Growing up, my parents had an affinity for Hondas. I think years of Fiats wore my father down and the reliability of Japanese subcompacts was too attractive. But then, in the late 1990s, Volkswagen changed the mid-sized sedan game with the B5 Passat. Sharing architecture with the Audi A4, the new Passat brought a lot of luxury and refinement to what was becoming an otherwise lackluster vehicle segment in the US. Sure enough, my parents traded their 1997 Honda Accord EX for a 1999 Passat GLS V6 with a 5-speed manual gearbox. It took a while to have the car delivered, since the manual gearbox was a bit of an oddball request, but once they got the car, it was leaps and bounds more engaging than the four cylinder Accord ever was. My parents kept the car for about three years before trading it for a 2000 Mercedes-Benz C280 (which they still have), but I was a big fan of that Passat.
This silver on black leather 2004 Passat for sale in Pennsylvania is the later B5.5 generation, but has the same color and drivetrain combination as the Passat that was in our family, one that I have fond memories of. It was one of those cars that should have stuck around in the garage a bit longer.
