Test drive Volkswagen Passat B6 2005 - 2010 sedan

Above all in the class

I’ll say right, the 2005 Passat did not disappoint me, although the VW specialists scared me: they developed, they say, a almost new model. It seems to be really new, but the main news is not in design, but in the fact that this car has sharply increased IQ. The sixth generation Passat has become completely computerized, which, however, exactly corresponds to the modern stage of the evolution of the automotive industry.
Conservative dandy. Instead of the key, a beautiful Barcelonka, a VW representative, gave me a small remote control. Three buttons: close, open and open the trunk. To start the engine, this remote control should be stuck into a special well almost to the end. To start the sixth generation of Passat, you need to press the key to drown the motor - press again. (Inadvertently I remembered how once a raw autumn morning I did not start a Zhigulevskaya five and how I, with rage, helping the starter with all the nervous soulful soul, twisted the key over and over again ... In the case of the new Passat, it would not be possible to show any emotions.)
The appearance is quite familiar, VW in it is visible from any angle, but, what is nice, the car visually became larger and somehow more almshous. Everything is in fashion, everything is in its place: the hard lines of the hood falls on an overly chrome p adiator lattice; The turn signals are driven out of mirrors and narrow cracks in the bumper; fog lights - like fish eyes; Round stop-signals suddenly light up in a cap of an indefinite shape. By new Russian fashion, you can order bixenon headlights for yourself, which will look behind the turn, obeying the movements of the steering wheel. The price of the issue is only 1000 euros.
The salon increased markedly. Only doorways became smaller, because the racks are thickened: pillows are hidden in them - more precisely, curtains of safety. On the one hand, it seems to be good, but the overview of this was somewhat injured-because of the thick rack, you can easily not notice the pedestrian, and at a certain angle-even a small car.
On the steering wheel - wood and leather, plastic details of the cabin are fitted exemplary and look expensive. The seats that have preserved proprietary Volkswagen rigidity and a huge range of adjustments that can satisfy any scoliosis are excellent. In general, the new Passat confirms the image of its owner as a successful, positive and rather modest person with an excellent reputation.
An unforgettable diesel. Stop sitting, I tell myself, let's go. And I immediately note that my right leg is clearly crowded - the tunnel is excessively wide. It is especially inconvenient to work with the accelerator pedal. But between the seats of space - the sea: the developers found there even a place for such an important device as cup holders, due to the fact that the handbrake is electronic and is a small button. It is convenient - you don’t need to remove the car from such a handbrake, you just press the gas and drove. This will especially appeal to beginners - to those who are scared to move in a cool slide.
For a long time I could not understand why I was so annoyed by the backlight, then I remembered: it greatly resembles the facades of game establishments on New Arbat. And someone, by the way, can cause good memories.
The two -liter gasoline engine unexpectedly turned out to be louder than a diesel engine, which did not arouse hostility, because the sixth Passat is especially good with a diesel engine. The motor on diesel fuel is just excellent, and if you do not portray Schumacher, then one refueling may be enough for almost 1000 kilometers - significant fuel savings. Recently, auto manufacturers got used to putting diesel units to where you least expect to meet them - to convertibles. It always seemed to me that a convertible was bought by people who are not worried about saving, but comfort and catsy noise, when you can ride as if the car did not have motor. The place of diesel is in a family sedan, to remember less about gas stations and bounce lower, seeing the cost of fuel. And more than logical and even stylish for VW, approach the people on a diesel engine, with all the achievements of their Volkswagen engineering thought, which are especially noticeable during accelerations. On the diesel Passat I loved, there is a six -speed mechanical box, which allows it to go at a completely courier speed of 140 km/h, while engine speeds are kept just above 2000 per minute.
I managed to travel all over the range of the sixth Passat; Most of them are similar to each other to the degree of indistinguishability, and only a special sports board cannot be confused with any other - 200 horses, low -profile rubber with a width of 225 mm. Passat so amazingly overly accelerates and so famously passes turns, it is as if he is not a car, but a bobslane car in an ice gutter. So, of course, it should be. At least in order to feel not horror, but happiness, flying along the serpentine, when the wall is on the left, on the right is the abyss and the sea, and towards the trailers, now and then climbing their left side into the oncoming lane.
It can be said about the chassis that it was simplified and improved at the same time. VW abandoned a too complicated two -legged structure and again hired the old reliable MacPherson to work. But the back preferred an independent multi -link - both controllability is better, and with all -wheel drive it is easier. Passat levers are similar to golf, but only aluminum. True, what is good for the unsped masses is not very good in Moscow salt baths.
Former phaeton. The driver of the sixth Passat can not only be a layman, but even a newcomers in general - the engineers specially took care of this. The most striking example is a radar hidden behind a proprietary emblem on the car’s nose. So I was pampering: you portray that you want to get a pretty small machine under the ass, crushing the gas - remember, I said how uncomfortable it is? - So Passat also deliberately slows down and does not allow our intimacy.
The organizers of the test very much wanted journalists to love their new brainchild, and tried to take into account all their smallest vagaries. Up to the point that the CD changer was packed with very decent music that sounded through a very worthy audio system from the Danish Dynaudio with ten speakers, all the time, while the test Passat dissected the beautiful roads in the vicinity of Barcelona. By the way, they, for the 12th and a half years who have passed the Olympics, became better.
And on test Passat was the most expensive of the navigation system offered in the list of options. Available and understandable even to me. I lost confidence in her only once, when the electronic navigator in the Pyrenees began to stubbornly advise me to turn into the abyss - and then in vain: it was there that there was a secret congress to the hotel.
I boast of how lucky I was with a partner: he turned out to be a former extreme driving instructor and provided me with free lessons. When I had to give way to him at the wheel, I, in order not to interfere with the master to steer, carelessly went to the back seat, so I tested him. It turned out that my 190 centimeters there are free, even with excess. I found a 220 outlet (it was a pity, there was no computer at hand), leaned on the armrest, attached a separate climate control and tried to enjoy the heating of seats, which was not particularly relevant at plus 25 in the shade. It was outraged that the glass could not be lowered completely, and at high speed it has to be closed at all, so as not to be blown away.
It seemed to me that the new Passat has incorporated most of the engineering and design achievements of the VW Phaeton worldly ingloriously condemned on automobile catwalks. However, it is clear why this, in principle, a very good representative of the representative class did not have much success: just a limousine should not be called a people's car.
But it is obvious that the heir to the Fatonian charms, but not a puffy sixth Passat will gain advantages over competitors of the same class with him. In addition, it is made so that it will be very easy for him to conduct restyling and face-lifting. According to the principle of the Great Jump with the sixth of Sergei Bubka, who could immediately take a height of 6 m 15 cm, but preferred to raise a world record in a centimeter and collected all the prizes. True, there is a danger: what if you need to jump to a great height, will no longer remain?
By the beginning of autumn, you can wait for an all -wheel drive version and station wagon.
Text Mikhail Kirter, photo VW AG

