As a group, Volkswagen has the choice of a wide range of brands to bring new models home. The more expensive copies end very soon with the luxury branch Audi, but occasionally Volkswagen wants to come up with something special under its own brand name. An example is the Passat CC, which was suddenly called ‘CC’ after its facelift.
The Phaeton, the Touareg, the Passat CC, all are examples of Volkswagens that actually compete with what are normally Audi competitors. In the case of the Passat CC, this was the four-door coupé, a car that was mainly represented in 2009 by the Mercedes-Benz CLS. The CC therefore does not stand for ‘Coupé-Cabriolet’, but for ‘Comfort Coupé’. Yes.
Although the flattened Passat was a lot cheaper compared to a CLS, the car was again more expensive than the already inexpensive regular Passat. With the budget in mind, such a Passat CC was therefore a special alternative to the 3-series, C-classes and A4s of this world, where a piece of brand prestige was exchanged for a lascivious lined carriage.
Volkswagen was not easy with the Passat CC. Although the car shared part of its name with the large middle class in most countries, it did have its own carriage. It was lower and longer than that of a regular Passat and had a much smoother interplay of lines. Round shapes played a major role. The strikingly large, highly rounded taillights extend far into the rear screen and the stylish side windows are set in a smoothly sloping chrome strip.
The basic layout of the nose is most similar to that of the Passat that was in the showroom between 2005 and 2010, although its completely chrome-plated face was missing. The drops under the headlights and at the bottom of the bumper mounted turn signals were present, but still slightly different than a regular Passat.
In 2011, Volkswagen, again in Los Angeles, presented a brand new version of the CC. CC, indeed, because the ‘Passat’ was canceled. That was nothing new for the Americans, but it was for Europeans. The four-door coupe received a facelift comparable to what the Passat received and Volkswagen found that even enough to speak of a generational change. Nose and butt were also completely overhauled at the CC, keeping the definition of the word ‘tightening’ neatly. The lighting units became considerably less voluptuous and received LED technology, the bumpers became more rectilinear and from now on the grille fitted tightly to the stricter looking headlights. Better? You can say it!