A bit about myself, I live on Anglesey (the sticky out bit at the end of North Wales which people go through to get to Dublin!) & I'm a bit of a car nut. In the twenty years or so I've been driving, I've been behind the wheel of quite a few cars. For example, I've worked for Land Rover (in the factory) & also as a car salesman, specifically VW & Vauxhall. I've owned a fair few cars too - a few bread & butter cars like Astras & more recently a Corsa (top of the range, no less!) - but also some more interesting stuff like a couple of Porsche 924's, a Mercedes 190E, an Audi 80 TDi Avant & also recently a modified Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo. That last one was a dream car which turned into a bit of a nightmare! Also had a couple of VW's, namely a Mk2 Polo Coupe S as a runabout about 10 years ago, and one of my favorite ever cars, which was a Scirocco Scala Injection that I kept for five years - and is still on the island somewhere.
I first came into regular contact with Passats at the start of this decade when I was a salesamn down in Cardiff (the old Hartwell VW franchise) where I drove & sold a fair few of the B5 shaped models - which were current at the time - and was impressed with them, and even sold a few new ones (not a cheap car at the time!). I drove all the models from the PD diesels of all power outputs, saloons & estates, V5's, V6 4 Motion's, petrol models etc. I was impressed with the equipment levels, the quality & the way they drove. I liked the style as well, and thought at the time that it would make a good purchase in future, especially as a family car. By the time I left the dealership, the B5.5 shaped Passat had been released & the few I had pre-sold were delivered during my last couple of weeks there.
Fast forward nine years or so, and I have bought my first VW since I sold the 'rocco back in 2001. I had actually test drivena few cars (my mate is a trader) as I needed a car quickly to replace the Corsa I'd just sold. Drove a couple of cars, including a horrible Daewoo something or other, & another Corsa which I actually bought for a night, but had buyers' regret the next day as I wasn't happy with the mechanicals. I'd test driven two Passats that he was selling, and had settled on an S plate met green saloon with the TDi 110 engine in SE spec. It wasn't in bad condition for the age & mileage (120k-ish), but wasn't running well at the time (it has been fixed now apparently - air leak in the system), but more worryingly the expansion tank was full of gunge - so I left that one. I told my mate that i wanted to swap the Corsa for another car I'd tried, so I am now the proud owner of a 2000 (W) plate Passat B5 saloon in a slightly different met green, with reasonable miles (93k), but is also the desirable Sport model with the 1.8T engine. Bit of a step up from a Corsa 1.2! The original owner also went a bit crazy with the options, as he or she went for metallic paint, factory tilt/slide elec glass sunroof and the Tiptronic auto box - what a car! I really really like it - such a nice drive, pretty quick, well equipped, a wee bit thirsty, but its only a stop gap as I'm not looking to keep it too long, so I am enjoying it while I can. It feels weird owning what I once sold brand new - but I did get it for a very good price now ....
I'm only keeping it until I find a slightly newer Passat - the B5.5 version - which I intend to keep for as long as I had the Scirrocco, as I will need a comfortable cruiser that may double up as a family car over the next few years. I'm on the lookput for a decent late plate Highline saloon TDi 130, and as soon as I get one at a good price at auction, then I will temporarily be a two Passat driver! So, this could well be a long term relationship with Passats .....
