NEW VW Passat Review: Better Than A BMW? | 4K

they thought of everything specifically for people who get sweaty a lot did you know that the VW Pat is the second biggest selling Volkswagen of all time in 50 years it sold 34 million cars that's more cars than the entire population of Australia it's more cars than the most popular city in the world the Chinese Municipality of chonging according to chat GPT in fact it's enough cars for everyone in the UK to have half a v Pat but is it half as good as people make out this is the latest ninth generation version of the pat estate which VW calls the pat variant except this time they've ditched the saloon so the variant is the only option it promises more comfort more luxury more efficiency better looks and much better Tech specifically it's one of the first cars that comes equipped with AI in the form of vws Ida powered by chat GPT chat GPT in a car just sounds Bonkers to me but let's try right out um hello Ida I've got a date with a really hot girl who's into books recommend a book for me that I can use to pretend that I'm into the same stuff as her from chat GPT that's great reading is a wonderful hobby I recommend to Kill a Mocking Bird by Hara Lee nice anyway it's quite an attractive car don't you think I'm not normally a fan of Estates I find them to be a little bit old old Manish but there's something about this that's really appealing to me maybe I'm getting on a bit in age but there's some lovely design details for the first time on a pat you've now got this horizontal light strip across the front which lights up when you got the full beams on I don't like the fact that it doesn't connect fully to the drls at the side but I do love the animation on here and the size of the indicator is absolutely enormous you've also got some brand new headlights HD Matrix LEDs which light your laying at night without blinding oncoming Road users there's actually a couple of different front-end treatments you can go for this is the Elegance trim which has these horizontal Chrome strips across the front end but they also offer an RD design package which doesn't have the Chrome and is blacked out completely and has a much more aggressive look the biggest thing of all though is the fact that the new Pat is much more aerodynamically efficient than before it used to have a drag coefficient of 0.33 now it's got a CD factor of .25 which is a huge drop they say they've done this in a couple of ways one is with these little air curtains at the side that just Channel air around the wheel arch in a controlled way without creating turbulence and drag and the second way is by reprofiling the Bonnet apparently it's now lower in the middle than it is at the sides but I don't know about you to me it looks like it's higher in the middle than at the sides but I guess numbers don't lie it's much more slippery through the air around the side this is where it had the most potential to be boring cuz the states just tend to be one long featureless MK but this has a lot of features there's a lot going on here there's creases and slashes look at this line that runs through the door handles all the way to the back you got a little Kink back here the big difference with this car is that it's now bigger than before same height but 20 mm wider 144 mm longer and with 50 mm more wheelbase and that will give you a lot more space inside which we shall now now evaluate shall we let's take a look at the boot because I like big boots I cannot lie these other channels can't deny and uh when a pette goes by I don't know man but it's got a big old beduna dunk of a trunk 690 L which is an increase of 40 you got a flat load area just there you got some underfloor storage a variety of hooks to put your shopping bags there isn't enough space for a spare wheel but there's enough space for your charging cable you got a 230 volt power outlet and you can drop the seats at the pull of a switch and look at that that is what Estates are all about this thing is cavernous as you might expect it's also incredibly spacious at the rear with a fantastic amount of leg room and foot room head room is also very impressive despite the fact it uses a large panoramic glass roof there's also a few clever touches including some mobile phone storage in the seatbacks individual controls for the rear Heating and Cooling a couple of USB ports an armrest with integrated cup holders plus a dedicated phone or tablet holder some rear ambient lights and a window blind up front a lot has changed in the new pette VW have tried to position this car at a higher end of the market to go against the likes of the Mercedes E-Class and the BMW 5 series although I'm not sure I buy that it's very commendable it's well built it looks decent but there's just too much piano black going on that's my first impression in this car it all looks a bit too plasticky a bit too reflective technology Wise It's very good I've got a nice big driver display in front of me I've also got a proper head-up display for the first time but oh my God would you look at this thing what an absolute monstrosity now as standard it comes with a 12-in infotainment screen but you can upgrade to the high-end package and get a 15in display slapped on the dashboard my first computer was a 486 sx25 with a 15in screen and I'm pretty sure it wasn't as big as this my first Telly wasn't as big as this I've got my MacBook right here and it's actually smaller than the screen you get on the Volkswagen Pat what is going on having said that it does work really well it's super fast it's an 8 core system loads of ram faster than my first computer and just look at the speed and responsiveness of that it is very impressive actually and it's a lot better than the previous generation of infotainment systems you got in Volkswagen cars a lot