Overview & Reviews

The 2012 Volkswagen Passat has been fully redesigned. Highlights include a lower price, a roomier interior and a newly available turbodiesel engine.

• Roomy cabin
• Refined ride.
• Many upscale features come standard
• High-quality cabin
• Available fuel-efficient turbodiesel engine

• Rearview camera not offered.
• Lackadaisical throttle response
• Below-average braking distances

User Reviews:

Showing 41 through 50 of 83.00

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  American version of Ford Taurus - 2012 Volkswagen Passat
  By agn_gazer - January 19 - 1:57 am

  Driving and exterior feels more like an old Ford Taurus with an upgraded interior.Reliability and safety ratings are unknown at this time.Toyota Camry SE(2012 model) feels more sporty with a better handling. Camry also comes with a usable cruise control, better ground clearance, usable middle backseat, and better fuel economy.It also has more cup holders, fan openings in the back of the center console (for rear seat passengers), and no hump in the floor. Poor factory installed tires (Hankook Optimo 426). VW’s small side-mirrors offer limited side-visibility. OK front visibility. Ride is comfortable but too bouncy for my taste. Definitely does not feel sporty with 2.5l engine and suspension.

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  2012 Passat TDI (DSG) - 2012 Volkswagen Passat
  By proboss - January 3 - 12:31 am

  This is my 3rd TDI. Ive owned a 2003 Jetta TDI (5 spd), 2010 Jetta Sportwagen TDI (DSG). Neither of the newer models could reach the 47MPG that the 2003 Jetta got. That said the 2010 was a great car (39 MPG), but Ive been waiting for the Passat TDI for the size and comfort. Both of which are 5s in my book. Ive had the Passat now for 2 weeks and about 1000 miles. Averaging 41.5 MPG with mostly commuting at 70-75 MPH. Very nice car with one exception. At higher speeds the car seems to wander slightly as if you were driving through gusty winds requiring small steering inputs. A bit annoying i might add. I have a call into the dealer asking for help. I suspect its the tires. well see...

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  A nice large, fuel effecient cruiser - 2012 Volkswagen Passat
  By chuck150 - November 22 - 12:53 pm

  I traded in my 2005 Phaeton for the Passat TDI. I did so with a little trepidation. Ive had the car for 3 weeks and my anxiety has passed. I did a round trip from PGH to NYC on one tank of fuel with the cruise set at 70mph! The TDI averaged around 48 mpg for the trip. The interior is spacious, quiet and comfortable. Much like the Phaeton. It also hunkers down on the highway and provides a competent German ride quality. It also handles long sweepers and off ramps with confidence. The DSG works smoothly with the TDI. The exterior has a chiseled, masculine shape. IMHO, it looks very good. If youre looking for a spacious, fuel efficient cruiser, you must check out the Passat TDI.

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  Engine tried to fall out. - 2012 Volkswagen Passat
  By vwdumpsterfire - September 3 - 1:57 am

  I love the gas mileage my Passat gets, in fact I have averaged 48.2 MPG over 71,000 miles. Everything I have ever gained in gas savings has been completely erased by repair bills. The engine mount bolts fell out and the engine fell forward into the radiator hoses. Apparently the nuts and bolts for the DPF and EGR filter were missing as well, lucky me! I contacted VW and asked them how long they expected their engines to remain in the vehicle along with other miscellaneous nuts and bolts. In short the answer was, "just long enough to get you through the warranty!" In short I was told that none of this could possibly be VWs fault (since I was out of warranty) and good luck!

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  Awesome Disc brakes saved my car from crashing - 2012 Volkswagen Passat
  By aviamar - August 12 - 9:48 pm

  I am proud of the brakes on my 2012 VW Passat. It not only saved me from any injuries but also from causing any damage to the car. I was driving down at 45mph towards a traffic signal. Slowed down a bit but picked up my speed back to 45 as soon as i saw it turn green from a distance. There was a vehicle, in front of me, which had started moving too. I then took the eyes of the road and before I realized the vehicle in front had come to a unexpected halt. I was at a distance of 25-30 ft, I guess, before I hit the brakes hard. I was almost certain that I was going to crash (used to driving cars in India) But the ABS kicked in and made a perfect stop. Passat - totally worth the money.

