Sweet car. Every one I looked at was 35K and up. Tiguan was nice as well but pricy.
We went Volkswagen driving yesterday. The Jetta is just too small. Nice car. Well priced. Just too small. It makes our Accord seem like a giant.
The Passat is a pretty nice ride. Exterior styling is about as bland as white paint but the interior is first rate all the way except for the vinyl seats (VW calls it V-tex, but it's plastic - not leather). It has HUGE amounts of interior space and the seats are comfy. Power was adequate with the 5 cylinder and road noise was about the same as our Accord. It drives very well. Sadly lots of people on the net are complaining about electrical gremlins and having issues with the doors and deck lid not closing well... and it's too many different people complaining about the same issues to just ignore them.
Our hunt is still on.
The Accord and Outback are still on our short list.