The traditional middle class car is suffering. People nowadays want SUV's, and manufacturers tend to mainly focus on them as well.
That can be seen in the life cycle of the traditional D-segment car, because that's being stretched to an enormous amount.
Take this Volkswagen Passat for example. It's been around for five years, and only now they've facelifted it for the first time.
As you can see, we've got the facelifted GTE here, because that's one of the most interesting changes in the new Passat.
We'll talk about the technology in a minute. The previous GTE was recognizable by the LED-corners over here. Other Passat's
have different bumpers, different headlights and a different grille. And I can hear you think, the changes aren't that big.
And you're right, because you almost don't see it. At the rear, they've changed some things as well. Different rear lights for example,
more LED-possibilities just like at the front, and the Passat-badge is now spreaded across the whole bootlid.
Right. The GTE is returning. There have been times that the GTE was incredibly popular because of the low additional taxes.
However, despite the fact that the additional taxes aren't very low anymore, they're still very popular as company cars.
Some companies only allow cars with emissions below 100 grams. That's why Volkswagen has decided to deliver the GTE in...
the Netherlands again. So what's new about this GTE compared to its predecessor?
It's still powered by the 1.4-litre TSI petrol engine, producing 156 horsepower. There's an electric motor producing 115 horsepower...
and the system output is 218 horsepower. New however is the lithium-ion battery in the back, which now produces 13,3 kWh.
So what does that mean? It can go further on a single charge on purely electric force. It can do 56 km to be exact according to WLTP.
The previous GTE did 50 km according to NEDC, so if you would translate the current WLTP-range to NEDC, this GTE would do 70 km.
Anyway, nice theoretic numbers, but if you're able to do 40 km fully electrically on a single charge, you're doing good.
We're not trying that in the German hills today though, we'll test that when we're back in the Netherlands.
When the battery is fully charged and you won't drive off in a very rash manner, you'll be able to do 130 km/h fully electrically.
That's very neat. On the other hand, the renewed Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV does that as well.
Is there anything new in the interior then? Well, first of all, the clock has disappeared. It now only says Passat.
It must be cheaper, but I always liked the clock. It fancied up the interior. Other than that, there's not a lot wrong...
with the materials and ergonomics, so there hasn't been a lot of changes. They have implemented a new phase of the digital instrument cluster.
It has new graphics but no changed functions. The steering wheel has a different design as well.
The Passat-interior always looked good, it was always at the top of the D-segment. But I have to say, if I look at the middle console...
it's clear that the rivals have made steps as well.
Driving the Passat is incredibly comfortable. It's not a car which involves you in the drive. The chassis is quiet,
the handling is good, the seating is pretty low... It's a nice refreshment from the higher SUV's, if you're looking for the D-segment feeling.
Not only the GTE has been facelifted on technological level. All engines have received new parts or have been improved.
Interesting for the Netherlands is the 1.5-litre TSI, which produces 150 horsepower. All of the TSI's and TDI's have been changed.
The new 2.0-litre TDI even has new crankshafts, new bearings, new injectors, so they all fall under the Euro 6 D Temp-rules.
This GTE even falls under the regular Euro 6-rules. Right, at the top of the range, there has been a change as well.
In Germany, the R-Line Edition is available. That's a matte gray Passat with a very agressive black front fascia.
You can only get that with a 2.0-litre TSI producing 272 horsepower, or a 2.0-litre BiTDI producing 240 horsepower.
If you were hoping on the latter, there's some bad news for you, because it won't be coming to the Netherlands.
When it comes to active driving aids, the Passat has made quite the leap. The new adaptive cruise control and lane keeping...
is able to be set up to 210 km/h, which helps you keep distance to the cars in front.
What I especially find interesting is the traffic sign recognition. Partly because of the satnav, it's able to look forward very far.
So if you're doing 170 km/h in Germany and you need to go to 120 km/h in the distance, it'll anticipate very quickly.
That works pretty well. It's able to keep it between the lines, but not in an impressive manner or anything.
When it comes to driving aids, Mercedes and Tesla are still on a level of their own.
Technically speaking, the Passat is up to date again and the GTE has made a lot of new steps.
I still miss something though. You won't get as excited from the drive as in a Mazda 6, or from the design like from a 508 SW.
On the other hand, it's a Passat. For eight generations the Passat has been the easy going, unexciting but very good car.
That's why it reaches those high sales numbers. Numbers the Mazda 6 and Peugeot 508 can only dream of.