 I owned a 2000 Passat and absolutely hated it!  The warranty only covered 24,000 miles, and the engine sludged.   The service at the dealership was lousy.  My wife decide she wanted a new car which is why I'm here again.  VW Passat still has the same awful mess created in 2000, just a slicker version.  Its reliability was terrible.  I lost a lot of time taking it to dealer and getting a run around delay from VW USA.  It looks nice but if you want a reliable CAR don't try a VW.