more customizable the entire top row can be customized you can now have shortcuts to your favorite things on the top row the bottom is dedicated permanently to your airon and speaking of which you've now got back lit controls for your heating ventilation and climate control and your volume slider as well which is a big Improvement on a previous car speaking of buttons they've also got proper buttons on the steering wheel they never had that before it was capacitive and it was awful we all complained about it and it just goes to show bullying and peer pressure sometimes [Music] works one of vw's aims with the new pette was to improve the quality and the comfort and the minute you start driving this car you start to get a real sense of that the materials feel really nice to the touch there's some lovely exposed stitching there's lovely ambient lights a nice big panoramic glass sunroof and whole thing feels like quality they've also done a really good job in terms of keeping things quiet and refined specifically they've given us a double glazed front wind screen we've also got double glazing on both sides for the driver and for the passenger but also for the passengers at the rear these seats are really nice as well they've been completely redesigned with lumbar support and as standard you get a three chamber massage system if you upgrade the seats and go for the Ergo Go Active plus you get a 10 chamber pressure point massage which I've tried and it feels absolutely Sensational there's a host of different massage programs to choose from I've got waves for my back waves for Lumar waves for shoulder circles my favorite though is one called upstrokes which feels absolutely tremendous on a lot of cars the massaging function just feels like a bit of a gimmick but in this genuinely it feels pretty good if you go for the Ergo active Plus seats then it takes things up a notch that comes with heating cooling and a temperature sensor and a moisture sensor so basically it monitors the temperature and sweatiness of your backside and can then automatically apply the Heating Cooling and Air Conditioning to make sure your ass isn't too sweaty I've never seen that before in the car but it's very clever there's even another mode for people who get sweaty feet if I hold the auto button down here on the bottom left and then click cool my feet it will actually blow cool air conditioned Air at your feet to keep them from getting too sweaty and you can actually apply that to a shortcut permanently on the screen so if you have really sweaty feet all the time it's right there accessible whenever you need it plus you can call it up using voice recognition they're thought of everything specifically for people who get sweaty a lot a significant new update with the new pette is the next Generation suspension system which features two valves on each of the dampers designed to make for a smoother ride than systems with a single valve because it gives the car Better Body Control through improved damping of both compression when you go into bumps and rebound when you come back out there's also a bigger difference between the softest and hardest suspension modes and it all works very well here's something interesting actually one of the VW Engineers was telling me that one reason for people feeling very tired after a long journey is because of the lack of body control in their cars you're compensating by kind of tensing up your torso and using your core muscles to stabilize you but with this system because the body control is that much better in theory you'll get to your destination feeling that little bit fresher there are various engine options in the new Pat but if you like the idea of a plug-in hybrid like I'm driving here you have two options a 204 horsepower setup or a 272 horsepower setup they're not the most powerful torque is only 250 new M so it feels a bit weaker than your average diesel but the efficiency is good both hybrids use a 1.5 L micycle TSI engine alongside a 19.7 kwh battery which delivers a pretty realistic EV only range of 62 mil one of the great things about a plug-in hybrid system is that it really contributes to the refinement of this car it's super quiet in here and it's a genuine treat to drive the other thing I've noticed is that you can actually save some battery power if you want to arrive at your destination with a specific level of battery charge you can reserve that battery so that you're driving in town on full electric that you haven't wasted on your journey to get to that point generally speaking running out of battery in a plug-in hybrid can really shatter the illusion of refinement because when the engine does kick in it sounds really Gruff in comparison to the electric motor but in this they've actually done a really good job of making the engine sound half decent so it's not so much of a hardship to run out of battery power so what's my verdict on the new VW Pat well I got into this car thinking that it wouldn't be anywhere near as good as say a BMW 5 series or a Mercedes E-Class but the longer I spent with it the more it's won me over this car is genuinely nice to drive it's comfortable it's quiet it's refined the technology can be somewhat overwhelming there's a lot of it but generally speaking it's a fantastic car I guess 34 million people can't be [Music] wrong

Channel: AutoTrader

Views: 378,489

Keywords: vw passat, new passat, passat review, passat variant, passat boot, passat rear, passat legroom, passat headroom, passat interior, passat suspension, passat comfort, passat storage, passat spare wheel, passat hybrid, passat plug-in hybrid, passat, passat ai, chat gpt, ai car, chat gpt car, vw chat gpt, Rory reid, auto trader

Id: QV3RL68cf48

Length: 11min 52sec (712 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 16 2024