 I bought this car in March and do a lot of highway driving, not racing it around.  Highway driving is easy: I drive conservatively and all my fluid changes have been done on time.  Come to find out, I'm blowing smoke out the rear, and I blew a rear main seal on the engine and may have done some internal engine damage, too.  The repair bill was nearly $3,000, but fortunately for me, it was covered under warranty.  I looked up a VW tech I went to high school with who works for a large VW dealership in Dallas, and he says, and I quote, "VW's rear main seal design on their 1.8t's have been pure garbage for some time, and VW knows about this.  We've seen a few Passat rear-main blowouts already.  It's the same motor with the same problem the Golfs and Jettas had.  This is how we make our money.  Once the 36K mile warranty expires, the cost is no longer (negotiable, as always to the dealership) by VW.  So the owner gets screwed."  He went on to say, "Most 1.8t's are designed to hit 45K miles without serious problems, but with the 2014 to 2016 Passats, we're seeing this problem all the time.  What's an owner to do?  Sit around and say, 'No, I'm not going to repair this.'  They end up forking over the $2600 and that's that, but in the end run, we lose another customer."  He thinks VW does this by design, and to me, it's no wonder after realizing what they did with Dieselgate, with an aim to deceive.  I should have gone with an Accord but was tempted by the extra inch or so of front-seat leg room the Passat offered me.  BEWARE DO NOT BUY THIS CAR UNLESS YOU HAVE MONEY TO FIX IT.