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Volkswagen Passat Alltrack test. Interesting station wagon

At the beginning of the year, German automaker Volkswagen announced that it was halting production of the Volkswagen Passat sedan.

for the European market due to low demand formodel in this body. At the same time, they planned to leave the car on the assembly line until the end of the third quarter of 2022 in order to supply cars to the Russian market and to some other countries to meet demand. But the situation, apparently, has changed and the release of the model has been completely discontinued, and now the sedan has disappeared from the current line of the company for our country.

Yes, it's a pity that Passat sedan leftmarket, but the model itself does not go away, in Europe it remains in the station wagon version, and in our market it is also presented in the Alltrack variation. The option that is available with us is such a symbiosis of a station wagon and a crossover, the body from the first, and from the second he got increased ground clearance, an unpainted skirt along the contour and four-wheel drive. Such modified station wagons are not only in the Volkswagen lineup, but also in Audi with the prefix allroad and in the same Volvo company with the addition of Cross Country to the model name.

In our country, station wagon carssomehow did not take root historically, although in Europe they are quite popular. Our compatriots choose mostly sedans and crossovers. But it is precisely between them that some manufacturers are trying to wedge in modified models of station wagons, which are in even small, but still steady demand.

I dislike our compatriots for station wagonsI do not share, yet some models in this body look very interesting. I like brutal ones like the Chrysler 300C or the Volvo V90 Cross Country. There are good sporty models, such as the BMW 3 Touring or the Audi A4 Avant. True, the hero of our material Volkswagen Passat Alltrack can not be attributed to either brutal or sports. The model looks a little rustic and somehow casual, although it is more interesting than its fellow sedan. German designers didn’t bother much with the appearance of the “passable” station wagon, they just added a thin edging made of unpainted plastic around it, due to it they also expanded the wheel arches, and, perhaps, that’s all. But in general, the model looks attractive, it is integral, without any obvious distortions on one side or another. Yes, some might say that the Passat's exterior design is rustic by today's standards. But do not forget about conservative buyers, who are scared off by new trends in automotive design, but such models as this representative of the Volkswagen brand, on the contrary, attract.

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Salon Passat is also out of modern trends, evenyou can tell it's a little outdated. Yes, it was refreshed with modern solutions, but it is clear that they were integrated into the old “package”, and they did not do everything from scratch. Inside, we are greeted by an absolutely straight front panel, without any tricky bends and transitions, with a simple decorative insert and a central screen looking somewhere forward, and not turned at least a little towards the driver. The classic dashboard was replaced with a virtual one, and in pursuit of updating the model, they also slapped a new climate control unit with touch keys and the same temperature control strips. The latter was obviously done in vain, since such a block looks strange, and this is still a problem in work, so the classic climate with handles could be left, I think it would look no worse here.

In terms of the quality of materials in the station wagon, everything is ona decent level, most of the parts are made of soft-touch and expensive plastic, in the lower part of the cabin it becomes a little simpler, but still remains quite decent in quality. Seat upholstery for the Passat Alltrack is offered on our market only in fabric, with minimal Alcantara inserts along the edges. The fabric is hard to the touch, but it is practical and easy to clean. It's nice that the interior does not have an abundance of impractical glossy black plastic, although it is present in some places, but still not in such quantities as in modern cars of competitors.

The driver's seat can comfortably accommodatea person of almost any height and complexion. The chairs are moderately hard, tenacious and comfortable, with sufficiently developed lateral support and the correct profile, plus mechanical adjustment of the pillow length is provided for tall drivers. You don’t get tired in the Passat seats for a long time, but if there is a slight fatigue, then a very simple back massage will come to the rescue. The only thing is that to activate the latter, you will have to look for a small button on the left side at the bottom of the chair by touch, and besides, it is located close to the position memory keys, so, no matter the hour, you can move the chair on the go, which is simply unsafe. Yes, the front seats in Alltrack have full power accessories, including adjustable lumbar support in two planes, and for the driver there is also a position memory for two people.

