I think America's Volkswagen Passat is a good barometer for how the Europeans think of us. It is boring, slow, big, cheap-feeling, kind of ugly, and not fun to drive. Volkswagen gives us that car while they simultaneously look down on us, all while struggling to understand our market and sell cars in it.


They save the good stuff for themselves, like the European 2015 Volkswagen Passat. It's a sexy, high tech car that is a modern evolution of what the Passat used to be in America: a sleek, upmarket, premium-feeling German sedan, not the half-assed attempt at a Camry we get from Tennessee.


And at the Paris Motor Show last week, somewhat eclipsed by the XL Sport and Lamborghini Asterion, Volkswagen unveiled the wagon version of the new European Passat, called the Passat Variant. It's the one we want.

Lighter and more efficient than its predecessor, the new Passat Variant gives you 10 engines to choose from, including TDI diesel versions and even a new GTE plug-in hybrid. It has lots of other cool tech on offer, too, like radar-guided traffic monitoring and automatic emergency braking.

It's also pretty attractive and adequately wagon-y. Good stuff. I'd ask VW to bring it here, but I know what the answer will be, so we'll just have to settle for the upcoming smaller Golf Sportwagen.


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