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  Diesel engine. VW dealerships are scammers - 2012 Volkswagen Passat
  By Richard Fleming - August 7 - 11:10 pm

  Not sure why I couldnt select anything but gas models from the drop-down list here but I have the 2012 TDI SE with automatic. The car was in the dealership so many times for repairs and recalls that the salesman joked about how he saw us there all the time. Very amusing. The windows got noisy when moving them up and down. We had wind noise from the windows that took two trips to the dealership to get corrected. The vehicle came to us from the factory with damage to the interior trim in five places. We had ordered ahead of time and thats the thanks we get? The "leatherette" vinyl looks nice but is very stinky for years from off-gassing. The rubber matts are very smelly, too. Cloth wasnt available with an automatic transmission which is stupid. Youre forced to buy a sunroof you dont want and smelly vinyl seats. I can go on but the real scandal is how we started having problems with the emissions system near the end of the warranty. We took the vehicle to Fairfield Volkswagen three times for "repairs". The first one was them turning off the issue in the computer and telling us to wait and see. The same problem happened again (the urea system told us it would shut off the car in X miles). The third time they said they had done this and that. Well, then the warranty expired and the same problem happened again. I took it to another VW shop in Cincinnati and had to fight to get VW to cover the repair under warranty. Well, apparently that "repair" didnt actually repair anything. My spouse, when it acted up again, took it back to Fairfield because we started having tire pressure warnings. They replaced all four tire sensors, claiming they were faulty. They also claimed the entire urea system needed to be replaced. He ended up paying $2400 for these repairs – repairs that had allegedly been done already by the other dealership under warranty. The reason the tire pressure light had come on? There was a nail in the back tire that VW never found and repaired. None of those tire sensors were actually bad. I bet the urea system had already been repaired by the other dealership and Fairfield knew it could scam my spouse because hes too nice a person so they probably either ripped out the replacement system or just charged us for something they didnt even do. So, we have a car with poor resale value thanks to DieselGate and its a ticking time bomb, knowing VWs legendary reputation for reliability. And we cant rely on the dealerships to even remove a nail from a tire rather than charge us thousands for alleged repairs to things that should have been fixed before and which werent a problem in the first place. VW doesnt just lie to the world its dealerships have a reputation for lying to customers.

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  A great ride! - 2012 Volkswagen Passat
  By John Heffernan - May 11 - 6:21 am

  Dont expect a lot of pick up but beyond that, an amazing car!

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  First 2,000 miles in my new 2012 Passat TDI SEL - 2012 Volkswagen Passat
  By jimmy2012tdi - April 3 - 12:33 am

  I just picked a new black/black 2012 Passat TDI SEL last week, and am extremely impressed with the vehicle. I traded in a BMW 550I (V8) that I had for 3 years and drove 75,000 miles (20 mpg). I am overly impressed with the VW, even moving down a notch from a $70K BMW. I have driven the TDI almost 2,000 miles in the first week and have an average of 42 mpg! 75% highway, 35% Chicago city traffic. At 65 on cruise the car averages about 50 mpg! Very comfortable seats, quite, great sound system, easy to use Navigation. This is by far the best car in its class and should be in very high demand. Car handles very well, still lets you feel the road with out being too soft. Perfect car...great job VW.

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  My third diesel, 2012 Passat TDI SEL Premium. - 2012 Volkswagen Passat
  By rfb70 - March 12 - 3:45 pm

  My wife and I have driven it approx. 3,400 miles and have no rattles, squeeks or any other problems. We use it almost all open road and average 43 mpg. We drove from Pa. to Fl. and back, 2400 miles, got to try almost every gadget in the car. The Bluetooth was very easy to set up to our cell phone, also the seat memory settings and the remote key memory. The radio and nav. took quite a bit of reading up on, but operate very well after using them on the trip. I didnt baby the car, drove with the traffic, about 75 mph with the air on and still averaged 43 mpg.

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  2012 Passat SE - 2012 Volkswagen Passat
  By jrind2 - March 8 - 11:30 pm

  So far after 3 months we love this vehicle - the extra room inside is amazing especially in the back seats.