The Astra was not cutting the mustard, turning a mere 34.7mpg regardless of how careful I drove it and in fact on motorways where you would expect economy (as your in 6th gear) the fuel consumption was hardly any better at all, I never got above 37mpg on it.
I will admit in the dry the car had very good road holding but always felt light and "tinny", the noise above 40mph meant you left the radio off for most of the journeys and it was as comfortable as sitting on an old bus.
Even better was the hire company noticed a large portion of the front lower fascia missing which must have snapped off during the cold period or simply decided it no longer wanted to be on the car so threw itself into a gutter.
As a final insult the windscreen washers blew a fuse and vauxhall use those tiny micro blade fuses so despite have a load of spare car fuses, none were suitable for this pile of junk.
It went back and I'm not sorry to see it go.
In return I picked up a pool car for a short while, a Passat 1.9Td saloon, amazingly the car is some £3000 cheaper and although a couple of years old the different is staggering.
The seats are deep and comfortable, the noise levels are considerably different, in fact at the same speeds I would do every day to work you hardly notice the engine is on and running, road noise is almost non existent and the whole car just purrs along.
Despite being the same size engine i.e 1.9 Td the power difference is not that noticeable, the Astra needed some dubious use of the right foot to make it move or a prod of the "Sport" button to make it leap forwards, I found on twisty country roads such as the Pennines that the Astra needed considerable work to keep the engine providing power, if you went into a bend in the wrong gear you would lose all momentum and it would not pull itself out the bend unless you quickly dropped a gear.
With the Passat the engine gives an enormous amount of power at low rev's, you feel the torque and despite being a 5 speed gearbox can change up quite early in the rev range knowing the engine will simply apply the same high levels of torque in that gear as well, in fact you almost run out of torque if you simply floor the throttle, it's very similar to the first LET (Low End Torque) engines I first saw in the Fiat, Nova etc of their day, you had a short stroke engine giving lots of torque at the low end and it make for some great driving.
While this engine is providing you with more than enough torque your also finding on the country run to work I'm seeing about 7 mpg more at the moment - topping almost 42mpg. The previous owner decided to return it without the usual oil in the engine so I'm going to check the levels over the weekend and hopefully get the oil back as it should be.
Equipment is good, it has a feature I used to love in my Vectra, a simple LED light shining down into the car so at night the area around the gear lever is illuminated in a soft glow, the Vectra had a yellow LED, the Passat is Red, I don't mind the colour I just love the fact you can see what's what without too much messing.
The Radio is fine, I can hear it now and that makes a change, the heaters are more than ample, the Astra was often very cold - it was difficult to get the heating right and the fans were very loud on settings 3 or 4, the controls were placed so your hand obstructed the view when you were driving, on the Passat they are in fingertip reach of the gear lever and the fans are not only quieter but more powerful, rear passengers have their own air vents as well which is nice.
Defrosting is about 3 minutes on the Passat, about 10 minutes quicker than the Astra !
Nice touches such as heated wing mirrors (although they don't fold like the Avensis used to), the boot is perhaps crossing two time zones it is simply cavernous, although the car is a saloon and the first one i've had I have never seen a boot so large. The remote will open the boot for you which pops up nicely and you lose any bags in there due to the amount of space on offer.
The car has a keyless starting system, insert the fob into a slot and press and your started and ready to go, a really nice touch, no more keys bashing my knees as i'm driving along.
The Witchcraft ? Ah that will be the hand brake or rather the lack of it, if you instinctively put your hand down to grab the brake lever you will pick up some bottles, cans or sunglasses, this car has an electronic hand brake.
Pull up to a stop and press the "P" button and it apparently applies brakes to all 4 wheels, to release the brake you can simply drive off !
You can release manually but surely this is the work of the Dark one himself and a sign that no one can deny of Witchcraft ?
Despite expecting the car to simply roll backwards down hills etc it's actually a very clever idea, I now have a lovely range of cup holders in the center console, air conditioned glove box and center storage and more leg room than you can shake a cat at.
It's surprising the difference between the two cars, in many ways the Passat is very similar to the Avensis and you can see the difference, the Avensis had more gadgets (sat nat as standard, rain sensitive wipers etc) but you feel the build quality more in the Passat, not that I felt the Avensis was cheap and tatty - in many ways I miss the Avensis, had the previous owner not decided to dent every single body panel I would have considered purchasing it for my own use.
Time though to give the German auto industry some miles and I'm sure the Passat will not dissapoint...
One last thing, I noticed a pocket in the drivers door for ... an umbrella - the Germans REALLY know the British Market !
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