Not necessarily - I've either made it round a corner or I haven't, when pushing on, and the car has either been composed and surefooted, or it hasn't.
The point is you've, based on your experiences of Passats stated they've
*all* got issues when it comes to handling / ride etc, and I've stated that my experiences with my own car haven't aligned with what you've put forward as a 'they all do that, Sir'esque statement.It's everything to do with handling; if it handled poorly given some of the speeds I've slung it into some corners in the past, it would have come to a sticky end long before the one momentary lapse of concentration that led to its current predicament...
I've said nothing about 'straight-line grunt', or are you assuming one can't give a car a wellyful of throttle if it's not pointed down a straight?
If so, I can assure you that's not the case.
Aye, well... that's your opinion and one you're entitled to, but here in the real world, 'handling' has plenty to do with cornering, and I think you're blustering a little in the hope of adding a little weight to your argument by shifting the goalposts.
My Passat, when not sitting there looking sorry for itself, could do with uprated brakes as these let the car down when you're really pushing on along and whilst 'Green Stuff' pads helped, they didn't eliminate the issue of brake fade in such circumstances.
It tends to ground out if you're a bit enthusiastic over speed humps, something which the Golf is also guilty of.
Very uneven backroads have been known to 'jiggle' the chassis a bit, but even then it's still fairly composed and goes where I point it.
It goes where I point it... but then so does the more soggy, sofa like Golf as well truth be told, if you're prepared to have a little faith in its capabilities.
You've obviously felt that the Passats you've tried aren't as responsive or sharp handling wise as other stuff you've owned / tried.
I on the other hand think that they're pretty good for the size of car and I have to say that whilst the rear end of that hired Focus refused to break free, I managed to get the front end to let go quite severely along a backroad I tend to use, in a place where the Passat would have carried on quite happily without letting go, and I'm sorry but 'handling' and 'grip' are to a certain extent linked.