Courtesy photo
Since the mysterious days of the brief American appearance
of the Volkswagen Phaeton, a very expensive and very upscale VW, folks who
still equate the brand with Herbie the Love Bug (or do not remember the early,
$80,000 diesel Touareg SUV) have often been bewildered by the sheer notion of
really costly Volkswagens.
And since the phase-out of the midmarket CC sedan, those who
like the idea of a family-sized Volkswagen sedan but still fail to be thrilled
by the Passat were left with a bit of a gap.
Enter the Arteon, a fanciful, striking and nicely
accomplished larger sedan, which offers a more premium experience at a still
reasonable price — albeit nearly double the cost of a Jetta SEL Premium I also
drove in back-to-back tests.
Arteon starts at $35,845, but the top-of-the-line SEL
Premium model in its family, also equipped with Colorado-compatible 4Motion
all-wheel drive, brought the price to $46,175. Jetta, in the meantime, did its
full act for $28,590.
What do you get for what is indeed a kind of costly
Volkswagen, exactly? You get a vehicle that seems to be trying very hard to
make a statement, from its striking visual cues, its intricate use of chrome
and even funny little details like side mirrors, which electronically rotate
upward like supercar scissor doors when you lock the vehicle. There’s also an
interesting, initially somewhat offsetting lantern effect from a coach-styled
light feature above the rear-view mirror, adding a different ambience at night.
Arteon shares the same adaptable platform as everything from
the full-sized Atlas to the smaller Golf, so proportions are not unexpectedly
different — though the car definitely feels wider and longer than other members
of the family.
In reality, it’s 191.4 inches overall, with a 111.7-inch
wheelbase (versus Passat’s, uh, 110.4-inch wheelbase and 191.9-inch length),
suggesting that looks and finish can really change one’s impressions of a
vehicle, without much change at all.
It also offers more SUV-styled power, with a turbocharged,
direct fuel injection 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine producing 268 horsepower —
a big improvement over Passat’s 174 horsepower variant.
Arteon’s turbo, par for the course, sounds equally coarse at
start-up but will truly fling the vehicle along in high style, returning the
promised 27 highway mpg with no problems. My only truly exciting galavanting
during my mostly commute-heavy drive was a circular on-ramp onto Interstate 25,
and I was able to do so with a confidence and lateral grip that I found quite impressive.
Standard driving was smooth and solid, with comfortable
steering, indicating that the car will be a happy summertime cruiser.
The design does indeed give it a whole lot more presence,
and even in a Urano Gray paint scheme, Arteon looks pretty chic. Up front, the
car’s face is made up of rows and rows of chromed fencing, a detail also
repeated on the air vents in the cabin, plus extremely low-profile headlamps,
and a low, broad and very flat hood.
There’s chrome everywhere — window frames and expressive pseudo
vents on the side panels — plus a deeply tapered crease above the rocker panels
that adds visual strength.
Arteon is set up in sportback style, and the effect is an
absolutely gigantic, nearly SUV-sized cargo area in the rear, as much as 55
cubic feet with the rear seats folded.
Mine did come loaded to the gills with the full range of
Volkswagen’s fancier bits, including aluminum pedals and sill plates, a
700-watt, 12-speaker Dynaudio stereo system, plus the full extent of VW’s most
current navigation system.
Leatherized doors, sumptuous and sporty seats and a
flat-bottomed, race-style wheel also class up the whole experience. But it’s
the back that benefits the most from an almost limousine-level of refinement,
with substantial and spacious leg room, tall benchlike-seating with deep
bottoms and full climate controls, including seat heaters. Larger, longer
squared-off doors also make rear-seat access more pleasant.
If Arteon seems a little upmarket for your tastes, consider
that the Jetta SEL is still pretty impressive, with more than enough real-world
power and comfort in its standard 1.4-liter turbo engine setup. That
147-horsepower output is definitely a different experience than Arteon or even
the Jetta GLI, but you can use it wisely and efficiently to make the Jetta a
fun experience, with impressive confidence on corners.
SEL brings a nicer set of wheels and some additional trim to
add to the package, plus the Beats Audio system; the relentlessly monochrome
interior is perhaps the height of VW’s black-on-black color scheme.
Andy Stonehouse’s column “Mountain Wheels” publishes Saturdays in the Summit Daily News. Stonehouse has worked as an editor and writer in Colorado since 1998, focusing on automotive coverage since 2004. He lives in Greeley. Contact him at rossandrewstonehouse@gmail.com.