Pulling slowly out of a church car park, I noticed that the Passat CC turns heads. The family man loading his children into the S-Max looked on longingly. The BMW 3 Series driver’s eye betrayed his fear that my car might be more expensive than his.
I can understand his searching questions. The nose and profile are unmistakably Volkswagen and have nearly the same presence in the executive car park as the blue and white discs or three-pointed star.
Despite its obvious similarity to the Mercedes CLS (the one that reminds some of a banana), the Passat manages a less controversial look. The crisp fold of the rear wing carries your eye to its striking and classy tailgate treatment.
The only downside to these beautiful tapering lines, it occurred to me, might be that the boot is not just invisible (as it is on any saloon) but also harder to imagine. If it were designed like the old Vauxhall Belmont, even though you couldn’t see it you could picture the big box behind the window and, nine times out of 10, stop before backing into something.
But ask any girl in high heels and she’ll tell you that sometimes it’s worth paying the price of zero practicality to look really, really good. After all, no one wants to look like a Belmont. And with modern technology, you don’t need a predictable rear-end – you can just flick a switch and let the car park itself. Or so I thought.
Despite my best efforts and those of my co-pilot, we simply couldn’t get it to recognise the parking spaces of central London. So if you are close to buying one of these, insist the salesman demonstrate it to you. You’ll never figure it out alone and it’s embarrassing to go back, especially if you have hit something in the interim experimentation (although that’s unlikely as the sensors bleep long before there is any danger).
Inside, the seats have a finish that I imagine Batman would approve of. It looks so durable, yet modern in shape, colour and textile. There is also a nod to the traditional and the painstaking in its finish quality – from the stitching to the shut lines.
Equipment-wise, the Passat CC comes with everything you’d expect in a car of this calibre, so I won’t bore you with the list; there are more important things to discuss.
The Volkwagen is a big car (4,799mm long, so about the same as a Range Rover). Big cars, just to get off the line, require a big engine. The coupe-like lines and positioning of this car mean that if it is to stand a chance in the private market it must demonstrate some dynamic qualities too.
So hazard a guess as to how big the smallest engine in this Passat CC is – 2.5 litres? 3.0 litres? More? Oh no. You can take this Passat home on Volkswagen’s new 1.8 litre turbo engine. Which sounds ridiculous, but I assure you it is very impressive. I have been stopped for a chat by the police in the past and it wasn’t for driving too slowly. So you can trust me when I tell you the 1.8 turbo does not give an underpowered, lacklustre or unrefined experience.
Sure, you need be in the right gear if you plan to overtake or leave a roundabout with any gusto. But no more so than a modern diesel engine. Unlike the smaller brothers of this engine range (the 1.4 turbo replaced the normal aspirated 1.6 in much of the VW range), the 1.8 doesn’t have the metallic coarseness when pushed hard.
Everything about this car works like a well-oiled machine, a machine that responds to a light touch. The steering is feather-light, which is a joy in town. It also feels like it handles slightly more precisely than the Mercedes CLS when pushed through some B road twists.
What’s the market like?
There are several hundred nearly new Passat CCs in the market. There are a few score in supermarkets that are pushing out the 1.8T models for prices just under £17,000. But main dealers are not far off. Ex-fleet cars are mainly found with the 2.0 TDi engine, which comes in at £1,500 more but offers 50mpg to the 1.8’s 37mpg and is two insurance groups lower.
What else can this budget buy?
The only direct competitor is the Mercedes CLS. But it is only a direct competitor if you feel the brands are on the same level and overlook the differences in new car price and engine line up. The cheapest CLS in the used market will be two years older and £2,000 more. That will be a 3.0 CDI engine giving you 37mpg (like the small petrol) and insurance group 18. But, then, it was twice the price of the Passat CC when new. So it’s a lot of car for the money in that respect.
Summary
An elegant design that turns heads and delivers a smooth, refined drive. Every inch a competitor to the Mercedes CLS and, by virtue of its smaller engine, available to those on smaller budgets even if it is not cheaper in value terms.
By: Matthew Tumbridge