Volkswagen Passat 206TSI R-Line 2022 Review

The 2022 Volkswagen Passat 206TSI R-Line wagon is priced from $64,890 plus on-road costs, having recently copped an $1100 increase after arriving back in the market six months ago at $63,790 plus ORCs.

That places the Passat in this specification and trim at a premium over the very similar Skoda Superb 206TSI Sportline wagon that starts at $62,590 plus ORCs.

It also sits above high-grade mid-size wagons from rival mainstream brands such as Peugeot and Mazda, but packs in plenty of gear to help justify the sticker price.

Standard features include 19-inch ‘Pretoria’ alloy wheels, a full-size spare tyre with matching road wheel, matrix LED headlights with automatic high beam assist, and a motion gesture-operated power tailgate.

Inside, there’s three-zone climate control, a trip computer, 10.25-inch instrument cluster, heated front sports seats with power adjustment and memory function, triple-split folding rear seat, multifunction three-spoke steering wheel with leather-bound rim, height and reach adjustment for the steering column, power windows/mirrors and Nappa leather upholstery.

The 11-speaker Harman Kardon infotainment system incorporates satellite navigation, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and Bluetooth.

The Lapiz Blue metallic paint on our test car adds $800, taking the as-tested price to $65,690 plus ORCs.

Volkswagen sells the Passat with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. Buyers also get one year of roadside assistance, and service intervals measure 12 months or 15,000km.

The Volkswagen Passat was rated at the maximum five stars by ANCAP back in 2015. That was a while ago, but the score remains relevant to buyers six years later thanks to the raft of safety equipment on board.

By our measure, the 2022 Volkswagen Passat 206TSI R-Line wagon boasts up to nine airbags. In addition to the usual gamut, the driver gets one to protect the knees, and the outboard passengers in the rear have their own side-impact bags.

Naturally, side curtain airbags also protect the heads of the passengers in the outboard seats, front and rear. Younger children are kept safe with two ISOFIX child safety seat anchorage points.

Volkswagen also equips the Passat with a suite of driver assist technology. Among those features are 360-degree monitoring (including reversing view), front/rear autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, rear cross traffic alert, blind spot monitoring, lane change assist, adaptive cruise control/speed limiting, driver fatigue monitoring and tyre pressure monitoring.

Traffic sign recognition is one feature missing in a car priced at this level.

There’s a park assist button on the centre console for automatic parking, but the only mode available is parallel parking, not 90-degree parking, which is almost exclusively the only parking I do.

Fortunately, the reversing camera, mirrors, acoustic guidance and reasonably tight turning circle make the Passat a cinch to park in a safe manner without the automated system.

In its character, the turbocharged engine under the bonnet of the 2022 Volkswagen Passat 206TSI R-Line wagon errs more on the side of refinement and sophistication.

Indeed, the four-cylinder unit is typically Germanic in its soundtrack – smooth even at high revs, but perhaps a little ‘cerebral’ rather than ‘passionate’. It’s never really loud, and that’s fitting for a car like this, aimed at an older, executive type more so than a boy racer.

Nevertheless, the turbocharged engine is a good mill, mustering effortless torque for climbing hills, even in fifth gear at 2000rpm.

That’s hardly unexpected from an undersquare engine (longer stroke) and a turbocharger. At the same time, however, it will also rip up to the 6500rpm without any hesitancy or histrionics along the way. And that is unexpected.

In sixth gear the engine sits at around 2200rpm, which is surprisingly high for an engine such as this one. That’s perhaps why the Passat managed to sneak in (just) under 10L/100km on a late-night test run, finishing the drive on 9.9L/100km.

Gentler driving will likely bring this down to a figure nearer the official combined-cycle number, 8.1L/100km.

The idle-stop system works well, in general. Ease your foot off the brake a little and the engine will restart, which will give you the advantage when the light turns to green. But this sensitivity in the accelerator pedal movement means it’s hard to bring the Passat to a soft stop without the engine restarting.

There are pros and cons with that system, in other words, but overall the idle-stop system does a terrific job bringing the engine to a quiet, gentle halt. And naturally too, the engine fires up again very smoothly.

The DSG transmission is generally praiseworthy, but on a couple of occasions it shifted a little sharply with power applied. Overall, however, it’s a great partner to the engine, allowing downshifts from relatively high revs for a bit of fun on the run.

And the Passat’s all-wheel drive system provides unimpeachable traction.

It’s hardly surprising that the 2022 Volkswagen Passat 206TSI R-Line spears through corners at speeds few other mid-size wagons can match.

With the Pirelli Cinturato P7 235/40R19 tyres fitted, the drive channelled to all four wheels and the adaptive chassis control set to Sport, the Passat is one wagon that will show a clean pair of heels to many rivals in the same market segment, even those from prestigious brand names.

