China Gets A Few New Passats - And Keeps The Old Ones

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

China is getting a double dose of Volkswagen Passat. The new generation B7 Passat will hit China’s streets in a longer wheelbase version, to provide legroom for the boss in the back while the driver up front braves the crazy Chinese traffic. Just like the previous-gen B6, the car will be built by Volkswagen’s northern joint venture with FAW and will be sold under the Magotan name. “Passat” was already taken by Volkswagen’s southern joint venture, more on that below.

First pictures of the not quite 4 inch (100 mm) longer wheelbase (why do they even bother?) Magotan appeared today in CarNewsChina. The car will be powered by 1.4 TSI, 1.8 TSI and 2.0 TSI engines, mated to a DSG transmission. Price and launch date will be announced next month.

Meanwhile in Shanghai, Volkswagen’s joint venture with SAIC will (not quite, see below) replace its long-in-the-tooth B5 Passat with the American Chattanooga Passat, the artist formerly known as NMS. The New Passat has been shown at the Shanghai Auto Show. It shares two engines (1.8TSI, 2.0TSI) with the Magotan, and adds a 3.0 Liter V6. It costs between 218,800 Yuan ($33,500) and 310,800 Yuan ($47,600). The times of the cheap Passat in China are clearly over. The New Passat has a 2803mm wheelbase, only marginally shorter than the “long” Magotan B7L which has a 2812mm wheelbase.

In the “why throw away a perfectly good platform” department, the 5th generation Passat B5 will live on as the facelifted Passat Lingyu, also made by the joint venture with SAIC.

None of the newer Passats break any sales records. In March, the Passat Lingyu stood at rank 31 with 10,111 units sold. The Magotan (B6) was at rank 57 with 6,349 units sold. Meanwhile, the Santana, derived from the second gen Passat B2, held rank 4 with 19,683 units sold. The top spot had the FAW Xiali N3/N5, which has its roots in a 2nd gen Daihatsu Charade.

While people in the U.S. and Europe drive around in 20 year old cars, China builds them.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Ponchoman49 Ponchoman49 on May 04, 2011

    Look Ma it's the new Jetta. No thats a Passat. Oh I thought it might have been the new Camry or Corolla sighs dad.

  • Lokki Lokki on May 04, 2011

    And here I tought the old Passat was passe'

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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