Photos from Our Prototype Drive of the 2020 Volkswagen Passat
A low-effort update fails to wake up the seven-year-old Passat.
With customers fleeing mid-size sedans for crossovers and SUVs, automakers face an instinctual choice: fight or flight. Ford is choosing the latter and canceling its Fusion sedan to clear a path for more tall things. Chrysler hasn't sold a mid-size sedan since it bailed on the 200 back in 2016. Honda and Toyota, by contrast, aren't going quietly into that dark night, as evidenced by the excellent Accord and the vastly improved Camry that debuted last year. Ditto Nissan, whose Altima is the best it has been in years. And then there is Volkswagen's newest Passat which, facing a more compelling competitive set, blinks.
Instead of an all-new Passat, Volkswagen is giving us a refreshed version of the same solidly average sedan that it has sold since 2011.
The 2020 Passat has a new skin and interior, but underneath it's structurally and mechanically the same as before, right down to the 110.4-inch wheelbase, the turbocharged 2.0-liter Miller-combustion-cycle-capable inline-four that was introduced for 2018, and the six-speed automatic transmission.
In a brief drive around VW's Arizona proving grounds in camouflaged prototypes ahead of the car's official reveal, we experienced almost none of that surface newness and a lot of the baked-in sameness.
Buyers told VW they like the current Passat's large rear seat, commodious trunk, and quiet and comfortable ride. The preproduction 2020 cars we drove checked every one of those boxes. This Passat is basically the same size as before, which is to say huge.
Around VW's handling course, the Passat's behavior is stoic. Highlights include a brake pedal that works through a firm stroke and delivers linear response, a comfortable and well-isolated ride that feels more refined than before, and accurate steering.
Our impressions of the 2020 Passat, though, come with an asterisk. Final tuning is not complete, so the sedan's personality could change somewhat by the time it goes on sale midway through 2019.
It seems unlikely that it will transform into anything beyond an unassuming, isolating commuter.
The turbocharged engine's 174 horsepower is weak by the standards of today's 2.0-liter turbo fours, although VW upped peak torque from 184 to 207 lb-ft. Honda extracts 18 more ponies from the turbocharged 1.5-liter four in the base Accord and 252 from that car's uplevel 2.0-liter turbo-four.
The Passat isn't bad, but the problem is that it hasn't gotten better. A roomy interior and unassuming driving dynamics are things that used to define a competitive mid-size four-door.
By reskinning the same old Passat, Volkswagen isn't doing enough to stem defections to taller vehicles.
the 2020 Passat feels like a hedge, a minimal effort to maintain an entry in a dying segment. If the competition of late has revealed anything, it is that successful sedans must offer style, excellence, and driving verve to give would-be crossover buyers a reason to stay with sedans.
Opportunity waits for seductive offerings such as VW's own Arteon, the upcoming low-slung liftback sedan that we think this Passat should have emulated more closely.
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