sg-passat: Singapore Passat Owners

by Wong Meng Weng 19990826
last modified Sunday, 29-Aug-1999 21:08:35 PDT by Wong Meng Weng

If you live in Singapore and you love your Passat, consider becoming a member of sg-passat!

The sg-passat club has a web page and a mailing list. We organize regular social events centered around a Passat Parade through Singapore.

The current generation of Passats, known to insiders as the B5, started production in 1997. Marketed in Singapore under the "Reborn" campaign, the B5 comprises model years 1998, 1999, and 2000. Its shape is immediately recognizable and causes perfect strangers to exclaim, "Damn! That's a good looking car."

It competes with the BMW 5 series, the Saab 9-5, the Volvo S40, the Mercedes C class, and the Lexus IS. It beats them all hands down by matching their features at half the price. It manages this by being, essentially, a modest version of the Audi A6 (Audi is VW's luxury line, and they share platforms and design). It's a category-killer: being a luxury sport family sedan, anyone can find a reason to like it. Consumer Reports awarded it first prize, family car of the year. And it's one of the safest cars on the market today.

Mailing List

To subscribe to the mailing list, write to majordomo@listbox.com and, in the message body, say
subscribe sg-passat

If you encounter difficulties, contact the listowner, mengwong@pobox.com.

Gatherings

Picture this: every month or two, you join a passat parade --- we drive a planned route through Singapore and show off our Passats to the public. Then we stop at a cafe to chat over coffee.
  1. before the main drive, go to the VW service center at Leng Kee road to meet the group. If you go early, you might get a chance to hoist your car up on the jack and examine it from all angles. Get your questions answered by experts, and see what other members have done to their cars.
  2. do the drive: a pre-planned route takes you through the city. You attract a great many admiring glances. The next day, your car appears in the newspaper, and your co-workers all ask your license plate number so they can buy 4-D.
  3. at the end of the drive, you arrive at an al-fresco type place where out-front parking has been reserved. All the passats pull up and park in a line next to each other, looking like a royal procession.
  4. you go home feeling GREAT about having bought the Passat.
We still haven't chosen a good post-drive coffee place. Suggestions:

To receive announcements about events, sign up for the mailing list.

Event Log

Other Links

Passat and Volkswagen resources on the net:

Official

Unofficial Sites, Discussion Groups, Clubs, and Picture Galleries

Accessories and Modifications

Driving resources for Singaporeans

News Clippings

Passat Consumer Reports Top Family Car

Volkswagen ended a sixteen year stretch of Toyota dominance when the Passat toppled the Camry from its throne as Consumer Reports magazine's top family car. The magazine based its ratings on tests at its test track and reliability reports on 490,000 vehicles from 384,000 of its 4.5m subscribers. Reliability figures came from a 1998 survey on cars from model years 1991 to 1998. Volkswagen's new Jetta also came in second place in it's class as well.
-- from VWvortex News, 19990408

Passat Facelift for 2001

Volkswagen will be giving its Passat model a facelift for model year 2001. Along with what are believed to be minor cosmetic changes, the passat will get two new motors, the 24-valve 204hp VR6 and an 8-cylinder motor (either VR8 or W8). Expect the 8-cylinder motor to include 4Motion AWD as well.
-- from VWvortex News, 19990623

Passat Sales Record

Volkswagen's 1998 sales were again led by its top-selling Jetta model with a total sales mark of 89,311, the third best in the model's 19-year history. In the important midsize segment, Volkswagen's Passat model posted an all-time record with sales of 39,272, an increase of 164 percent over 1997's mark of 14,868.
-- from VWvortex News, 1999

Colophon

mengwong@pobox.com