VW Passat sharper and more frugal

The Passat has been given a noticeable style-up with stronger lines from the headlights and flowing along the shoulder leading the eye first, and throwing in loud hints of VW’s flagship Phaeton.

The party trick for the new Passat is Easy Open – a system that lets you open the boot with a wave of your foot under the bumper bar, which is sure to appeal to people who plan to approach the car with arms full of work, shopping or children (and sometimes all three). There’s also bi-xenon headlamps with Dynamic Light Assist, which adjusts automatically to oncoming traffic.

And there’s more attention been given under the bonnet, where the engines have been upgraded, with stop-start technology and battery regeneration being added to the diesels as part of VW’s continuing push towards more fuel efficiency for every car in their stable.

The petrol side of things also gets eco-help to trim fuel consumption, while a natural gas and an ethanol engine will be in the range in Europe. The latter is E85 compatible and slated for Sweden and Norway over there, but could join our range.

The range of engines is generous: the petrol ones being direct-injected 90kW 1.4 TSI, 118kW 1.8 TSI, 155kW 2.0 TSI, turbocharged 220kW V6, turbocharged 110kW 1.4 natural gas, and a 118kW E85-compatible engine.

There are four turbodiesels with three power outputs: 77kW 1.6 TDI, 103kW 2.0 TDI and 2.0 Blue TDI, 125kW 2.0 TDI four-cylinders. And except for the 77kW, all can have VW’s twin-clutch DSG.

VW says their fuel consumption work has borne fruit across the engine range, with the 1.4 TSI as a prime example using just 5.8L/100km and emitting just 138g/km of CO2,  while the stop-start technology and battery regenerative capture have cut the consumption on the 1.6 TDI BlueMotion from 4.4L/100km to 4.2L/100km.