"Old friend" Passat, living out the "sense of youth"

"Old friend" Passat, living out the "sense of youth" | test drive

2021-12-13 22:11:01

We use four key words to restore the new face of this "old friend".

The full text is 2212 words, and it takes about 4 minutes to read.

20 years ago, the Passat was a symbol of status; this mid-to-high-end sedan, which has just been introduced into domestic production, represents the design trend and technological strength of the Volkswagen brand, and has won the favor of domestic consumers, especially the social elite, with its product strength comparable to luxury cars.

10 years ago, Passat was a model of "IKEA"; it was no longer exclusive to government compounds and corporate executives, but quietly entered the homes of ordinary people and became the most reliable partner of the middle class.

Now, Passat is the bridgehead of SAIC Volkswagen's "docking with the new generation of consumers"; it moves with the trend and achieves a youthful state of product power through a series of targeted adjustments.

"Old friend" Passat, living out the "sense of youth" | test drive

More than 20 years of evolution and metamorphosis, what kind of Passat has been created? Through the test drive, we used four key words to restore the new look of this "old friend".

Keywords: juvenile feeling

In the traditional impression of consumers, the design of medium-sized cars is flat, stable, dignified, and even somewhat conservative. But in a new round of trend evolution, mid-size cars are breaking the mold, radical, sporty, young, basically subverting stereotypes.

Unfortunately, even 3 years ago, the replacement of Passat did not include "young and sporty" in the model label, but continued to strengthen the "sense of high-end, exquisite", although the overall tone still continued the Passat's as high-level and calm as ever, but invisibly also opened up the distance between it and the new generation of consumers.

The new Passat after this redesign completely tears off the old label and injects the most scarce "juvenile feeling" into the genes of the design.

The most noteworthy thing is that the new car provides two appearance kits - the newly designed starry sky front face adopts a more radical and avant-garde design language, using parametric methods to arrange dotted modeling elements, and the entire front face conveys a fashionable and dynamic atmosphere.

The Passat we test drove belongs to the front face of the dot-array Seiko grille, which continues the classic design language of the Passat family and shows a more luxurious texture.

Whether it is the front face of the starry sky or the front face of the dot-array Seiko grille, it is equipped with a horizontal luminous light strip connected to the headlights on both sides, running through the front face, full of futuristic feeling.

Coming to the side, the new Passat adopts a double waistline design, a new style of wheel hub is used below, and the biggest change in the rear is the use of through-line light sets. As for the body size, the new Passat only slightly lengthens the length of the car, the overall change is not much, the slender body plus exquisite lines, giving people a sense of solemnity and strength.

Keywords: comfort

Compared with the exterior, the evolution of the new Passat interior is less obvious, and the biggest change is that it has been equipped with a new style steering wheel, which looks more fashionable.

Privately, the biggest essence of the Passat is still in the back row - 2871 mm wheelbase, let people lie on all fours, adjust the angle of the headrest, pull up the rear sun blind, adjust the air conditioning to the warmest temperature, this cold winter seems to say goodbye to me...

If you look closely, you will find that the rear of the new Passat is not simple - the seats are made of delicately textured grained perforated leather, and the process is in line with the more advanced Hui Ang, the polygonal gradient check with the stitching process, the full shape supplemented by the exquisite piping design, the visual sense of honor; coupled with the 4-way X-Woks headrest, it has the taste of "executive car".

Of course, regret is not nothing, the public "ancestral" central passage uplift, so that the passengers in the middle of the rear row of the feet slightly embarrassed.

Keyword: smoothness

The fuel version of the new Passat offers a powertrain of 280TSI, 330TSI and 380TSI.

Our test-drive 380TSI belongs to the high-power version of the 2.0T engine, this third-generation EA888 engine has a maximum power of 162 kW and a peak torque of 350 Nm. The transmission is a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission code-named DQ381, compared to the DQ380 version, the new gearbox in addition to the optimization of the mechanical structure, but also supports start-stop at a speed of 7km/h, which can theoretically bring better fuel economy.

The performance of this powertrain has actually been verified on many of Volkswagen's models, whether it is speed efficiency or fuel economy. With a maximum torque of 350 Nm at 1500 rpm, this 2.0T engine won't disappoint you whether it's starting or accelerating after running. What's more, the transmission has been optimized to be smoother, and even the usual break-up between the second and third gears has become very slight.

To sum up, the powertrain is becoming more and more smooth, but the high efficiency advantage of the dual-clutch transmission is still there, and its gear shift is positive enough to keep up with the driving thinking of the average driver. Moreover, the new generation of Passat is not dragged by the wide body of nearly 5 meters long, and its driving experience is still flexible, and it can accelerate from stationary to 100km/h in just over 7 seconds.

The chassis of the new Passat is still centered on taking care of the riding experience, and the suspension structure form of the front McPherson + rear multi-link is the "standard" of this level, and the ironing of the road surface is very suitable, especially when the curves and undulating roads are over, giving people a feeling of being invisible. As for the control, "fist to flesh" obviously can't be done, but the foot feeling of the throttle and brake is relatively soft, and it is absolutely easy to drive.

Keyword: ease

In addition to the breakthrough in appearance, the new Passat is more advanced in terms of configuration, and more importantly - it is simple and easy to use.

For example, IQ.Light headlights can not only greet the owner, when the vehicles intersect, you can adjust the headlight illumination range in real time, not causing the other party to be dazzling while illuminating more areas, making driving safer and more convenient.

In addition, the addition of MOS intelligent vehicle connection system and Travel Assist full-journey intelligent driving assistance system has also enabled the new Passat to reach the leading level of model intelligence.

For example, in terms of vehicle and machine systems, the new Passat is equipped with saic-volkswagen's latest generation of intelligent vehicle connection system, combined with the SAIC Volkswagen super APP, which allows car owners to enjoy a series of online services including smart navigation, smart connected car control, smart entertainment, smart home, smart speakers and so on. In particular, it is worth mentioning that the new Passat not only supports mobile phone remote control of the vehicle, but also the owner can use the smart watch to control the air conditioning in the car, vehicle unlocking and other functions, which is also convenient enough.

If you don't like these complex car machine functions, then the new Passat also prepares car and machine interconnection for users such as Carplay/Carlife, and the operation is very simple and smooth.

I also prefer the Travel Assist full-journey intelligent driver assistance system of this car, which has BSD blind spot monitoring, ACC adaptive cruise, Lane Assist lane keeping system, RTA rear reversing emergency braking, Pre-Crash preventive occupant protection system...

The button on the left side of the steering wheel can open the adaptive cruise function, not only can automatically follow the car at full speed, the speed and the distance can also be adjusted, more importantly, when there is a vehicle jam in front of it, its braking performance is not abrupt, and it will not make passengers feel nervous or uncomfortable. All in all, it's a very smart, very easy and convenient driver assistance system to turn on.

Write at the end

The youthful evolution of the new Passat products reflects SAIC Volkswagen's keen insight into the needs of its target groups, and this spirit of constantly surpassing itself and making unremitting progress also reflects the target group, further interpreting the image and connotation of the SAIC Volkswagen brand. In other words, the significance of Passat to SAIC Volkswagen has changed from "establishing a flagship image" many years ago to a bridgehead role of "docking the new generation of consumers" in the new stage.

"Old friend" Passat, living out the "sense of youth" | test drive

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