Volkswagen Passat (2020)

Expert Review by Maxabout

Interior

Exterior

Main

Colors

Dashboard

Volkswagen’s Passat redefines class. It’s for people who like to make a statement. It’s for people who love making their presence felt. Not only does it suit their style, but it also provides unmatched comfort and luxury. With its classy exteriors, sophisticated interiors, powerful engine and captivating features, this beauty from Volkswagen is a materialized version of ‘beauty-with-brains’.

Exterior

Volkswagen Passat does not look contemporary, funky or newish. Instead, this Volkswagen beauty touches an epitome of sophistication and class. Right from the chrome finished radiator grille to the elegantly curved headlights, from the shining alloy wheels to the subtle colour combination, everything has been designed perfectly to portray sheer elegance and sophistication. The distinctive features of Volkswagen Passat’s exteriors are the bi- xenon headlights near the grille, and the circular LED Headlights in the front, which give the car a stunning look.

Interior

Volkswagen Passat offers effective front headroom of 951mm and elbow-room of 1466mm, followed up by rear headroom of 960mm and rear elbow room of 1511mm. The car is incredibly spacious, with enough room for five persons to enjoy a comfortable ride.

Comfort and Convenience

When everything is said and done, the one thing that matters most about a car is the comfort it delivers on a long-ride. There’s no point buying a swanky car which gives you backaches and provides little comfort. Volkswagen Passat, however, promises to deliver comfort with power and elegance. To make the journey smoother, it comes with a 3 Spoke multi-functional power steering, which can be tilted, collapsed and adjusted to a comfortable height. The most alluring feature of Volkswagen Passat is, perhaps, the Electric 12 way adjustment and memory function, which allows you to electrically adjust your seats to the desired comfort level. To make things more convenient, Volkswagen offers a cold glove-box, which ensures that your refreshments are kept cool and safe. There’s also Automatic electrical rain sensor wiper which can sense the rain-drops and accordingly switch the wiper to the desired speed. Besides, there’s Cruise Control, which allows you to drive the car at a pre-set speed. There’s also Climate controlled air conditioner, which keeps the temperature of the car cool and calm. Other features of the car include Automatic headlight activation, Electric Sun Blind, Remote-controlled boot opener, and much more.

Music System

Volkswagen Passat comes with RCD 510 touch screen audio system, which outputs the sound to eight 20-watt speakers. The sound-quality is aesthetically pleasing, something which you would expect from a classy sedan. There’s also an AUX-IN port on the front, which allows you to plug in your iPod/Mp3 player/ Cell phone and listen to your favourite tracks.

Engine and Gearbox

Volkswagen Passat comes with a 1968cc diesel engine, which delivers a power of 170 PS at 4200 rpm, and produces a maximum torque of 350 Nm at 1750 rpm. A shaft-module is also included, which reduces the vibrations to minimum. The stylish sedan’s four cylinder engine provides extremely smooth and rapid acceleration. To increase the mileage, especially on city-roads, the six-speed gearbox also supports over-drive functionality on the 5th and the 6th gears.

Mileage

The 2.0 litre diesel engine of Volkswagen Passat delivers an acceptable mileage of 11.5 kmpl in cities and around 14.5 kmpl on highways. To increase the mileage, especially on city-roads, the six-speed gearbox supports the over-drive functionality on the 5th and the 6th gears. It basically allows you to run lower speeds on higher gears without any noticeable shudders. That allows you to reduce emissions and increase the fuel-efficiency of the car.

Safety Features

If there’s one thing which cannot be compromised, it’s the security of the passengers in the car. Talking about active safety features, Volkswagen Passat comes with four air-bags to avert injury to passengers in the event of collision. There’s also ABS (Anti-lock Braking System), and Electronic Parking Brake to provide instantaneous, uniform and efficient braking. Systems like Traction Control and Electronic Stabilization program provide stability to the vehicle and make the ride- smooth and safe. Passive features include engine immobilizer, which prevent the phone from starting up without a valid key. Other passive features include Seat-belt warnings, Door open warnings, Central Locking, Child-window locking and Tubeless Tyres.

Suspension and Brakes

Volkswagen Passat comes with ABS (Anti-lock Braking System), which as the name suggests prevents the wheels from getting locked up on sudden braking. There are two disc brakes provided on the front side, which help in efficient and quick deceleration of the car. There’s also provision of Electronic Parking Brake, which would help the car in holding its ground when it’s parked on inclined slopes.

Tyres

Volkswagen Beetle is packed with 215/55 R16 Milwaukee alloy wheels, which not only make the sedan look stunning, but also ensure a smooth, comfortable ride on bumpy roads. The wide tyres, with anti-theft bolts give Passat an amazing on-road grip. These agile Tubeless tyres don’t skid on slippery or muddy surfaces and can run for miles even with a puncture.

Shades

Volkswagen India has launched the New Passat in five shades: Candy White, Mocha Anthracite Pearl effect, Deep Black Pearle scent, Reflex Silver Metallic and Cashmere Brown Metallic.

Variants

Volkswagen India has launched the New Passat in 3 variants: BlueMotion Trendline, BlueMotion Comfortline and BlueMotion Highline.

Value for Money

Despite its good features and looks, Passat is expensive. Considering the fact that buyers have lots of better options (Honda Accord, Skoda Laura, Hyundai Elantra, Mercedes Benz B-class) in the given price range, we do not foresee many potential buyers for this classy sedan from Volkswagen.

Verdict

There’s just one word that summarizes the look-and-built of Volkswagen’s Passat- Class. Right from the sophisticated interiors to impressive driving dynamics, from power-packed features to elegant exteriors, everything about Volkswagen Passat is classy. Sadly, there are better classy takes at the given price range than Volkswagen Passat. However, if Volkswagen could just slice the price down by a few lakhs, Passat can catch the premium-car segment by storm. Buy this sedan, if you’re inconsolably in love with German engineered cars. Spare this one, if you’re not sure of that.