Volkswagen Passat R-Line 2.0 TSI review: turbo estate is ace, but there's one problem... Reviews 2025
A Golf GTI-engined estate car!
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No, it's an 'R-Line', which is the range-topping trim available on Volkswagen's spangly new Passat. Only now, there's the option of filling it with an engine Britain wasn't previously privy to: the 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder lifted out of a Golf GTI.
Sort of. 'Sort of'?
Where a standard Mk8.5 GTI pumps out a healthy 261bhp from its 'EA888' engine, in this Passat VW's tuned it to deliver just 201bhp and 236lb ft of torque. So it's a MediumGTI-engined car. Disappointing. Lemme guess, it's saddled with pesky electrons, no doubt?
Incorrect. This R-Line 2.0 TSI is free of electricity and is therefore about as old school as VW can get in 2025: front-wheel-drive, turbocharged four-pot, seven-speed DSG, five doors, zero e-motors.
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Of course if you really like electricity in your car, VW will do you a Passat with a 1.5-litre hybrid offering 268bhp, which is a lot. But you don't want that one. You want this one.
Quick reminder: this generation of Passat is now only available as an estate car – all the better for it, in our humble opinion – and shares its MQB Evo undercrackers with the Tiguan. Why do I want this one and not the one with more poweeerrr?
Sounds better, for a start. The 1.5-litre TSI in the hybrids can sound a little coarse, but this one doesn't – it sounds eager, if a little subdued, and crucially doesn't sound like it wants to give up on life. It actually enjoys being given a light thrashing. And how fast does it go if I thrash it?
VW reckons on a 0-62mph time of 7.5s which is respectable but feels much faster in a) the real world and b) something so large and cavernous. And it handles tidily.
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