Finally, Volkswagen again made a sensible decision out of a situation that they created for no apparent reason.The Passat,Volkswagen's long selling success model, is to Volkswagen what the Camry is to Toyota, selling 15 million units in total since its inception, enjoyed unbeatable success and is undoubtly Europe's most best selling 4 door sedan for the past decade.
However, with overwhelming success comes overwhelming enthusiasm, Volkswagen decided on one day, that they will waste resources, screw marketing department's woes, screw product manager's positioning role,by introducing the Passat CC. Essentially a Passat that's selling alongside the 'Real'Passat, sharing the same fundamentals, chassis and engine options, but with a sleek, low slung roof, sportier styling, better interior quality and packaging, for a little bit more money with slightly less practicality. We're not saying it wasn't good to offer various body variants from the same platform, but Toyota figured that out 10 years back that having a Corona alongside Corolla makes no sense and room for growth for the Corolla, thus having to choose one to go into the history books.
Now just imagine if you were a potential buyer of both cars. Look at them, which would you go for? The bloated bland Passat Sedan? Or the sleek, sexy new Passat CC?
So what's next? Scirocco doing its harm on the GTi? Let's hope not. Here's a sneak peak from a member of VWvortex forums, leaking what's supposingly a guide for upcoming updates on VW models, and it's clearly stated that on the Passat Sedan, there's a 'End of production date: wk 51/08. Given there's 52 weeks in a year, its not difficult to figure out what that means. One thing's for sure, if they're gonna replace the Passat Sedan with the Passat CC, they might want to remove that useless plastic panel on the middle of the rear seats.
Source: VWvortex
Img Source: NetCarShow
1 comment:
Sorry but I think this is really dumb. The Phaeton proved that US consumers don't buy VW sedans for reasons of style and prestige. The current Passat, while not as well-received as the prior version, is a practical and decent-looking car. I'm not sure what they are doing here makes sense, unless the ultimate goal is to push sedan buyers into Jettas (likely more profitable, as they are made in Mexico), and sell a smaller number of CCs as a niche product like the Eos. For what it's worth, I am holding on to my prior generation Passat and, while I would have considered the current one, I will certainly not be buying a CC - it's a different market niche, especially with that squashed roofline look.
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