Volkswagen are a company with strong reputation, one that they’ve never failed to live up to – which is why the recent release of the 2015 Passat was met with a lot of anticipation and excitement from the brand’s fans, and avid drivers in general. And while most people were expecting the new model to cost a hefty sum, given the high quality that it was expected to bring to the table, the final release was quite the opposite. The new 2015 Volkswagen Passat is actually an attractive offer in its market segment, and it’s managed to generate a lot of hype with its announcement.
Buyers can choose between an automatic and manual model, with a difference of about $2,000 in the price – but those who prefer to drive a manual transmission can get the base model for $21,940. Critics have noted that the car is an obviously better offer than Toyota’s Camry, which is slightly more expensive while packing roughly the same set of features – it seems that Volkswagen are putting a lot of effort into competing with Toyota in this market segment. This was rumored to be the plan previously, but it’s a different story to see it in action.
The interior of the new Passat has been noted as more comfortable and roomier, with extra legroom in both the front and the back, and some have specifically compared it to the Toyota Camry – with the Passat being the clear winner. In addition, the new Passat has been made roomier in the trunk, not only compared to previous entries in the line, but also once again to the Toyota Camry. All in all, it seems that Volkswagen have been meticulously engineering each part of their new model to be an attractive offer against that of Toyota.
On the other hand, the new Passat does have a few shortcomings, according to reviewers – in particular, it lacks a backup camera in the low-range models. The Camry has that all over its different variants, so this is a small victory for Toyota.
Still, overall, the general consensus seems to be that Toyota have a lot of catching up to do if they want to compete with the new Volkswagen Passat, and VW’s German engineering quality has managed to shine through yet again. Of course, we may very well see a strong comeback from Toyota’s side, but at this point it’s clear that buyers have plenty of good options to choose from, especially from Volkswagen’s camp. Let’s hope that the company retains this competitive attitude in their next releases and makes their future models even more aggressively competitive compared to other companies’ offers.