A few of us around the Autoblog offices have made the case that the recently unveiled Volkswagen Passat CC should replace the current model and drop the "CC" suffix altogether. Both are fine looking vehicles, but there doesn't seem to be any need for another variant carrying the Passat name. Well, apparently VW agrees with part of that argument and has updated its consumer web site with information about the new CC, while dropping the Passat moniker altogether. It's a subtle marketing ploy that may or may not work, but will help to fill the gaping hole between the standard Passat and the soon-to-be-revived Phaeton nameplate.
Thanks for the tip Rob!
[Source: Volkswagen]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Christopher H. Kim @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:03PM
Front reminds me of the Sebring
Noe @ Apr 3rd 2008 7:02PM
More like BMW 6 series!!! but i still think it looks good
Ensega @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:05PM
And with a dumb decision like that they think they can take on Toyota?
Idiocy.
nagmashot @ Apr 4th 2008 1:56AM
VW makes giant step forward in car production numbers.. in 2007 they got clearly over the 6 million vehicles build mark and have perhaps already passed Ford as world wide number 3... (we have to wait till ford publish officle numbers for 2007), VW make a win after tax any US producer can only dream off..
VW is already ahead it´s own growing plan...
Ensega @ Apr 5th 2008 2:13PM
That may be so, but the point of what I said was simply because of the poor decision in making this car and the Passat instead of using it to replace the Passat.
Regardless, it's going to be one hell of a struggle for VW to make up the 3 or so million sales difference between itself and Toyota, AND GM. Not to mention the great quality difference.
mk @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:16PM
How high is the front end of that thing???
Thanks, but no thanks. There is more to a car than the roofline.
MR @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:17PM
I think it's pretty hot.
VK @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:25PM
Agreed, if only they would keep the price down. i sat in one at the auto show in ny, that things pretty nice inside (like most volkswagens)
Seoultrain @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:18PM
They moved the Passat upmarket, which priced it out of its prior success. Now they'll make another Passat at a further premium?
The volk will never go for this wagen.
Rick @ Apr 4th 2008 3:37PM
Actually, I read they are trying to get the Passat cheaper, that it was $4k above where it should be. I'd look for the Passat cost to get lower.
The Other Bob @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:20PM
Is that a Buick?
zamafir @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:22PM
Hey, if Mercedes can take and toss a new body on the E class and call it a CLS, and VW's following the exact same formula (woot another four door coupe with a new handy dandy name)... wait... I hate the CLS... and VW has no business doing this. fail.
havoc @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:27PM
i just wish i knew why we suddenly have 4 door coupes.
what's next, 2 door sedans?
GTX141 @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:30PM
Touche, my friend. Touche
Teh cluelessness at Wolfsburg truly is asstounding. I honestly wonder how they've managed to stay at #4 on the global scale.....
I thought Germans were smarter than everybody. At least, thats what they say...
zamafir @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:31PM
um... mercedes had a lot of e class bits sitting around and needed to shift them, thus their b*llsh*t four door coupe was formed and marketed allowing for other automakers to join in.
jgp @ Apr 3rd 2008 7:16PM
You mean 2-door sedans like the ones BMW used to be famous for?
Yeah, that was done decades ago.
With that said, this CC isn't coupish at all.
500 @ Apr 3rd 2008 7:41PM
They could just dispense with any pretenses and call it the CLS. Or the Aurora; the black one above looks a lot like a '95 Olds Aurora in profile, at least from that angle. Look at the roofline and haunches especially.
SoCalObserver @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:33PM
VW is getting as bad as Ford with these last-minute name changes that are nothing more than a waste of time and money.
First, it was the last-min decision to rename the Golf the Rabbit (I might be imagining this, but hadn't VW already built cars with "Golf" badges before the last-min change, and have to rebadge them "Rabbits"? News flash for VW: young buyers who you're targeting with this car don't remember the Rabbit. Golf, Rabbit, same difference.)
Golf or Rabbit, Passat CC or CC, more important that the name is the car itself. It doesn't matter if a car is called Zephyr or MK-Z, it's STILL A FORD FUSION when all is said and done.
That said, I can see the CC selling well here in LA. But VW really needs to figure out what they're about and where they're headed instead of freaking out at the least minute and making changes like this. Makes them seem like DAS unstable car company.
zamafir @ Apr 3rd 2008 7:00PM
If you wouldn't mind linking us to any press releases VW issued about the north American MKV Rabbit having been branded a Golf for North America – then subsequently changed at the ‘last minute’, that would be fantastic, to substantiate this 'last minute' diatribe.
David @ Apr 4th 2008 12:09AM
The current generation Golf (MKV) was intro'd as a 2003 model. So when VW redubbed the car "Rabbit" for the mid-cycle 2007 US model without any substantial changes from the MKV Golf, they pretty much did exactly a "last minute" change, just as Ford did with the 500, now Taurus.
If car companies go to the trouble of changing the name of a car, they should at least tie it to a major redesign--otherwise it just carries the stink of warmed over ho-hum design and desperate marketing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Golf