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2012 Volkswagen Passat 3.6 SEL Premium Road Test

By Warren Clarke, Automotive Content Editor

Volkswagen's new plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is a bright, airy facility that shatters old notions about assembly-line gloom. The 2012 Volkswagen Passat is built here, and it's a car that the manufacturer hopes will shatter old notions about Volkswagen being merely a niche player in the American market for full-size sedans. We're in Chattanooga to drive the Passat on a trip that will take us some 100-plus miles to Nashville, home of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry.

The marketing folks at Volkswagen aren't shy about saying the Passat has been redesigned with American audiences in mind; this is a car crafted for the mainstream, created to compete squarely in the lucrative family-sedan segment. U.S. shoppers like 'em big, so the current model is 4 inches longer than its predecessor, with an additional 3 inches of rear legroom. U.S. shoppers also favor value, so the sedan has become more affordable, with a base price that's been slashed by $7 grand to start at around $20,000 (although the top-of-the line SEL model we drove has an MSRP closer to $33K).

Fortunately, the quality not found on the floor of the cutting room. As we cruise through the verdant countryside of Tennessee, the Passat feels important and costly on the road, calling us comfort without sacrificing road feel. And his cabin - with quality materials and impressive Euro-own design - offers the quiet elegance in a segment often cursed by the banal aesthetic.

It is difficult to make a wrong move in the family sedan segment these days, and rivals like the Ford Fusion Passat, Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima and Mazda 6 are all huge peaks for different reasons.However, the 2012 Volkswagen Passat successful as the best choice for those who want their family sedans served with a dollop of European sophistication.

The 2012 Volkswagen Passat offers a wide range of engines: an inline-five 2.5-liter rated at 170 horsepower and 177 lb-ft of torque, a 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbodiesel that produces 140 hp and 236 lb -ft of torque, and a 3.6-liter V6 good for 280 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque. The V6 in our test car was an accomplice to all the adventures, easy to pick up speed in the fast lane and to provide sufficient thrust off-the-line to ease the driving experience.

Our test car features a six-speed dual-clutch automated manual transmission, which is the standard setup in every V6-equipped Passat. It's a good match for the V6; unlike some transmissions geared more toward fuel economy, this six-speed isn't slow to downshift, and makes the most of the engine's power. At the Edmunds test track, this combination helps it accelerate to 60 mph from a standstill in 6.4 seconds on the way to completing the quarter-mile in 14.6 seconds at 96.4 mph. The 3,517-pound car doesn't come to a halt with the same confidence, however, as it takes 131 feet for the 235/45R18 Hankook Optimo H426 tires to stop rolling once the brakes are applied at 60 mph.

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