Volkswagen Passat TDI road test

If you’ve never been part of the Passat culture, you’ll probably think this seventh version of Volkswagen’s mid-sized saloon in 37 years is a bit on the tame side.

It’s a sharper-edged and re-nosed iteration of the previous model, even recognisable even from the version before that. Volkswagen likes it that way.

Its bosses believe they struck a pretty good understanding with the family car buyer ‘way back in 1973, which is why they’ve sold, on average, over 1000 Passats every day since then – not counting the burgeoning numbers from China. “We didn’t set out to build a new car,” said one highly-placed engineer from the team responsible for this latest edition, which goes on sale iat the beginning of next year. “We set out to build a new Passat.”

What Volkswagen has done with the 2011 Passat closely echoes what they did a year or so ago with the latest Golf. While the concept is almost identical to the outgoing car (the two are only 4mm apart in overall length, for instance) every component has been honed and improved.

The new car is noticeably quieter- and smooth-riding, the engines (familiar from other Volkswagens are all a little more frugal) and the car, already as well festooned with options as the luxurious Phaeton limousine, is now available with market-leading driver fatigue detection systems, automatic parking (both parallel and rear-on) and a city emergency braking system that protects you from collisions – with metallic objects, not humans – below 20 mph.

Engine choices include a range of direct injection TSI turbo petrol engines (1.4/120bhp, 1.8/158bhp, 2.0/207bhp) and three 16-valve TDI turbodiesels (1.6/104 bhp, 2.0/138bhp, 2.0/168bhp).

All engines are available with six-speed manual or twin-clutch DSG gearboxes (seven speeds for the smaller engines; six for the high-torque models) but Britain won’t get either the offered 4Motion versions, or a forthcoming VR6 version. No demand, say the importers.

We tried a full-house 168bhp diesel with six-speed DSG, and it was superbly smooth and powerful, with a beautifully integrated stop-start system and an abundance of torque that made passing acceleration very accessible and good fuel consumption easy to produce.

The 2011 Passat is noticeably more refined and smooth riding than its predecessor (especially with the adjustable suspension option set in Comfort), though its steering doesn’t have quite the sharpness of a Mondeo.

The new Passat will be launched in India early next year.