Volkswagen Passat Passes Away

The final Volkswagen Passat has rolled off the assembly line in Chattanooga, Tennessee, ending the model’s extended run on the North American market.

Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and introduced in 1973 using the VW/Audi B1 platform, the Passat arrived in the United States as the Dasher and was sold as a midsized luxury vehicle to people in the market for an imported economy car. The model carried different names in other parts of the world and even saw a few unique monikers used in the U.S. (e.g. Quantum) to help differentiate between the hatchback, sedan, and wagon variants sold throughout the 1980s. But it was officially known as the (B2) Passat by 1990, regardless of format.

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  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X I prefer the "Classic" look along with getting a reg cab, RWD with 8ft bed and 5.7 V8.
  • Redapple2 I like the classic ram. Kinda like vinyl vs CD. Low cost. Low frills. Low bs. Simple controls.
  • MKizzy A price bump? Give it a couple of bad months + an unpredictable Musk mood swing and the M3 Performance could be selling at Altima prices.
  • ToolGuy I don't think it is fair that the other car companies have to compete with VW.
  • Wjtinfwb Seemed pointless to cannibalize your own products sales by offering a clearly inferior and older product toting the same name at a lower price point. Now many "Classic" buyers would have bought a current Generation RAM had that been all that was offered? It kind of made sense when GM did it for fleet only sales of outdated models like Malibu or Impala or even Ford while new model build grew to capacity. But they've sold these two side by side for at least 3 years now, which just seems counterproductive and costly.