July 25: A sneak peek?

  I know what you are thinking...........what the heck is a Dasher? It surprised me when I originally saw the name, since I had forgotten this forgettable car (not surprising). Ever see one around these days? Ever see one back in the day? Well, maybe, but those days are long gone. So, what happened to the Dasher? Simple  -  it became the Passat. An underwhelming, but nice car that sold poorly and made little dent in the mid-size sedan market.

Even now, with nostalgia running rampant, I don't think too many folks are checking used car lots and back alleys for any remaining Dashers or Passats to restore to their former glory(?). But way back in '73 VW needed a car for the mid-size sedan market and since this was before the Camry and Accord were introduced, they were a bit ahead of their time. First in Europe and then a year later in North America, the Dasher was excitedly unveiled to a populace who couldn't have cared less.

Sometime along the way, the Dasher became the Passat. Uninspiring name, until one realizes that it means "trade wind" in German (not the last VW to be named after a weather system). Thankfully, the design improved.......

.........and this car became somewhat of a low end Audi. German engineering and features in a bargain basement priced package. That last fact is a bit incorrect, since the top package landed your cheque in the high $40k range, right in the mix with an A4 or a BMW 3 series. No wonder they sold like month old bread.

The years went by and VW kept updating this sedan, but there was always a bank busting high end model for whatever reason. Sales were stationary, until...............

..........a few short years ago, when VW redesigned the Passat for the North American market, but more importantly, they completely revamped its pricing structure. Initially I was lukewarm towards this redesign, but it has grown on me and now I think that it is rather classy. And the value for the money is outstanding. When pricing one for a client, I invariably have to recheck my pricing just to be sure.

Redesigned for us, but Europe got a warmed over redo of the older design, that was nothing special as you can see from this pic........

Surprising that we beat Europe to a great redesign, when it is almost always the reverse. Well things are about to go back to the status quo, with this 2015 Passat for the European market.........

Look a little familiar? To me it is a great looking evolution of the current North American Passat. The buff books say that it hints at what the North American 2016 Passat will look like. Hints? I'll go several steps further and say this is exactly what our next Passat will look like. Finally Europe and us will be in sync with our Passat designs and typical for VW, we'll get it a year after it goes on sale in Europe.

A sneak peek? More like a full on reveal and it sure looks like it will be worth waiting for. Wonder if they should change the name back to the Dasher?

Until next time.......