Volkswagen Passat

Volkswagen launched their popular saloon car in 1973 and – although it has been presented in various guises since then – remains one of their most popular models. Since 2008, the Passat has also been available in what Volkswagen call a four door coupé version, too. At the moment, the German car giant markets two versions of the Passat across the world. As recently as January 2011, Volkswagen said that its new mid-size sedan would be the Passat variant that would be aimed at the American car buying public and this would be made from their US assembly plant in Chattanooga.

The Passat was developed by Volkswagen following their takeover of Audi back in the 1960s. They used Audi’s expertise with front driven, water cooled engines to develop both the Passat and the smaller Golf. When the Passat first reached mass production, you could also buy an Audi branded version, known as the Audi 80, which had very few differences from the original.

In 2010, the Passat went through a thorough redesign by the German technicians. These were style changes which made quite a deal of difference to the look of the exterior of the model. The roof and windows were altered and there were prominent redesigns made to the front grille and headlights, too. Some minor alterations were made to the Passat’s interior, but the dashboard layout has remains unchanged for years. Later that year, Volkswagen launched the Passat Alltrack which upsized the model so that it might compete in the SUV market.