CarBrandLogos archive · Volkswagen · 1973

VolkswagenPassat

The car that began Volkswagen's escape from the air-cooled era.

Photo: © M 93 · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

The story

A defining chapter in Volkswagen history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Volkswagen Passat, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

By 1970 Volkswagen was in serious difficulty. Beetle sales were falling, the Type 3 and Type 4 had not found the buyers who were leaving, and a decade of attempts to design a replacement in-house had produced nothing viable. The solution came from the company it had acquired in the 1960s: Audi had a modern front-wheel-drive, water-cooled saloon in the 80, and Volkswagen was able to build a car on it quickly.

2003 Volkswagen Passat SE V6 sedan 02 · OSX · Public domain

Design and engineering

The Passat of 1973 was that car, given a fastback body by Giorgetto Giugiaro and a hatchback and estate to broaden its appeal. It was the first of the new generation to reach showrooms, ahead of the Scirocco and the Golf, and it made the argument for the whole strategy: a transverse water-cooled engine at the front, drive to the front wheels, and a body shape chosen for practicality rather than aerodynamic folklore.

2003 Volkswagen Passat SE V6 sedan 04 · OSX · Public domain

In production

It has been in production ever since, though it has changed philosophy several times. The B3 of 1988 abandoned the radiator grille entirely; the B5 of 1996 shared its longitudinal-engine platform with the Audi A4, giving it a more prestigious character; the B6 of 2005 returned to a transverse layout. In the United States it was for years the largest Volkswagen most buyers encountered, and in China it became one of the highest-volume cars in the market.

1980 Volkswagen Passat LS Wagon · Jeremy from Sydney, Australia · CC BY 2.0

Legacy

The saloon has now given way to the electric ID.7, and in Europe the current car is sold only as an estate — a fair reflection of what buyers actually wanted from it all along.

At a glance