By landing and visibility from the driver's seatthere are no complaints about the station wagon, the racks are thin and heavily overwhelmed, so they do not block the view. The side mirrors are medium in size, they have a good view of the road, and they are also complemented by a blind spot monitoring system with a bright light indication on the mirror housing, which I consider the most optimal solution, since you see the warning in advance. True, the landing in the Passat Alltrack is low, like in a sedan, although you expect something at least a little close to a crossover from the car, as, for example, in a competitor from Volvo.

By myself with a height of 187 cm, I sit downabsolutely free. The doors open wide, the opening is large, and the threshold is low, so getting in and out is no problem. There is only one nuance associated with the plastic skirt, which was put on the body, you often touch your trousers on its ledge. There is a lot of space behind, my knees do not rest against the back of the front seat, my legs are also free, and nothing presses from above, despite the presence of a large panoramic roof with an automatic sunroof in its front part. There is also room in the rear for the child, and installing a child seat is easy thanks to the open Isofix anchorages on the edges of the sofa. Only the third person will not be very comfortable on the sofa because of the strongly protruding central tunnel.

Despite the spacious interior, which willfour adults feel free, in the station wagon, of course, there is also a spacious trunk for 639 liters. The opening opens large, the luggage compartment itself is of the correct shape, and roomy pockets are provided along its edges. Immediately from the luggage compartment or from the cabin separately, you can fold the backs of the rear sofa, which, when folded, form a flat floor and increase the usable volume to 1769 liters. Hidden underground is a full-size spare tire. The luggage compartment lid is electrically operated, but, unfortunately, without the button for completely closing the car with it.

The car is equipped with a Discover media systemMedia with a low-resolution 8-inch IPS touch screen. The screen in our case was not bad in quality, with a good response and viewing angles, but not very pleased with the quality of the oleophobic coating, but this, apparently, is a disease in all Volkswagen systems. The media system supports Apple CarPlay platforms (including wireless connection), Android Auto and Mirrorlink, the latter only works in the parking lot.

Discover Media works quite quickly, but at some points you can still see a slight thoughtfulness. Interface with a nice drawing, but in places with text blocks - straight hello from the 90s.

On the left and right sides of the screen aretouch keys for quick access to the main sections of the menu, which facilitates navigation. The nice thing is that, unlike the Discover Pro system we saw in the sedan, here the volume control is made in the form of a convenient knob.

The system has built-in navigation withup-to-date maps, but weak drawing of the interface. She knows how to build good routes, and her main advantage is that the information is duplicated on a digital dashboard, where the map can even be displayed in full screen for a detailed acquaintance with the route and points of interest nearby. And in general, on the Passat's 10-inch digital dashboard, the driver can get all the necessary information, as well as manage calls and playlists. That is, the virtual dashboard is here not just as a tribute to fashion, but as a convenient working tool.

There are three themes available for the dashboarddecorations that you can change on the go from the buttons on the steering wheel, as well as combine additional information on it. Among the shortcomings, I note that the digital speedometer, which you can pull out to the center, has a small and thin font, while the main one, which is always displayed, has a more readable design, but is not in the most convenient places for the perception of the panel.

For connecting and charging devices in the carthree modern Type-C connectors are available: one in the front of the cabin in the public domain, another in the niche of the center armrest, and one, for recharging, available for rear passengers. A standard 230V socket was also provided for passengers. Ahead there is wireless charging according to the Qi standard, it is freely available, but it has an inclination from the driver, so you can hardly see the smartphone screen on it. The only point is that the iPhone 13 Pro and Pixel 6 Pro in the original cases sometimes refused to charge on the site, and the system did not report any errors. But it was enough to shift the device, and charging began again. Modern gadgets are charged from the car's on-board network not too quickly, but not too slowly, so you can do without additional adapters.

Connecting a Bluetooth phone to the systemthe car goes without any problems, the import of contacts is correct, and the connection always remains stable. Two devices can be connected at the same time with the ability to quickly switch between them. The speakerphone works well, the interlocutor hears even the passengers from behind without any problems.

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The driver assistants in the test car werefull set. We had adaptive cruise control with the ability to work in traffic jams and control from the keys on the steering wheel. The system keeps the optimal set distance and reacts in time to the start of movement of the vehicle in front. On the track, I didn’t really like that the cruise starts slowing down too late, even though it recognizes the car moving in front in advance, I would like it to start slowing down a little earlier. Well, the trick of the Germans is the impossibility of getting ahead of the curve with cruise control. If the system sees a car in the left lane, the assistant will reduce the speed to that with which the car in the next lane is moving, and will move like that until you push the gas yourself. Moreover, when driving in a traffic jam, it turned out that the assistant can allow the car to roll back on the rise, this only happens when you are moving at the very minimum speed with constant stops, so in these cases you need to be on the alert.

