Volkswagen Passat 1.4 TSI 150 GT 2017 review

The Passat’s 1.4-litre turbocharged engine develops 148bhp (which leaves it at a slight disadvantage on power relative to some like-for-like downsized petrol rivals) and 184lb ft of torque (which is more competitive). Although VW’s identically powerful 2.0-litre diesel Passat is nearly 40% more torquey on paper, it’s also slightly slower-accelerating (8.4sec versus 8.7sec for 0-62mph) – not to mention nearly £2000 more expensive and 2% more punitive on benefit-in-kind tax (for as long as the current regulations survive).

Ignoring whichever way the breeze of public opinion is blowing, then, there are good objective reasons to prefer a Passat petrol to a diesel before you’ve even got near the driver’s seat. And once you’re installed, the Passat 1.4 TSI isn’t backwards in coming forwards with plenty more reasons. This is a smart, spacious, comfortable and very well finished modern saloon whose cabin excels with its apparent material integrity and technological sophistication. Furthermore, a relatively refined and free-revving, yet still flexible, turbocharged petrol engine suits it even better than a diesel would.

The Passat’s driving position isn’t desperately sporty-feeling but it seats you low enough to feel like your hips are fairly close to the roll axis of the car while also giving you a good view out. The fascia design is clean-lined and simple, with its complementary senses of material class and attention to detail percolating slowly through the fit, finish and feel of its mouldings, switches, fittings and controls, and through the intuitive placement and easy usability of its secondary systems. You wouldn’t call the overall effect dazzling, but it’s certainly impressive in a slow-burning, everyday-use sort of a way.

Buy the car in GT specification and you get plenty of technological sophistication as standard. The car’s flat-screen digital instruments are presented very clearly on a 12.3in screen that VW calls Active Info Display and, once you’re familiar with its various settings and menus, they can be made to display just the information you want in just the way that suits you. Alongside that you get VW’s 8.0in Discover Navigation infotainment set-up, which, although a step down from the top-of-the-range Discover Pro system, would actually be our system of choice in the car. That's partly because, unlike its sibling system, the standard set-up retains physical knobs for adjusting volume and map zoom – and also partly because VW’s headline ‘gesture control’ system on the optional 9.2in set-up is gimmicky anyway.

Quite possibly – allowing for a caveat or two.

In the face of a renewed challenge from the Vauxhall Insignia Grand Sport, the ever-present lure of the ‘compact premium’ hatchback segment and the increasingly numerous ways you might spend similar money on a crossover hatchback, VW’s Passat continues to appeal. Very few cars offer so much apparent substance, technical accomplishment and all-round maturity for the same outlay. If a liftback-style boot would make your daily life easier, a classic three-box saloon clearly isn’t for you – and yet this car’s practicality showing isn’t to be sniffed at.

A wide choice of turbo petrol engines certainly broadens the reach of the Passat range and will bring greater refinement and value to it for many, the 1.4-litre 148bhp TSI being strong. But investing plenty of time in equipping your car just so is clearly advisable if you want to be sure of buying this car at its best – and if you’re opting for bigger wheels, make sure you also have adaptive dampers in order to preserve your car’s touring comfort levels.