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As Europe awaits the facelifted B8 Volkswagen Passat coming next year, over in the United States, Wolfsburg is readying a new version of the midsize sedan specifically for that market. The company invited select US press to view the finished article, and while photography wasn’t allowed, it did provide them with these sketches ahead of the car’s unveiling at the Detroit Auto Show on January 14.
These renders present a more stylish Passat, in keeping with a similar redesign for the small Jetta. The front end adopts the latest VW corporate look with the headlights integrated into the broad grille, while the back features a pair of sharp-worded, heavily contoured tail brightness. The more prominent creases and surfacing along the sides of the car add to the visual drama.
According to Automotive News, the brand-new 2020 modeling, which will continue to be built in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will ride on the same PQ46 platform as the outgoing New Midsize Sedan, which in turn is based on the European B6/ B7 Passat and not the latest modular MQB architecture like the Chinese-market NMS. This has meant that brand-new car’s underpinnings has been around in some sort or the other since 2005.
What’s more, the Passat will retain the same 2.0 litre turbocharged TSI engine, which in the present vehicle builds 174 hp and 250 Nm of torque; unlike in other markets, it’s paired to a conventional six-speed automatic transmission. The decision to retain the platform and powertrain can expect to do with saving expenditures, as the midsize sedan sell continues to decrease in the US.
Steven Warrick, administrator of the Passat model line in The americas, contended that customers had no complaints about the driving dynamics of the present example, so there was no need to change platforms, saying,” There was nothing wrong with the platform .” Nonetheless, he guaranteed that pretty much the rest of the Passat is new:” The only piece of sheet metal we didn’t change was the roof .”
Sticking to the same platform means that the Passat won’t get the latest Volkswagen technologies like the digital Active Driving Display instrument cluster, but Automotive News reports that the car will get revised dashboard switchgear and new security features such as adaptive cruise command, blind spot monitoring, front parking assistance and LED lighting.
GALLERY: Chinese-market 2019 Volkswagen Passat 
The post 2020 Volkswagen Passat: US simulate tantalized, Jan divulge seemed first on Paul Tan’s Automotive News.
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