The New Volkswagen Passat

After 4 years and 120,000 km in my old Passat, where my only real complaint was the awful radio, I swapped it for a new one. Big mistake!

The new radio's fine, so VW have fixed a minor complaint. The downside is the awful clunky gearbox, with low gears too low, and high gears too high. Thanks to improved sound-proofing, I found myself cruising at 140km/h in 4th the other day. 6th gear is very long.

And then there's the fact that it has gone into "limp home" mode seven times in the last month, so I can't say I'm a fan of the electric engine management system. The solution: switch off and restart, just like a PC, which is great when cruising in the fast lane. The dealer claims to have fixed that problem now, by updating the software!

So I'm driving a 140 horse power PC, running Windows Me (the worst Microsoft operating system ever). It hardly inspires confidence. If you're thinking of buying one, wait at least 6 months for VW to fix the bugs.