2012 Volkswagen Passat Review – VW Gives “Americanizing” Another Shot

Posted by Christian Wardlaw on December 12th, 2011

During the Arab Oil Embargo of the early 1970s, my father bought a 1974 Volkswagen Sun Bug, which was the venerable Beetle equipped with styled steel wheels and a sunroof. It was a manual, it was his daily commuter, and despite its sunshine-gold paint job I thought our new Sun Bug was really cool, partially because the downtown Chicago dealership where he made the purchase had a replica of Herbie The Love Bug sitting in the showroom, and partially because it smelled different inside from every other new car my dad had brought home. It smelled oily and cold and mechanical, like a serious machine. This, I thought before reaching double-digit age, must be what Germany smells like.

Volkswagen’s First Foray Into American Manufacturing

A decade later, Volkswagen was churning out thousands of copies of the Rabbit, a hugely successful hatchback model that replaced the aged Beetle around the globe. In the early 1980s, our Rabbits were built in a new factory constructed in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania and, like other small cars that had originated in Europe but were “imported” for American consumption, were dumbed down with soft suspensions, tacky interiors with fake wood dashboards and crushed velour upholstery, big fat bumpers and extra chrome trim, emissions-strangled engines, and other utterly embarrassing modifications.

These Americanized Rabbits possessed a different character from the German-built Rabbits that had made the model so successful in the U.S. to start with, and it didn’t take long before sales dwindled and VW had to shutter its brand new manufacturing facility and retreat to Germany. Even the Rabbit name disappeared when the second-generation Golf arrived to take its place in 1985.

Now, more than 25 years later, as a part of its quest to double sales globally, Volkswagen is giving Americanization another try.

Modern Americanized Volkswagens

The opening volley was the launch of the Routan minivan, essentially a Dodge Grand Caravan with better seats and a slightly stouter suspension, built in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Let’s just put it this way: the Routan doesn’t come anywhere close to being what a Volkswagen minivan could, and should, be.

Round two was the redesigned, Mexico-sourced 2011 Jetta. The American version of the popular Jetta dispensed with the European model’s soft-touch interior materials, independent rear suspension, and other expensive elements of refinement deemed unnecessary for indifferent U.S. buyers. But Volkswagen clearly knows something the automotive press does not, because the less sophisticated and more profitable new Jetta is selling much better than the more sophisticated and less profitable old Jetta. That, as any B-School grad will tell you, spells success.

Now it’s the Passat’s turn to get the ‘Mericanized treatment, and Volkswagen has opened a brand-new assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee to build it. The new 2012 Volkswagen Passat is bigger inside and out, intended to compete on equal footing against heavy-hitters from Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. What’s more, this Passat is designed specifically for North American consumption, and is related to the European Passat in name only. Sound familiar?

Maybe Americanization Will Work

Vehix’s Michael Waterman has spent plenty of time in the new Passat, driving the 2.5 and TDI versions earlier this year. My turn behind the wheel came in the Passat 3.6 SEL Premium, the most powerful and luxurious variant. Given Volkswagen’s Rabbit experiment of the 1980s, and my general disdain for the Routan and Jetta, I approached the new Passat with a degree of deserved skepticism. But, after a week and several hundred miles of driving, I think the Americanization of Volkswagen might work after all.

The new Passat’s extra interior space and voluminous 15.9 cubic-foot trunk are perfectly sized to serve the target customer, and the conservative styling inside and out ought to remain contemporary and upscale for years to come. Our test Passat 3.6 SEL Premium’s price tag of $32,720 is in line with top trim levels of competing models, and like all Volkswagens the Passat includes free maintenance for the first three years and 36,000 miles of ownership. And though the Passat is now built in Chattanooga, only 40 percent of its parts are sourced in North America. In fact, the 3.6-liter V6 engine and six-speed automatic come straight out of der Vaterland, which means that while the Passat is aimed right at American families, it’s still German at heart.

Buick Ride Quality, German Handling

Better yet, the new 2012 Volkswagen Passat is a surprisingly adept handler. I describe the handling as “surprising” because the Passat’s suspension is tuned to absorb road abrasions, and in an old-school, Buick LeSabre kind of way. This Volkswagen glides over the road, bobbing and woozing over bumps and dips, enough to make someone car sick. But when you toss the Passat into a corner, it exhibits unexpected lateral composure. Body roll is limited, the all-season Hankook tires gripping without squealing, and scrubbing well in advance of the limit of adhesion. Even when you’re not pushing the boundaries of physics, the Passat delivers plenty of aural and tactile information about the road surface while it soaks up impact harshness. Really, the Passat’s suspension tuning is remarkable, though we certainly do wish vertical body motions were a bit better controlled.

