Volkswagen Passat

The Passat is a model that has been part of the Volkswagen model range for a long time. The first generation came on the market in 1972 and therefore the model name is older than the Golf. The first model was available in many body styles. A three- or five-door hatchback, a two- or four-door fastback and as a five-door station wagon. The Passat succeeded the Type 3, Type 4 and K70 and thus offered Volkswagen for the first time in a long time a really new family car.

The Passat is a model that has been part of the Volkswagen model range for a long time. The first generation came on the market in 1972 and therefore the model name is older than the Golf. The first model was available in many body styles. A three- or five-door hatchback, a two- or four-door fastback and as a five-door station wagon. The Passat succeeded the Type 3, Type 4 and K70 and thus offered Volkswagen for the first time in a long time a really new family car.

Variants

Divided over eight official model generations (some major facelifts were officially seen as a new generation), the Passat has evolved from a family car to increasingly a business sedan or station wagon. The number of body styles also changed. With generation B2, a traditional sedan version was added. With the arrival of the B3 generation in 1988, the liftback variant was discontinued, after which only the sedan and station wagon remained for a long time. This changed in 2008, when the closely related Passat CC came on the market.

Premium?

The current generation appeared in 2015. Now that the CC was positioned as a model in itself (and has since been replaced by the Arteon), the Passat is once again only available as a sedan and station wagon. With the current model, the Passat shifts more than ever from family car to business car, but according to Volkswagen, the Passat is ‘a premium car without a premium price’. In 2019 the Passat underwent a facelift and that is the model that is now in the showrooms. At the beginning of 2022, the sedan version was removed from the Dutch range.

Passat NMS

The Passat has also been delivered in the US since the first generation. In 2011, this changed to a certain extent. In North America (and China, for the sake of completeness) Volkswagen now supplied its own market-specific model, internally referred to as the Passat NMS (New Midsize Sedan). This Passat is only available as a sedan and is larger than the European ‘worldwide’ model. Under the skin, the ‘Passat NMS’ does share technology with the European model, but the car is otherwise an independent development.

Technical

General

Dimensions/weights

Consumption

Performance