#b6

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.

B&B, I’m listening.

I’m still relatively new to this place, and I am trying to pay attention to your comments. Several folks last week were bothered by my rather cavalier use of the term “Crapwagon” for decidedly non-crappy cars. So, we have a new title for those better cars I find while I’m supposed to be doing my day job: “Digestible Collectible.” I hope to bring both a Crapwagon and a Digestible Collectible to you every week, until the Internet runs out of interesting cars.

This week, a particularly digestible collectible comes to us from Ingolstadt, by way of Houston. Naturally, I’m in love with hot wagons, and those from Audi are among the best. Like this B6-series S4 Avant.