• Beautifully constructed cabin
• Striking interior design
• Plenty of in-car tech included

How is the quality and layout?

Most Volkswagens have plush, nicely designed interiors, but the Passat scores particularly well here, making it a particularly pleasant car to spend time in. The cabin feels like it will last the test of time, but more importantly is beautifully built, with a smattering of soft-touch materials and high quality upholstery making it feel a notch above most of its rivals.

If you simply want an upmarket estate for the practicality and feel-good interior, there really is no need to spend more on a Mercedes here. In fact, the Passat’s interior is notably higher quality than that of the Mercedes C-Class Estate.

It’s a smart-looking interior that isn’t too fussy in design. All Passat Estates come with integrated sim cards for the media system, allowing you to stream online radio and make the most of natural voice controls. This means you can issue voice instructions covering sat-nav, phone and radio settings by saying, ‘Hello Volkswagen’, and even dictate text messages, while the car can read out received texts to you.

Infotainment and tech

All Passats are fitted with the 9.2-inch nav-equipped Discover Pro infotainment system. You get Apple Carplay and Android Auto included. It’s touchscreen controlled but the screen is large and the controls straightforward, so it’s simple to use. It offers connected services via the Volkswagen smartphone app.

There’s a 10.25-inch wide screen in place of a instrument cluster, and this can show three different displays: firstly a traditional analogue speedometer and rev counter, with configurable displays between them.

Secondly, these analogue gauges are replaced with configurable information fields, with the third option displaying the sat-nav map across the whole width of the display with speed and other driving figures shown at the bottom of the screen.

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Comfort

• Very smooth ride on smaller wheels
• Comfortable front seats
• Impressive refinement levels

So, on to the Passat Estate’s real party trick. It’s most certainly one of the most comfortable cars in its class, and there are few prestige cars we’d rather pick for covering hundreds of miles. Basically, Volkswagen Passat Estate comfort levels are exemplary.

All models come with comfortable seats, but the ‘ergo Comfort’ ones for the driver in our test cars were notably supportive. When it comes to adjustment, not all models come with fully-electric controls – you still have to slide the seat and adjust the height manually on lower spec models – but the additional sections that can be tweaked should mean that all different sizes of driver can easily get comfortable here.

It does feel like you’re perched quite high up though – almost like you’re in a smaller hatchback – and most owners will enjoy the slightly raised view out, you don’t feel as. Those sat in the rear have their own vents, while high-spec models come with their climate control setting and heated seats. Head- and legroom is generous, even if there isn’t much space for feet beneath the front seats.

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