Unsung Hero of Fuel-Efficiency: VW Passat

Welcome back from the weekend, Checkered Blog readers! Let us pick up right where we left off last week, and continue with the third Unsung Hero of Fuel Efficiency, the Volkswagen Passat.

The Passat is mid-size vehicle available either as sedan or wagon. On the Department of Energy website, the VW Passat is listed as the most efficient mid-size station wagon. The highway MPG estimate on the Passat is 31, and 22 for city. The Passat gets 558 highway miles with its 18.5 gallon tank. Stan Anders, a sales and leasing specialist at Checkered Flag Volkswagen (pictured here with the Passat), says the Passat is a great alternative to SUVs. With the Passat, drivers receive wonderful mileage plus a spacious interior and the ability to transport a surprising amount of stuff.

With both body styles you can chose from four trim levels. The base-trim for the Passat is called Turbo, and is the only trim out of the four where manual transmission is available. The other trims are Komfort, Lux, and VR6.

At a starting price of $23,990, the Turbo comes equipped with 16" Catalunya alloy wheels; power, heatable exterior mirrors with integrated blinkers; alarm system with immobilizer; tire pressure monitoring system; electro-mechanical speed sensitive steering system; and more. Moving up to the Komfort and Lux levels you will have your hands on an even larger array of standard features that are undoubtedly comfortable and luxurious. Take a step further with the VR6 and get all the features that come standard with the Lux trim plus leather sport seats; brushed aluminum interior trim; Dynaudio premium sound system, Bi-Xenon AFS headlights; heated washer nozzles; sport suspension; and 18" alloy "Samarkand" wheels. For a full list of features from each trim level click here.

The first three trim levels have 200-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder engines with six-speed manual or six-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission. The VR6 has a 280-hp V6 and automatic transmission. On the VR6 you also have the choice of 4Motion, which is Volkswagen's all-wheel-drive system. Last Friday we featured the Audi A3 and told you about its award winning engine. Well, during my conversation with Stan, I learned that the Passat is equipped with the same engine found in the A3. Newer Passat models have engines with what was formerly called the FSI (Fuel Straight Injection), and is now renamed TSI (Turbo Straight Injection). Stan says the name change is not just a semantics thing. The TSI has been reconfigured to increase the longevity of the vehicle and also allows for the use of regular gas instead of premium. Pictured showing the engine is Brian Korich, the Used Car Manager.   

Stan raved about the excelled safety features on the Passat. "Safety comes standard on this car." All level trims come with anti-intrusion side door beams; brake pad wear indicator; driver and passenger frontal airbags; crash optimized front end and pedals; Electronic Brake-pressure Distribution (EBD); Engine Braking Assist (ABA); and many more.

Safe, spacious, powerful, and efficient; The Passat has it all. See this Unsung Hero in person at Checkered Flag Volkswagen, 3025 Virginia Beach Boulevard, Virginia Beach or call (757) 490-1111.