Volkswagen Passat

It's our most important new model since the Golf II, " Michael Heelas, managing director of Audi Volkswagen in U.K. told me at the press launch of the-new Passat-in the south of France our volume car for the 90s. It will move Volkswagen further up-market, to area's it has not been in before."

Previous Passats had the engine arranged longitudinally. In the new one it has been turned round positioned transversely to make better use of length, as in so many other cars these days. All engines are four-cylinder. For Britain, all are 1781 c.c. Huge boot space and ample rear-seat legroom have resulted from reacting the long coil-sprung struts of the trailing arms rear suspension against the outer corners of the parcel shelf behind the rear seats. For the estate car, however, this tall strut mounting requires towers that do intrude on the load-space.

To reduce sideways deflection of the trailing arms when cornering the rubber bushes in the pivots have flared conical ends with rubber concentrated in diagonally opposed lumps to provide stiffer resistance against the sideways leverage. This careful bit of detail design is to diminish rear-induced oversteer without the expense and space occupation of a pan hard rod.

The Germans, anxious to minimise the effect of catalyser talk about it taking only about 5 per cent of the power output. The difference feels actually more like 15 per cent. The first Passat was with 2-litre 16-valve engine, and it certainly did not offer the sort of sparkling performance one expects of such development The non-catalyser was with l.8-litre GL with simple Mono-Jetronic fuel injection into the inlet manifold centre and with just two valves per cylinder, yet it seemed to respond every bit as well as the more powerful model with four valves per cylinder.

Significant, too, is the fact that the British market will take the 16-valve engine in 1.8-litre form, without catalyser, and it will give the same 136 h.p. as the West Germans' cleaned-exhaust 2-litre 16-valver.

As is the fashion, oil engines for the new Passat have fuel injection, and the three different systems that are used all work well. Between the cheap system, fitted in the CL and GL, and the expensive one for the 16-valve GT, there is an intermediate version of the GT with Digifant injection, giving 112 h.p.

A new feature of the Passat is that the gearchange is cable-operated. One might well groan, on hearing that, if one can remember cars like the Austin Maxi, in which the cable gearchange was imprecise, stiff and trouble; but the Passat application behaves quite satisfactorily, when new, anyway. It has a light action, and an exceptionally narrow gate, with very small separation between first-second and third-fourth planes of movement.

The seats of the Passat are comfortable, with lever-operated height adjustment - although this alters the angle of the cushion – that’s why good visibility is ensured, scuttle line is fairly low and a windscreen well swept by the wipers which park at the base of the screen.

Instrumentation is plain, but clear and the curved nacelle in front of the driver includes three ventilation out­lets, while the radio cassette unit is mounted sensibly high up at the top of the console.

Ventilation is regulated by rotary controls. Much sales talk is spouted by Volkswagen about its adoption of air blending temperature control instead of water valve.

The inlet for the ventilation and heating system is taken from a well at the back of the engine bay, sealed from the engine fumes when the bonnet is down, but without any visible inlet grille.

Volkswagen claims a drag factor of 0.29 for the new Passat, to which no doubt the very neat flush glazing of the windows contributes. GT versions pet a spoiler on the boot lid.

Only two body styles are being offered, saloon and estate car: so there is no hatchback, as there was for the previous Passat. Not just the front seats, but the rear seats too adjust longitudinally and for backrest angle. Consequently, this must certainly be one of the most comfortable medium-range cars for rear seat passengers.

As standard come such features as central locking with dead-locks (no one can open a door without a key, when the car is locked, even if a window has been smashed), and electric heating for the windscreen washers and the door mirrors.

The new Passat also promises to be economical, with all models topping 37 m.p.g. on the Transport Engineer formula, and the GT with Digifant injection reaching an impressive 39.8 m.p.g. The fuel tank is a special plastic moulding, holding 15.4 gal (70 litres).

The VW badge in the centre admits air to the engine for combustion, while cooling air to the radiator is scooped up beneath the bumper. In many ways like these, the new Volkswagen Passat shows signs of careful thought in its design, and it looks set to do well, possibly even at some expense to the Audi 80, since it offers Audi merit without the restric­ted boot space.