Once we learned that we could trust the Passat to tackle corners with gusto, we stepped up our pace on the roads laced atop the Santa Monica Mountains. Running hard down to the beach, the brakes displayed no fade, but it was a rather blustery SoCal winter day so this wouldn’t be expected anyway. Occasionally, the brake pedal required a harder push than expected to engage the binders, but this is characteristic of many VWs. The steering was faultless: responsive, communicative, and perfectly weighted.

Entertaining V6 Engine

The Passat’s 3.6-liter narrow-angle V6 engine, dubbed VR6, emits a uniquely characteristic grumble, almost like that of a horizontally opposed Porsche or Subaru engine. With 280 horsepower at 6,200 rpm and 258 pound-feet of torque between 2,500 and 5,000 rpm, the Passat provides plenty of power in a straight line, enough that the front wheels often struggle to retain grip. When necessary, the stability and traction control systems step in appropriately and in subtle but decisive fashion.

And Now, a Few Complaints

Aside from the Passat’s soft suspension tuning, we’ve got no complaints about this Volkswagen’s driving dynamics. Rather, our issues pertain to the seats, the driving position, interior road noise, and incessant buzzing over rougher road textures, like the Passat has more than one screw loose.

German seats are supposed to be awesome. The Passat’s, though comfortable enough during a five-hour road trip, are not awesome. Acceptable is a more adept adjective here. The power driver’s seat offers eight-way power adjustment including lumbar support, which means it lacks individual adjustment for thigh support. Thus, you can choose to sit tall with zero thigh support, or sit low with merely adequate thigh support. Bah! No good, VW.

Here’s another problem that I had. I have long arms and legs, but found the pedals to be too close and the telescopic steering wheel, even extended as close to me as possible, requiring more of an arms-out position than I prefer. The center armrest slides forward but doesn’t ratchet up like in older VWs, and the softly padded upper door panel is too far away to rest an elbow while driving. I also found the way the steering column and pedals were offset toward the center of the car to be uncomfortable, and the accelerator and braking pedals too close to one another. As a result, this is not a car that begs to be driven all day, even if you can get out of it after half a day without feeling sore.

Looking at the Passat’s styling, interior design, and cabin materials, you expect a luxury car experience while underway. Unfortunately, the cabin is not very well insulated from road noise. On certain types of pavement – fresh blacktop, for example – the Passat is hushed. But on lots of other road surfaces it most certainly is not quiet, with enough road roar coming in from under and behind the driver’s seat to require raised voices for conversation. And on rougher road textures, some of our test car’s bits and pieces would vibrate, creating a buzzing like a bunch of screws were loose.

Conservative Design Will Look Good for a Long Time

Still, despite these flaws, that Volkswagen badge and the Passat’s Audiesque design cues are undeniably appealing as an alternative to the Malibu, Fusion, Accord, Altima and Camry. At a rest area located between Buellton and Santa Barbara, we parked next to a couple munching snacks out of the trunk of a new 2012 Toyota Camry SE. Emerging from the rest room, I caught the man checking the new Passat out and as I strapped in and reversed from my space, noticed that he was stealing glances at the Platinum Gray VW.

Accelerating back onto the southbound 101 freeway at full throttle, letting the Camry-driving gentleman contemplate the Passat 3.6’s exhaust note and staid, Germanic derriere, I realized that while this sizable Volkswagen is now designed specifically for Americans and built in America, it most certainly retains German-brand cachet to the average buyer. That’s good news for VW. The better news is that this is the first Americanized Volkswagen that critics like me can embrace.

Related posts:

1. First Drive – 2012 Volkswagen Passat a Family Friendly Winner
2. 2012 Volkswagen Passat Named Motor Trend Car of the Year
3. 5 Zero-Down Leasing Deals from Volkswagen on Jetta, Passat, Beetle and Golf
4. 2012 Volkswagen Passat Priced Under $20K
5. Volkswagen Sales Up 39 Percent in October
6. 9 Volkswagen Vehicles Named Top Safety Picks
7. Review – 2012 Volkswagen Beetle Earns Its Road Trip Stripes
8. Review – The People Review the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle

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