A refined cruiser

Volkswagen is about to launch the new Volkswagen Passat onto Indian shores. We take a long highway drive with the car

Firstly, apologies for the delay in this column. There is a joke in the Automotive media that every car that Volkswagen, indeed the entire Volkswagen Group (in India with Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, Skoda and VW) makes is a derivative of one sort or another of the Golf hatchback. Well, other than the supercars. And frankly that is not a bad thing, because the Golf although not available in India is a stellar product. It has remained one of the best-selling cars in Western Europe for seven generations over four decades, and it is the Golf and not the Beetle that is the cornerstone of this German company’s success.

Now, the Volkswagen Group (VWG) has moved beyond the ubiquitous Golf platform, to their new MQB platform that underpins many of their products that use transversely mounted engines. This allows every Volkswagen factory anywhere in the world to produce any MQB platform based car on the production line thanks to basic underlying similarities. Volkswagen also has two other platforms, their ‘New Small Car’ platform and their large platform the ‘MLB’ platform. But back to the MQB, which underpins the new Passat that we are writing about. This made its debut in India on the Skoda Octavia in 2014, it also underpins the Skoda Superb and Skoda Kodiaq, the Audi A3 and Audi TT and the recently launched Volkswagen Tiguan. These cars all look and feel very different, one is a small roadster, others SUV’s and the sedans are all of various lengths, displaying just how versatile the platform is, but it was developed for well, the Volkswagen Golf.

So we come to the Volkswagen Passat, which has always been Volkswagen’s large sedan. Unlike the Jetta that was basically a Golf with a boot, just like the Vento is a Polo with a boot in India, the Passat always looked and felt slightly different because it was larger and plusher. And on that front, the car that Volkswagen are bringing to India sometime early next year ticks all the boxes. It is very comfortable, but it is also now based on the new MQB platform. Now, Volkswagen has been organising impressive media drives and we drove the Passat between Udaipur and Jaipur, not taking the straight road via Beawar and Ajmer, instead driving via Bhilwara on the newly created National Highway 758 which has just become an excellent four-lane highway, if it just weren’t for suicidal bovines.

On this drive I did two things, the first was pretty much driving for long distances on cruise control. I have been using a lot of cruise control on highway drives abroad recently, but I have rarely used it in India other than on the Yamuna Expressway. Most modern Volkswagen Group cars have a very intuitive and simple cruise control system. Set the car at 90 kilometers an hour and keep both your feet of the pedal. If you want to increase or decrease, you press the ‘+’ and ‘-’ buttons on the steering wheel, and if you have to brake and drive around a cow or a truck once you hit a clear road again just press the resume button. If you want to get to the set speed a bit fast, just put the car in sport mode. It is really effortless, and controlling the set speed with your left thumb instead of your right foot, much less stressful. Yes, this is not unique to the Passat in the Volkswagen range, but you only get to try such features out on longer drives and thanks to the Volkswagen communications team for that and also a word of thanks to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). I have no clue of the logic behind highway numbering in India anymore and highways numbers have changed all over the place, as an example, it isn’t NH8 anymore if you’re going between Delhi and Jaipur but NH48. But the four landing process is showing impressive results and frankly have delivered some very good roads.

Now the other thing about the Passat. It is supremely comfortable. While we swapped around on the drivers seat, I fell asleep at the back. I genuinely do not sleep much in cars, no matter how comfortable they are, but equipped with air suspension and plush leather seats, I belted in at the back, as all responsible people should do and passed out. This was while my co-passengers decided to go on a slight cross-country drive to the Sambhar Salt Lake, a dry lakebed near the town of Dudu, about a 60 kilometres ahead of Jaipur. The roads were bumpy, but I slept through the entire journey. Sure I was tired after an early start, but I was out for so long, I did not even realise that we had reached our destination. So marks for the Passat there as well.

How does the Passat drive? Well, it has the same two-litre EA189 engine that does service on many mid-sized VWG cars in india, tuned in this case to 174 horsepower. Which is more than enough for a car of its size, in Sport mode it can move pretty fast as well when you put the pedal down. But it is more of a refined car, meant for cruising. It handles very well, although highways in Rajasthan are fairly straight you have to confidence to take turns without bleeding off too much speed. As for ride comfort, as I said I slept through the worst patch of road we drove on.

The Passat will come at two trim levels, priced at between 35 - 38.5 lakh, which would be very good value, if it wasn’t for a slight issue. That issue is called the Skoda Superb, which is slightly bigger but slightly cheaper with the same diesel engine and gearbox. While the new Passat looks very good indeed, the new Superb is well, superb to look at. It comes down actually to the badge you want? And on that front both these cars have a cousin, the Audi A4, which while much more expensive has badge-cred. And that is the problem when you have so many brands under the same roof.

Anyway, later this week this column will be back with its regular Friday slot. If you have any questions or comments you can reach me via my Twitter handle @kushanmitra