I thought bad cars were a thing of the past!

I thought no one made ‘bad’ cars any more. I’m wrong. In Cali last week I turn up for my rental car and I was offered a Chevy something or other or a VW Passat. While I work for Ford I’m not anti every other manufacturer on the planet and I’ve liked every VW group product I’ve driven so I went for the POSsat. Mistake. Big Mistake.

God what an awful car it was, just terrible in every way. I don’t’ know exactly what version it was, but it had ‘Wolfsburg Edition’ on the matts etc. First off was the engine, it was barely able to get out of its own way. Now I’m sure that can be resolved by ticking the ‘Not the crappiest engine in the lineup’ box when you order one. But everything else was crap too. The transmission shifts were lazy in ‘D’ and if you put it in ‘S’ it would hold on to gears forever, you’d accelerate up to speed and then maintain that speed but it would never shift up, you had to pop it back into ‘D’ then pull it back into ‘S’. Using the + and – detent was no better as first off every auto I’ve driven with a +/- feature for manual shifting is backwards with forward being up and back being down so it’s totally counter intuitive. Secondly the time delay when you did try and shift with +/- made it useless. OK. So the engines crap and the trans sucks, what about the rest? The brakes where crappy, I mean I’ve not driven a new car in 20 years with brakes this poor. Nothing happens for the first 85% of the mushy, lacking feedback or feel peddle travel, then suddenly the last 10-15% of the peddle gives you all the (Still piss poor) braking effort the brakes have to offer, and trust me it’s not much. I’m glad I didn’t have try a an emergency stop at freeway speeds, I’m not sure it could have managed it. Then there’s the steering. It manages to be heavy and offer a lot of resistance without offering any feel or feedback as to what the berkeley is happening with the front wheels. The interior was a joke too. I like VW’s but this was awful, just E36 M3ty ergonomics, masses of ‘I’m a cheap ass rental’ blanking plates over nonexistent switch holes and the info available on the screens was useless. Every other modern car in the last 15 years has an external temp display clearly visible. I did eventually find it, but it was an alternate to the MPG or miles to empty feature, which you want when you are aiming to return the car on fumes. Want to adjust the sound, balance, fade on the radio? It’s about as intuitive as plotting intergalactic travel. Then the A/C, yes, air con a device that even economy cars figured out 15-20 years ago. It wasn’t especially hot last week in Southern Cali, mid 80’s most of the time, pretty comparable to the weather back here in Michigan in fact. The berkeleying A/C could barely keep up! 2 hours on the freeway and you are on the point of melting in the car. Really, you can’t build an A/C system to cool a mid-size car? So, was there anything good about it? Well other than the fact I wasn’t paying for it yes, there is one excellent feature. The Army should by a fleet of these things as I’ve never seen a better camouflage job in my life. The car is so non-descript that it’s completely invisible in a parking lot. At least a Camry has ugliness on its side to stand out, this just can’t be found. The panic button on the key fob is the only way to find the thing, and then when you do you wish it were still lost.

Now I know a few years ago VW said they were aiming the Passat specifically at the American market, but they’ve missed the mark, not by a bit, but by several hundred miles if you ask me. People say that Toyota have out Chevrolet’d Chevrolet in building a car for the lowest common denominator, well if that’s the case VW have out Chevrolet’d Toyota! On top of the lowest common denominator, it’s just a bad bad car, I really didn’t think they existed anymore, but I’m sorry to say I’m wrong.

Please note, I am not an anti VW hater. I like many of their cars. My next door neighbor and good friend is a massive VW/Audi/Porsche fan. He’s had a 2004 R32 for the last 8 years. I love that car and have said before if I didn’t work for Ford I would probably have bought one myself. Another good friend has a B4 Passat wagon, again I love driving that car. Before I worked for Ford I was pressuring my wife to buy an A4 Avant. I do like and appreciate many many other VW group products and this makes the current POSsat all the more sad. It’s basically a crap car.

sounds like they weren't aiming for the american market, but rather the same market that most american manufactures used to aim for in the 90s.

I feel like they hit that target pretty well.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Want to adjust the sound, balance, fade on the radio? It’s about as intuitive as plotting intergalactic travel.

LOL.

A friend had one as an insurance loaner when their car got hit. I got to drive it and have to agree with pretty much everything you said. About the motor, I think a lot of it is really bad throttle by wire programming. As in, 3/4 of the throttle does next to nothing then all the actual go juice is in the last 1/4. And even that's not a lot, of course. (also note, I'm not a throttle by wire hater, my GS430 is throttle by wire and I have absolutely no complaints about it.)

The cars are terrible. Just rancid. But they at least were selling in enormous numbers because I see them absolutely everywhere. So maybe they didn't miss the mark?

It wasn't just me, either; everyone that drove it hated it.

dculberson wrote: ...But they at least were selling in enormous numbers because I see them absolutely everywhere. So maybe they didn't miss the mark?

