VW Passat Crowned Used Car Of The Year

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Thu, 24 Sep 2009

The Volkswagen Passat has been named Used Car of the Year by the UK’s largest car buyers guide, What Car?

Judges looked at a three-year-old 1.9 TDI S model and praised the saloon for its classy image, drivability and reliability.

The magazine’s used green car award for 2009 went to the Toyota Prius, which has an average fuel consumption of 65.7mpg and costs just a £35 a year in road tax .

The Lexus RX400h, another hybrid car that runs on both petrol and electric power, scooped the title of best used SUV, while the Volkswagen Golf GTI 5dr was voted the best used sports car .

There was also double success for Vauxhall, with the Vectra 1.8 Life named used estate car of the year and the Zafira 1.6 Club awarded the title of best used MPV for the third year running.

Other winners included the BMW 520d SE (best executive car), the Nissan Note 1.4 SE (best Supermini) and the Ford Focus 1.6 Zetec Climate 5dr (best small family car ).

Matt Sanger, What Car?’s used car editor, said: "It’s a strange time in the used car market, with prices still on the increase – in some cases up 30 per cent year-on-year."

"Higher prices and limited availability of some cars had a huge effect on our judging, but our winners are all cars that are readily available and still represent great value."

According to What Car?, six million used cars are expected to be sold this year in the UK, outnumbering new car sales three to one.

Their research also shows that the average used car costs just over £6000, is 39 months old and has 50,000 miles on the clock.