Volkswagen upgrades Passat

Volkswagen Group Australia has announced a 2013 model year Passat featuring two significant upgrades that will be fitted as standard across the range – satellite-navigation and a reversing camera.

The giant German importer says the free extras are valued at $3000 and will be available in MY13 Passats here from next month.

The Passat’s new infotainment system, dubbed RNS510, comprises a high-resolution touch-screen display, a 30GB hard-drive that can store music and navigation data, and SD card and DVD slots for audio playback. The sat-nav system also features voice recognition.

With 3127 sales and an eight per cent share of its segment, the Volkswagen Passat is Australia’s fourth highest selling mainstream mid-size car so far in 2012, behind Toyota’s Camry (12,723, 32.4%), Honda’s Accord Euro (4867, 12.4%) and the Mazda6 (3797, 9.7%).

For the month of July 2012, Passat recorded strong sales of 581 units, making it the second most popular medium car after the Camry and Volkswagen Australia Managing Director, Anke Koeckler, said the free MY13 upgrades will further improve the Passat’s appeal.

“That means this will be a customer advantage of around $3000 and, guess what, we're not going to increase the prices,” she said. “So the entry-level model is the Passat 118TSI seven-speed DSG at $38,990. That is right now the price, and will be the price from the model year 2013 and onwards.”

Ms Koeckler said the rear-view camera was a “big safety issue” for the brand, but admitted another reason for the upgraded equipment levels was to keep the car in line with market expectations.

“We are always following what's happening in the market and the beginning of this year we were looking at what the competitors were doing,” said Ms Koeckler.

“We always wanted to take the next step with the rear-view camera but it was not affordable when we launched the Passat [in late 2011].”

In addition, the MY13 Passat wagon adds an auto opening/closing tailgate to its standard equipment list, while range-topping MY13 Passat V6 FSI models get steering wheel gearshift paddles as standard.

MY13 Volkswagen Passat pricing (plus on-road costs):

Passat 118TSI seven-speed DSG - $38,990
Passat 125TDI Highline six-speed DSG - $43,990
Passat V6 FSI Highline six-speed DSG - $55,990
Passat 118TSI Wagon seven-speed DSG - $40,990
Passat 125TDI Wagon Highline six-speed DSG - $45,990
Passat V6 FSI Wagon Highline six-speed DSG - $57,990

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