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Volkswagen Passat CC


The luxury Passat CC incorporates several technologies never before used by Volkswagen

By Peter Burgess

With Europe’s car market fragmenting fast, it is a bold manufacturer that sells only a small range of models. With an increasing choice of vehicle types, few carmakers can afford to risk losing volumes by not having products to offer buyers in different segments. Volkswagen’s approach is simple: cover as much of the market as possible.

And that’s the reason for the Volkswagen Passat CC. The Mercedes-Benz CLS luxury coupe was a bit of a gamble, but one that has paid off. It has taken almost four years for another carmaker to emulate it. The CC has been developed along the same lines, taking a successful four-door sedan and reworking it into a four-door, four-seat coupe.

CC stands for Comfort Coupe, which is at odds with the Coupe Cabriolet name used by other companies for their folding hardtop cabriolets. But this is a marketing issue that Volkswagen is confident will not be a problem.

The attraction for the OEM is building a model on an existing platform. Mercedes was proud of the fact that the CLS had been developed for less than €200 million. Volkswagen will not give figures but says its car cost significantly less, and the development centre at Wolfsburg in Germany kept physical prototypes down to around 40.

The development took longer than for the Mercedes, however. Initial ideas were discussed at the end of 2004 and it has taken almost three-and-a-half years to bring the product to market.

Holger Hanisch from the development team maintains that this is not so long: “There is a new body, the interior apart from the instrument panel and centre console is also new, and there have been significant changes to the suspension,” says Hanisch.

It isn’t easy to identify direct rivals for the Passat CC, but Volkswagen benchmarked the Peugeot 407 Coupe, Mercedes CLK and BMW’s 3 and 5 Series. The CC is bigger and lower than the standard Passat. At 4.8m, it is 31mm longer and is 36mm wider, but 50mm shorter. The track is increased front and rear to benefit handling and appearance.

The scope for weight reduction was minimal: just 10kg. “The target was to minimise weight, but the platform defines the possibilities and the upgraded interior components added to the mass, so there weren’t many opportunities,” says Hanisch.

The car will launch with two direct-injection gasoline engines – a 1.8-litre, 118kW (160hp) unit and a 220kW (300hp) 3.6-litre V6 – and a 2-litre, 103kW (140hp) turbodiesel. The V6, which has all-wheel drive and a dual-clutch transmission as standard, will sell for around €39,000, but prices will start at around €26,000.

The car features technologies new to Volkswagen and several previously used only in the top-of-the-range Phaeton, such as climate control seats. Lane Assist uses a camera next to the interior mirror to help the car stay between the white lines, even in the dark. The steering wheel nudges the driver in the right direction when the car moves over a line before initiating visual and audio warnings.

Luxury models like the CC are about the detail, however. “We built the rear-view camera into the swivelling VW logo in the trunk lid to protect it from dirt,” says Hanisch. “When selecting reverse, the emblem folds open and the camera is exposed. The camera is invisible when the emblem is used to open the luggage compartment.”

Volkswagen is pleased with the developments to its brake assistance system too. “This applies the brakes if a collision is impending, and it now has been developed to brake the car down to zero, rather than 30km/h as in the current Passat saloon,” says Hanisch. This requires an upgraded brake servo pump capable of running longer and harder.

The adaptive chassis is not the magnetic system used in Audis but a simpler two-stage valve device with Comfort, Sports or Normal settings.

VW uses Continental’s puncture-resistant tyres as standard across the Passat CC range. Self-sealing, they deal with 85 per cent of punctures.

Introducing frameless side windows meant that VW had to add heavier side sills to maintain body stiffness of 50Hz. The complete car has stiffness of 31Hz. The Passat CC will be built alongside the saloon and wagon at the Emden plant in Germany, with the body in white coming from the same machines as current models. Volkswagen is reluctant to talk about likely volumes, but says that 300,000 over the coming years may be what the market will stand. Emden can deal with this and more.