Culture|Garage

Let me begin with that I fell in love with this car last Thursday when we were being passed by a sparkling silver Passat CC in Krakow on the way to the airport, it had such a presence on the road that you wouldn’t expect it for a car that will be priced starting in America under $27,000.

The Passat CC (Concept Coupe) is stacked between the regular Passat sedan and the Phaeton which is still sold in Europe. VW expects 60% of CC sales will be in the U.S. alone, and production of the car is expected to top 300,000 units over the next seven years, hoping to surpass the only look-a-like contender in this segment which is the Mercedes Benz CLS that costs twice as much.

Once again we will lose out on many high-tech/luxury options that will be available in Europe that include Lane Assist (it senses when the car drifts out of the lane and steers it right back), Park Assist (automatic parking feature), Active Climate Control (perforated heated/cooled seating), and Adaptive Cruise Control (self adjusting cruise control). Some of the options that we will see at launch are Adaptive Chassis Control which adjusts the suspension damping and steering ratio for sport, comfort, or normal driving and a back-up camera that hides behind the VW logo in the rear.

North America will see two variants of the Passat CC: a 2.0 TSI engine with 200hp and 207lb-ft of torque, available with either a six-speed manual or six-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission or the 3.6L FSI, rated at 280hp and 266lb-ft of torque. The 3.6L FSI comes standard with VW’s 4Motio system and the six-speed Tiptronic transmission. We can only dream about a TDi CC for now.

The Passat CC is definitely a car to watch out for this year, a great buy for under $27,000 for people wanting the styling of a four door coupe but don’t want to spend a lot in doing so.

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