2012 Volkswagen Passat

Volkswagen's Passat replacement, still called the Passat, grows to large-midsize, will sticker for as little as $20,000 and gets an optional 2.0-liter turbodiesel. The car, which is making its debut at the 2011 Detroit show, goes on sale by this September. VW's spin on the Accord-sized and -priced 2012 Passat is that it represents "accessible German engineering." It's a key component in VW's quest to sell 800,000 cars and sport/utilities in the United States by 2018.
2012 Volkswagen Passat Cabin
VW has a long way to go to those sales volumes, part of VW's world domination plans that entail passing Toyota to become the largest automaker by mid-decade. VW, exclusive of Audi, sold about 260,000 cars and sport/utilities here last year, and expects to sell about 300,000 here in '11. The 2012 Passat should sell in more or less equal numbers as the new Jetta, a model that has long been the bestselling European nameplate in North America, selling in the low 100,000s.
To appeal to a wider audience, mostly Toyota, Honda and Hyundai owners, VW is replacing the smallish-midsize Passat with an Accord-sized 191.7-inch long four-door sedan on a 110.4-inch wheelbase. VW claims best-in-class rear-seat legroom. Strictly speaking, the new Passat doesn't share its platform with anything else sold in North America, though VW has commonized its transverse-engine models (which is just about everything) into the MQB component set. That means the Passat will share many components with the Mexican-built Jetta, among others.
2012 Volkswagen Passat Rear Three Quarter Driver Side
Base engine will be the unimpressive 170-horsepower 2.5-liter inline five, the Jetta's volume engine, supplied out of Mexico. The German-built 280-horsepower, 3.6-liter VR6 engine will be optional, as well as an updated version of VW's 2.0-liter turbodiesel four with 140-horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque, which Volkswagen expects will earn a 43-mpg highway fuel mileage number from the EPA. Built in Poland, the TDI relies on urea aftertreatment to clean emissions.
A five-speed manual will be offered with the 2.5 and the turbodiesel will be offered with a six-speed manual, while the VR6 will be offered with the sequential manual gearbox. A six-speed automatic will be optional with all engines. While the Passat goes from being a midsize car on the small end of that spectrum to one on the large side, it loses almost 80 pounds, VW says.
The chassis features a multi-link rear suspension, with MacPherson struts up front.
2012 Volkswagen Passat Side View
Just like the 2.0-liter base '11 Jetta, the '12 Passat will start with a low-priced version featuring the 2.5-liter five, for about $20,000, "a breakthrough price for VW," one executive says. Intelligent crash response, automatic climate control and a three-year, 36,000-mile free maintenance plan will be standard.
The heart of the new Passat will probably be in the $25,000 to $28,000 territory, with such features as keyless entry, remote start and wheels as large as 18-inches, options that VW says don't matter as much to European buyers. Upper trim levels will be available with any of the three engines, and VW isn't saying whether the diesel or the VR6 will be the more expensive powertrain.
Assembly begins in VW's new Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant later this year. The factory has a capacity of 150,000 cars per year on two shifts, although with minor changes such as the addition of more robots, it can expand annual production to 250,000. And there's room to double the factory's footprint, for up to 500,000. That leaves room for potential engine production in the new Tennessee plant, and for future models off the new Passat's platform, like, possibly, a new Honda Pilot-size three-row crossover, larger than the Touareg.