Volkswagen Passat and Passat CC recall to begin in UK

The manufacturer will fix more than 50,000 models affected by the emissions scandal in this country; owners will be contacted this week
Doug Revolta Autocar
6 June 2016

Volkswagen will begin recalling Passat and Passat CC models affected by the emissions scandal in the UK, after its proposed fix was approved by the German Federal Transport Authority (KBA).

A total of 50,864 cars will be recalled in the UK, and owners of affected models are expected to be contacted this week.

VW has said the fix is free of charge, and will take around 30 minutes.

The cars that require the fix are powered by the 2.0-litre diesel unit from the EA 189 diesel engine family. This UK recall is part of a European-wide fix for around 800,000 cars, which includes the two Passat models and, outside of the UK, the Volkswagen Eos.

The manufacturer has also confirmed that the KBA, which approved this fix, found no change to fuel consumption, performance or noise emissions in the vehicles after it had been implemented.

This is the latest fix for cars affected by the emissions scandal and follows the Amarok pick-up recall in January and the Golf TDI Blue Motion recall in April.

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Volkswagen Passat

Volkswagen Passat 2.0 TDI 190 GT DSG
The new Volkswagen Passat is now in its eighth generation

The refocused Passat is targeting a more upmarket audience, but will need to prove itself against established performers like the BMW 3 series and Mercedes C-Class

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Comments
11

xxxx

6 June 2016
More details please, are they keeping the mods under wraps for a reason? Especially as there's "no change to fuel consumption, performance or noise emissions", being German I'm sure the before and after test was thorough-lol.

typos1 - Just can’t respect opinion

artill

6 June 2016
I do hope Autocar will be arranging real world NOx and particulate tests on a pre and post fix car so we can see if it really sorts them out, or just improves them enough to pass the lax official test

mpls

6 June 2016
Only 50K car, and only VW ? What about Audi, Seat, Skoda ?
If there's to be no effect on fuel economy and power output then why did they have to cheat in the first place.. ?
I don't trust diesel cars in general, people take off the filters, even f you follow a new diesel car, the waft of black smoke that bellows when they put their foot down after crawling in slow traffic shows diesels are diry no matter how you filter it as they have to clean off the filters.

scotty5

6 June 2016
mpls wrote:

Only 50K car, and only VW ? What about Audi, Seat, Skoda ?

Cheat device wasn't on engines supplied to UK market.

mpls wrote:

If there's to be no effect on fuel economy and power output then why did they have to cheat in the first place?

to stay within maximum allowed NOx levels.

mpls wrote:

even if you follow a new diesel car, the waft of black smoke that bellows when they put their foot down after crawling in slow traffic shows diesels are diry no matter how you filter it as they have to clean off the filters.

It's just not true. What is true though is whenever I see the driver of a brand new petrol car put their foot down, I know it's emitting more CO2 than it's brand new diesel equivelent.

mpls wrote:

I don't trust diesel cars in general, people take off the filters...

As if nobody plays around with petrol engines. Something I have failed to understand from day one in this country - UK public up in arms about this VW cheat device yet NOBODY was interested in NOx prior to the US investigation, most (including me) had never heard of it. And the number of people calling diesel's dirty. Are we all forgetting that our VED is based upon C02 levels and it encouraged us to by cars with lower C02 emissions? A modern diesel emits lower C02 than it's modern petrol counterpart, but eveyone simply ignores that now. Why? Isn't lowering CO2 levels no longer a good thing?