FWIW, just because a lot sell does not mean a mark is being hit. It could very well be that they sell a lot of crap because the pricing is in the crap market price. And some have figured out that the crap market is one where you can have the entire market to yourself and still lose a boat load of money.

We sold a TON of Tempo/Topaz buckets, and a TON of the previous Taurus- both were in the heavy discount market, and market share was a big deal. Profits were not. IMHO, we are much better off with 10% less market share, but everyone gets a profit sharing check at the end of the year. (and there is a big space for improvement, still).

rcutclif wrote: sounds like they weren't aiming for the american market, but rather the same market that most american manufactures used to aim for in the 90s. I feel like they hit that target pretty well.

YOu summed up in one line what I was trying to say in my long rant. Well done.

alfadriver wrote:

dculberson wrote: ...But they at least were selling in enormous numbers because I see them absolutely everywhere. So maybe they didn't miss the mark?

FWIW, just because a lot sell does not mean a mark is being hit. It could very well be that they sell a lot of crap because the pricing is in the crap market price. And some have figured out that the crap market is one where you can have the entire market to yourself and still lose a boat load of money. We sold a TON of Tempo/Topaz buckets, and a TON of the previous Taurus- both were in the heavy discount market, and market share was a big deal. Profits were not. IMHO, we are much better off with 10% less market share, but everyone gets a profit sharing check at the end of the year. (and there is a big space for improvement, still).

Also, the fact that Ade had one as a rental car speaks volumes. Rental fleets have been used to pad out sales numbers for decades. Sacrificing profit for market share. I guess VW has figured out that game.

Two of you have commented about rental Passats and another comment about them being everywhere.
I suspect that VW has increased it discounted sales to "fleets" as a way of bolstering the sales of the model.

I own a Jetta Sportwagen TDI and a GTI. Have driven a CC, a Tiguan, a Beetle, and a Passat as rentals. I like the newer VWs, I really do.........but you have hit the mark on the Passat. It really feels like it's not cut from the same cloth as the others. Feels like it was designed to be a rental from the ground up.

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

rcutclif wrote: sounds like they weren't aiming for the american market, but rather the same market that most american manufactures used to aim for in the 90s. I feel like they hit that target pretty well.

YOu summed up in one line what I was trying to say in my long rant. Well done.

This sums up how I feel about a 2012 Galant rental I was saddled with for a week last year. If they were aiming for features, materials, and build quality that would have been cutting edge in 2002, they berkeleying nailed it.

I still laugh when I see one on the road and think that someone actually BOUGHT one.

The Galant you drove was introduced as a 2004 model.
If ever there was a car who's sole purpose was to sell to fleets as a way of justifying the brands existence...
2012 was the last year for the Galant after being the same for 8 years.
I really wonder how Mitsi exists. I see they now have 10yr/100k warranty but really, will the dealership still be around in 10 years?

The Nissan I rented for the Mitty a few years ago was destined to be a rental car as well. The interaction between the programming of the throttle and the CVT was designed to make you the jerkiest driver possible on the interstate, it was impossible to maintain a given speed.

But the crappiest I've seen for a long time was a VW minivan we rented for a week during Targa Newfoundland. It was a rebadged Chrysler, and it had been decontented to the bone - to the point where it wasn't really very useful as a people carrier. It was the most cynical piece of rebadging I've seen this side of a Cimmarron.

Remember VW dumbed down both the Jetta and Passat for the NA market. They are sold only here where everyone else in the world gets the "world" version. I am not sure about the Passat, but the Jetta when it was introduced went back to rear drum brakes. Let's face it - even GM hardly uses drum brakes anymore.

The engine you are likely talking about is the 2.5L 5cyl. The discussion on most sites on it is, "All the power of a 4 cyl and the economy of a 6 cyl."

The Golf's are a much better platform.

I've complained about it here before, I had a '13 2.5 SLE Jetta as a rental loaner for a month, while our '09 TDI Jetta was in the body shop after getting rear ended.

Adrian's review of the Passat applies directly to the Jetta too in my opinion.

• Lee

My mother n law said, "It felt like you were riding in a barrel" in regards to the Passat. Sounds accurate.

I concur. I have and enjoy a 2007 Passat (made in Germany with the big motor) last year the dealership gave me a rental 2013 Passat (5 cylinder made in Alabama). It was universally worse than my car. But it felt just like every Camry I've ever driven. Appliance car built to a price point.

The Passat plant is in Chattanooga Tennessee.

Mazda is the only brand I know of that gets the +/- direction right but I'm sure there are others. I had a rental cruze one time and kept using it the wrong way because it was setup backwards.

Datsun1500 wrote: What's a brake peddle?

I had nearly the same passat in January as a rental car. It the size was perfect to fit my kids in giant seats behind me and my wife and we were not cramped. The also opened wide enough to get the seats in. I remeber trying to get the seat into the back of cx-5 rental and was so frustrated by the small doors and small opening, I had the cx5 exhcnaged for a passat in the exchange aisle.

Aside from the rear seat room, there was no compelling reason to buy that car. It was slow, poorly made and as fuel efficent as a jeep.