Great execution; bad concept. Volkswagen's eight-cylinder Passat is a car I've wanted to unreservedly love, but ultimately I've had to merely like it...though I like it a lot.
The W8 was built to test the waters of the near luxury market, which is teeming with excellent cars, and to help introduce a new family of engines. The car's introduction was little more than a dip of the toe, far from a bold dive into the challenging depths of a fiercely contended segment of the market. And that's where I think Volkswagen got it wrong.
VW built a nicely appointed, highly competent automobile but forgot to include the sex appeal that makes such a difference to U.S. car buyers. Given the modest sales goals of the car, this reluctance to go all the way and fashion an aggressive-looking, overtly German performance sedan is disappointing, especially in light of the W8's $41,000-plus window sticker.
The W8 simply wasn't given enough curb appeal to make anyone forget its competition from Munich, Ingolstadt and Stuttgart, not to mention the onslaught of appealing cars from Scandinavia and Asia. And, to compound the error, VW put in an eight-cylinder engine that didn't do the things Americans expect from an eight except burn a lot of gas.
Think about what Nissan has pulled off over the last couple of years. Compare its impressive sales numbers for 2003 (which show little sign of slowing down in '04) with VW's sluggish growth. Driven by edgy styling and impressive performance, Nissan is a hot commodity, rising from the dead...and why? Does Nissan build better cars? Maybe, but a car's quality, either perceived or in reality, is often not the deciding factor at the car lot. More pertinent questions are asked by the U.S. car buyer: Are Nissans more exciting to look at? Are Nissan horsepower numbers more impressive? Where's the contract?
Judged solely on its dynamic merits, the W8 is a wonderful car. With proper use of the Tiptronic gearshift, the engine is no slug, and the all-wheel drive erases the annoying understeer that characterizes VW's front-drive cars. Driving it quickly is effortless, and among our long-term fleet, it's our favorite long-range cruiser. A common comment from first-time drivers around the office goes something like, "I never thought a VW could be so nice." And then, when the car's pricetag is revealed, the typical response is, "For a Volkswagen?"
Comparing the Passat's level of standard equipment, and its obvious quality of materials and execution, to the competition tempers the shock of that window sticker, but it doesn't entirely remove the perception that VW's expertise is just in building inexpensive cars. This attitude reflects an even more deeply rooted American misconception that inexpensive, or small, must in some way be deficient or lacking in desirable qualities. (American kids' first words: "Super-size that order.").
The success of the Touareg might help overturn this prejudice, but there's not much else coming from VW in the near future to draw car buyers away from the franchises which continue to churn out new, sexier, more powerful automobiles.
I know that VW's beleaguered boss, Dr. Pichetsrieder, is fully aware of this "appeal gap." His decision to bring in the Golf R32 was both a gesture to U.S. loyalists that VW hasn't forgotten them and a hint to the competition that there's plenty of sex appeal lurking beneath the northern European chill of its corporate personality.