc in-dash CD changer just when those changers themselves are being bypassed in favor of streaming audio in vehicles like the Ford Fusion and Hyundai Sonata, fifty-fifty the upcoming Toyota Camry. As an option, the Passat bundles a five-inch LCD touchscreen along with a GPS system that has some confusing carte du jour operations, but fairly clean map layouts. On the SEL, in that location'due south a half dozen.v-inch LCD touchscreen with a 30GB difficult drive for GPS maps and for music files. Neither of the VW navigation systems accept the fluid map rescaling and routing of the nicer Ford, Hyundai/Kia and Honda systems--they're more like the less expensive systems Nissan fits to the Altima, seemingly begrudgingly.
Also, the V-vi Passat is the only one to have VW'southward new Fender-branded audio organization. And there's no voice command command of systems like climate command and sound, as SYNC, UVO, Blue Link and Entune enable.
VW's Bluetooth integration tin can throw new users for a loop, too. Most drivers are used to speaking a command or touching a screen to pair phones. On the 2012 Passat without navigation, the vehicle doesn't prompt you at all--y'all simply seek on your telephone and connect with a blanket four-digit password. It'southward either fiendishly simple, or just fiendish, if you're used to driving the process with your vocalism or with a finger.
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The clear green winner in the 2012 Volkswagen Passat lineup is the 43-mpg-highway TDI; VW'due south graunchy old five-cylinder can't keep upward with modernistic fours on gas mileage or overall horsepower.
Lackluster fuel economy from five- and half dozen-cylinder engines in the 2012 Volkswagen Passat is neatly counterbalanced by the overachieving turbodiesel TDI.
In the base 170-horsepower, 5-cylinder Passat, a low adjourn weight and a long top gear work together in manual-transmission models to register an estimated 21/32 mpg rating. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hasn't confirmed those numbers notwithstanding, but VW says the estimates are in line with the agency's normal process. The same testing on the v-cylinder automated-equipped sedan yields a prediction of 22/31 mpg.
For the upcoming Passat VR6, VW pegs fuel economy at 20/28 mpg -- ane rating, since that version will only be outfitted with a 6-speed automated.
Regardless of which transmission is chosen--the 5-speed manual, or a half-dozen-speed dual-clutch automatic without shift paddles--the Passat TDI checks in with an estimated rating of 31/43 mpg. Volkswagen says that makes the four-door the most fuel-efficient mid-size vehicle offered for sale in the U.Due south. In other model lines, the TDI has accounted for up to 25 percent of all sales, too, where hybrid models oft only add upwards to 5 percent of total volume projections.
Diesel geeks volition be interested to run into the Passat TDI gets better fuel-economic system numbers than the smaller, lighter Jetta TDI. In this case, VW says information technology's considering it uses a urea-spray later on-treatment on emissions, which allows it to operate the same engine more efficiently in the larger car. The smaller Jetta'southward nearly identical turbodiesel goes without the urea treatment, while still keeping its nitrogen-oxide emissions below newer, stricter limits.
In 2015, Volkswagen admitted diesel engines in this model illegally cheated federal tests and polluted across commanded limits. As role of unprecedented settlements with federal and state governments, Volkswagen agreed to buyback from owners diesel-equipped models of this vehicle. To determine eligibility for all affected Volkswagen, Porsche, and Audi models, Volkswagen set upwardly VWDieselInfo.com for owners. (Owners of afflicted vehicles can enter their VIN numbers to meet if their cars are eligible for buyback.)
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