It’s a communicative chassis too, often encouraging the driver to go harder. At that point where the car’s grip is beginning to feel compromised, the Passat tells the driver it will accept a little more power to blast out of a bend on the other side.

And whether driven sedately around town or being punted harder on a winding country road, the Passat feels smaller than it actually is.

It’s undeniably a dynamically competent car, but that doesn’t come at the expense of ride comfort.

Even in Sport mode at higher speeds, the Passat never feels brutal. About the only time the suspension wasn’t up to the job was over a particularly horrendous pothole where the road had subsided after recent heavy rains.

The VW’s suspension crashed, but this was the sort of road surface that would have challenged anything this side of a Citroen DS. So bear that in mind…

The brakes are strong and the Passat gnaws away at the bitumen under heavy braking, but the tyres don’t give the game away, and the wagon feels very stable. There’s plenty of feel under foot as well, so you can measure precisely how hard to hit the pedal for slowing in a hurry to negotiate the next bend.

The auto-hold system is great for really lazy people who can’t even bother to keep the brake pedal depressed while waiting for a green light, but it does take longer to react and wake up the engine again when you want to get moving.

Either set to low beam or with the auto high beam assist sequentially dipping the lights for oncoming traffic, the LED matrix headlights are very effective.

Inside, the Passat comes with great seats, which are very supportive and well-shaped, with lumbar adjustment to set up the seats for optimal, individualised comfort. Drivers will feel immediately at home behind the wheel, thanks to the very well sorted driving position.

The instrumentation can be set to three different viewing modes, including a conventional display with an ‘analogue’ tacho. As is the case with similar systems from upmarket brands, the Passat can also be set up with fuel consumption in the infotainment screen and navigation guidance shown in the trip computer section of the instrument cluster.

That’s about as much as you need to view at any one time, but you can skip across through trip computer functions to phone and audio systems as well.

The drive mode button is on the centre console, near the gear shifter, but closer to the front passenger – out of sight and almost out of reach of the driver.

At least the self-parking button is located where it should be, near the driver’s left leg. And it’s really nice to have the engine start button also on the console, in plain sight and easy reach.

For its price, the Passat – which is pretty well equipped on balance – does lack little niceties we’ve come to expect in lower-priced cars: traffic sign recognition, for example, a head-up display, or voice recognition that relies on natural speech for the satellite navigation system’s destination entry.

The Volkswagen system wants the address recited in order of town, street and street number, which is a little old-fashioned these days.

But these are really minor concerns.

Throughout the cabin, ambient lighting and attractive check-finish satin aluminium complement the leather-clad seats for additional class. Two functional cup holders are concealed by a sliding flap in the centre console and there are relatively large bottle holders in the door bins on either side in the front.

Powering portable devices or streaming music is made easier by the USB-C port in the gear shifter plinth. There’s another USB port (data only) in the bin under the centre console’s folding arm rest, plus a 12V power outlet in the centre console too.

The power trip carries on in the rear seat and boot, with a USB-C port and 12V power outlet in the rear of the centre console under a rising flap, plus yet another 12V socket in the boot on the right-hand side.

It’s spacious in the rear seat for headroom and legroom, despite the large panoramic sunroof that extends all the way back over the top of the rear seat. Occupants also benefit from adjustable vents and third-zone temperature controls in the rear seat.

The centre of the rear bench contains a folding arm rest and ski port in the 60 per cent section of the seat. And each of the relatively large bottle holders in the door bins would probably accommodate a 750mL bottle at a pinch.

The large useful boot houses a full-size spare and matching road wheel, despite the four-wheel drive components under the floor. For added versatility the boot features a luggage net and retractable parcel shelf.

There are finger-pull levers to lower the split-fold rear seat for additional luggage capacity, although the rear seat does not fold completely flat.

And finally, the motion-gesture activation to raise the powered tailgate actually works, to my unending surprise.

There are drivers out there who won’t give two hoots for the 2022 Volkswagen Passat 206TSI R-Line. These drivers more likely lust after just one VW model: the Golf GTI (maybe Golf R at a pinch).

But for keen drivers of more mature years, the payload-schlepping performance Passat is the ideal all-rounder.

It’s a little bit stealthy. There’s room, comfort and safety for the family. It’s easy enough for the ‘A to B’ user in the family to operate. Running costs are reasonable. And, most important of all, it’s fun to drive.

Yet the true virtue of the Passat is that it doesn’t offend. That sounds awful to say, but the Passat’s styling won’t have you retching in your coffee, you won’t be fighting the driver assist systems in traffic or on country roads, and it won’t have you flipping through the owner’s manual to learn some new infotainment system, the operation of which should be self-evident.

It just does what you want of it.

How much does the 2022 Volkswagen Passat 206TSI R-Line wagon cost?
Price: $64,890 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 206kW/350Nm
Transmission: Six-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 8.1L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 186g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2015)