I am wondering if anyone has had any problems buying so called one year corporate lease cars, or dealings with upper east coast dealerships I should be aware of. Or things to look for or beware of prior to buying the car?

I am probably buying a 2007 used Passat wagon, narrowed to two possibilities, Arctic Blue or Dark Gray both with gray interior.
The Arctic Blue has package 2 (leather seats) - 17" with Michelin Radial XSE the Dark Gray has Pkg 1 leatherette with 16" alloy wheels and Conti Pro Contact Sport.
The Arctic Blue is $3,400 more.

I will probably buy the Dark Gray for financial reasons mostly.
I am wondering if there were any specific features to the pkg 2 which one only appreciates once the car has been enjoyed for awhile, which I thus would be overlooking? (like maybe in the dash board menu, besides access from steering wheel?

Has anyone experienced the back seat of the leather as being more comfortable than the leatherette or good experiential reason for preferring one material over the other?

Has anyone done any serious comparison between the ride of a 16" alloy wheel versus a 17"?
Clearly the 17" looks better. But I expect it to be a harder ride than the 16" due to the 16" having more rubber or meat to the tire.
I drive some gnarly bumpy dirt roads.

Any detail, accessory or perc worth negotiating prior to signing the deal?

 

just read a review where the Passat driver said his 2007 Passat has had failed brakes, stalled and not restarted on the freeway and been in the shop 45 days in the first 6 months.

Anyone else have or know of failures or extra service beyond routine in this most recent 2.0 T model?

I understand there is a class action suit regarding flooding of the interior, but research indicates this was a failure to clean out leaves and debris from the air intake below the window, clogging the drains.

Some reports of unintended acceleration seem perhaps user error.

Reports of oil consumption attributed to the recent model seem actually to be older models.

Other knowledge?