Well we took delivery of the Passat.
It is a very impressive little car. I took it out for a drive after my assistant picked it up and the little Turbo 4-cylinder was plenty responsive and is supposed to turn out 30mpg to boot. I couldn't quite get it to spin a 'donut' in the rear lot, but I suspect that if I tried a little harder it would have done it.
As far as a comparison between the Honda Accord & the VW Passat, the Passat has more standard equipment, a longer warranty, is rated as safer with 6 air bags standard (not that I'd want anyone to actually test that out) both come with anti-lock brakes but the VW adds ESP stability control. Just playing around with it, I really liked the dial setting on the seat heater to adjust the heat level. I thought the way the rear seats folded down was very well designed, it allows for 40/60/100% drop of the rears, but even with the seats down the rear sun-shade is operational (very nice touch because it helps blocks the view of the cargo). The trunk is nice, it has a low lift over height and is both flat bottomed and very deep for cargo storage. The seats in this one are leather, but all manually controlled. The controls were very smooth and allowed for a full range of adjustment including vertical rise, which is something many manual seats don't offer.
Consumer reports claims it has a smother and quieter ride, higher resale value, with better handling and performance. For the last 6 years the Passat has been consumer reports #1 pick over the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.
I noticed on Edmunds website the owner's rating for the Passat was slightly higher than the owner's rating for the Accord. I've never heard a bad thing about the Hondas and people seem to love them, but so far VW is really impressing me.