The eighth-generation Volkswagen Passat saloon and estate, which will cost upwards of £22,215, have made their public debut at the Paris motor show.
The new Passat aims to reach beyond traditional mid-class rivals, such as the Ford Mondeo and Vauxhall Insignia, in a bid to lay challenge to more upmarket offerings including the BMW 3-series and Mercedes-Benz C-class.
Read our latest review of the Volkswagen Passat
The saloon and estate models will be followed by a successor to the Alltrack - due in July next year - and a plug-in hybrid GTE version in October 2015. A third-generation CC will also join the range by the end of next year.
The new Volkswagen Passat is incrementally smaller in places than before but, thanks to the adoption of Volkswagen’s highly flexible MQB platform structure as used in the latest Volkswagen Golf, it is both roomier and more practical than the model it replaces.
At 4767mm in length, 1832mm in width and 1456mm in height, the new Passat is 2mm shorter, 12mm wider and 6mm lower than its predecessor, which originally debuted in 2005 as the sixth-generation model and was subsequently heavily facelifted in 2010 to create the seventh generation model, in saloon guise.
Underpinning the new Volkswagen is a chassis featuring a 79mm longer wheelbase, at 2791mm. It also adopts tracks that are 31mm wider up front and 14mm wider at the rear at 1584mm and 1568mm. The suspension, claimed to weigh 9kg less than before, uses a combination of MacPherson struts up front and a multi-link arrangement at the rear.
As with the latest Volkswagen Golf, a combination of high strength steel, hot-formed steel and aluminium is used within the body structure, contributing to claimed 85kg reduction in weight over the seventh-generation Passat – some 21kg of which is pared from the body alone. The lightest model in the launch line-up, the Passat 1.4 ACT BMT, clocks the scales at 1312kg.
In combination with a new range of petrol and diesel engines – all lighter than their predecessors – the Passat is consequently notably more efficient than before.
The most economical of the launch models, the Passat 2.0 TDI BMTI, is claimed to average 68.9mpg and emit 106g/km of CO2.
Volkswagen's chairman, Martin Winterkorn, revealed the definitive production version of the new Passat at the company's advanced design studio in Potsdam, Germany, earlier this summer. It appears a good deal less rakish than an early batch of official sketches had suggested but builds on the edgy look of its predecessor, albeit with flatter profile aimed at provided it with added visual length.
“It is designed to be a premium car without premium cost and it is designed to be eye-catching without envy," said Winterkorn. “The new Passat also offers more value for money, because it transfers technologies and features into the mid-range segment, which are normally limited to up-market cars.”
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eek!
Good Insignia Rival...
VW much like Audi have also lost the one thing that differentiates a premium product from an also ran, that is the floor mounted throttle pedal, touch screen sat navs are also past there sell by date (a central controller as per BMW is essential in this market).
So Ford...