Shrub

7 June 2016
When I'm cycling and a petrol car drives past, the co2 doesn't make me cough, the filth from pre-DPF diesel cars does. It is just not right that we are pumping this dirt onto our pavements where children walk and people are jogging, cycling etc. It is carcinogenic, it can bring on strokes and heart attacks amongst the vulnerable and is dangerous to those with respiratory conditions. It is the 21st century, let's consign diesel to the history books. I know DPF cars don't give off the clouds of smoke but what happens when these cars get to ten years old (and they've been around for six or seven now) with failed or removed filters? Co2 is a big issue but petrol co2 emissions are now very close to diesel and falling. We also have the means of dealing with Co2, it is not a poison but a greenhouse gas that can be countered by relatively low tech organic counter measures such as reforesting etc. Car enthusiasts should be supporting ways of making the car acceptable in the modern age and not just the subject of depressing negative news campaigns.

torovich

7 June 2016
Please share. There is still no mention about the potential impact of the software upgrade on reliability. In particula particular the potential damage to the EGR and the diesel particulate filter. This is baffling. These items already have issues due to soot. Less NOx results in more soot. Other manufacturers say they turned off emissions to protect the engine (in particular the EGR) from damage due to soot. And yet no questions on this have been raised by the Government, the motoring press or the motoring organisations. They are either asleep on the job or something more sinister is afoot. If you start having reliability problems after the upgrade who will pay!!!! It won't be them!!!

torovich

7 June 2016
Please share. There is still no mention about the potential impact of the software upgrade on reliability. In particula particular the potential damage to the EGR and the diesel particulate filter. This is baffling. These items already have issues due to soot. Less NOx results in more soot. Other manufacturers say they turned off emissions to protect the engine (in particular the EGR) from damage due to soot. And yet no questions on this have been raised by the Government, the motoring press or the motoring organisations. They are either asleep on the job or something more sinister is afoot. If you start having reliability problems after the upgrade who will pay!!!! It won't be them!!!

torovich

7 June 2016
Please share. There is still no mention about the potential impact of the software upgrade on reliability. In particula particular the potential damage to the EGR and the diesel particulate filter. This is baffling. These items already have issues due to soot. Less NOx results in more soot. Other manufacturers say they turned off emissions to protect the engine (in particular the EGR) from damage due to soot. And yet no questions on this have been raised by the Government, the motoring press or the motoring organisations. They are either asleep on the job or something more sinister is afoot. If you start having reliability problems after the upgrade who will pay!!!! It won't be them!!!

torovich

7 June 2016
Please share. There is still no mention about the potential impact of the software upgrade on reliability. In particula particular the potential damage to the EGR and the diesel particulate filter. This is baffling. These items already have issues due to soot. Less NOx results in more soot. Other manufacturers say they turned off emissions to protect the engine (in particular the EGR) from damage due to soot. And yet no questions on this have been raised by the Government, the motoring press or the motoring organisations. They are either asleep on the job or something more sinister is afoot. If you start having reliability problems after the upgrade who will pay!!!! It won't be them!!!

carty

8 June 2016
Nox has a short life in the atmosphere, a few days, so it does not build up like CO2. Its not a big problem other than in cities on calm days where it gets trapped by the high buildings. ( Canyon effect ) NOX also helps remove methane from the atmosphere, one of the very worst greenhouse gases

The Passat unlike the golf I believe has the Adblue system to remove the NOX gases by urea injection. In my experience the car only uses a fraction of the Adblue it should do and suspect thats deliberate on VWs part because it was a very unpopular with owners. Turning it up full could have a significant effect.

VWs DPF system is one of the very best going and brings the newer cars to the same particulate level as petrol. A new diesel engine produces more particulates than the same engine with a few thousand miles on it, the opposite is the case with petrol engines that get worse with age. US emissions demand cars meet the standard for 5 years, not so in the EU.

One diesel car owner commented he was not getting too upset about his modern VW car when he operated a pice of plant that used more diesel every day than his car did in a year and it had no emissions control

Shipping and aviation are massive users of of heavy fuel with minimal emissions control.

Im not getting too upset by this one.

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Our Verdict

Volkswagen Passat

Volkswagen Passat 2.0 TDI 190 GT DSG
The new Volkswagen Passat is now in its eighth generation

The refocused Passat is targeting a more upmarket audience, but will need to prove itself against established performers like the BMW 3 series and Mercedes C-Class

Find an Autocar car review

Driven this week