And we also have a systemblind spot monitoring with bright and clear indication on the mirror housing. The Lane Departure Warning system works very gently, applying force on the steering wheel and returning the car to the lane if you suddenly start to go out of it. Even in our car there was an Area View system, which displays images from four cameras, simulating a picture from above, which is not quite familiar. The rear view camera provides a high-quality image and is complemented by virtual markings. Plus, it’s convenient that one screen displays not only the picture from the camera, but also data on the operation of parking sensors in graphical form. The camera lens is hidden under a large company logo on the trunk, so it always stays clean. By the way, the same emblem is also a handle for opening the luggage compartment lid. In addition, a reverse collision warning system was available, but the visual information about its operation is somehow not very clear.

Not without an assistant in the station wagonparking, which allows you not only to carry out parallel parking, but also to independently drive into your pocket in reverse. The assistant works satisfactorily, however, in order to park on the left side, you need to turn on the turn signal in the old fashioned way, which is no longer in the new systems, and even operate the brake pedal during the maneuver, as the car accelerates quite strongly. Another driver assistant should include the dynamic high beam control system, which operates at speeds of 65 km / h. And in general, the Passat has very good matrix headlights with cornering illumination, which give a good concentrated beam of light when driving at night.

Of the comfort options, a three-level was available.climate control with a not very convenient touch control unit in the front and similar controls in the back. The work of the climate system can be duplicated on the screen of the media system, where you can also control the climate for the rear row of seats, which is important for parents who have a child sitting behind. The climate system works in automatic mode correctly, without requiring adjustments in the process, so developers can forgive the inconvenient climate block. And also in the Passat there are three-level heating of the front and rear (only side) seats and a heated steering wheel with a convenient button on the steering wheel itself. The seats and the steering wheel warm up evenly, but, in my opinion, somehow very slowly. Actual for our climate and the presence of heated windshield, and without filaments in it.

In terms of comfort, the car is very good, even bettersedan, in the cabin for the most part it is always quiet, only unobtrusive aerodynamic noise appears on the highway. The suspension works out well almost any bumps, even hitting a speed bump is quite easy for her, and such a large bump is transmitted to the cabin as delicately as possible.

In Russia, Volkswagen Passat Alltrack is available onlywith one 2.0 TSI petrol engine with 220 hp, paired with a seven-speed DSG robotic gearbox and 4MOTION all-wheel drive. The station wagon accelerates to 100 km / h in just 6.8 seconds.

Such a car drives confidently and cheerfully, powerenough engine in the city and on the highway. The box changes gears quickly and accurately, although at low speeds it seemed that she was more thoughtful. Alltrack's handling is light, plus precision and agility is facilitated by the adaptive chassis control system with a wide range of settings, which allows you to better adjust the suspension stiffness to your driving style and type of roadway. Pleases and relatively small turning diameter. So the Volkswagen Passat Alltrack may look like a retiree's car, but it has a perky personality and can be a lot of fun to drive if desired. Probably the only thing that confused me was the sensitivity of the station wagon to the track, which is especially pronounced on wet roads, but here I sin on the rubber installed on the test car.

The ground clearance of the Passat Alltrack is not a record andis 174 mm, which is only 14 mm more than a conventional station wagon. But Alltrack is not a jeep, but just a universal car that will make you feel confident in winter, and you can drive somewhere on light off-road on it, the main thing is to remember about long overhangs in front and behind.

Fuel consumption declared by the manufactureris 8 liters in the combined cycle and 10 in the city. My consumption practically corresponded to these figures, which for such a car can be considered a good result.

Volkswagen Passat Alltrack prices in RussianThe company's website has recently been updated, and expectedly in a big way. Now the manufacturer estimates the model at 5,548,000 rubles, and adding a metallic color for 22,000 and a couple of useful packages and options, we will get a figure close to 6 million rubles.

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