Volkswagen Passat 2.0 TDI 2.0 FSI
Engine turbodiesel 4-cyl. Basin 4-CIL.
Working volume (cubic cub) 1968 1984
Power (L.S. at rpm) 140 at 4000 150 at 6000
Moment (Nm at rpm) 320 at 1750-2500 200 at 3500
Front drive
Gearbox 6-st. Mechanical 6-st. machine
Length/width/height (mm) 4765/1820/1472
Wheel base (mm) 2709
Equipped mass (kg) 1454 1418
Maximum speed
(km/h) 209 208
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 9.8 10.2
Fuel consumption
(city/highway, l/100 km) 7.8/4.8 12.6/6.3
Price in Germany () from 25,650 ($ 31,000) from 27,400 ($ 33,000)

From the moment of sales in Russia, Passat with four engines will appear. The 1.6-liter FSI engine (115 hp) and 2-liter FSI (150 hp) will appear for the first time. The car will also be equipped with two diesel engines- 1.9- and 2-liter TDI engines with power, respectively, 105 and 140 hp. The basic versions will be equipped with a manual gearbox. The machine can be ordered for FSI and 2-liter turbodiesel engines. However, shortly after appearing on the market, Passat will have a new basic version with an engine of 102 hp.
The volume of the trunk is the most important car quality after fuel consumption. Especially for those who love thorough travel, including in Europe, when the number of suitcases exceeds reasonable antenatals. Your Passat is always ready to help you make another raid on the store of the finished dress. As you know, there are no many shirts. In length, the car grew 6.2 cm to 4.77 meters, in width - 7.4 cm to 1.82 meters, and Passat’s height increased by a centimeter to 1.47 meters. The wheelbase is 2.71 meters, which is also a centimeter more than before.
 
 

 

Source: "Autopilot"