VOLKSWAGEN HAS JUST LOOSED its sixth-generation Passat on dealer showrooms across the country, and none too soon. The German automaker is in desperate need of a marketplace pick-me-up, and the Passat may prove the right prescription. VW knows it can't afford a misstep. The automaker is hemorrhaging greenbacks faster than the Department of Treasury can print them, losing almost USD1.3 billion on these shores last year alone. Earlier this year VW rolled out the redesigned Jetta, its volume leader, and signs show sales of the compact have started to staunch the bleeding - despite the amount of criticism spilling out of online forums and magazine (ahem) reviews alike over the car's Corolla-clone styling. You won't find the same knocks on the Passat's styling from these pages, though. The Passat is as handsome a design as any hailing from Wolfsburg these days, with an even higher level of interior refinement than the VW norm - already the leader in the field - and a more elegantly shaped skin. And with three Passats sold for every four Jettas, the midsizer's higher profit margins make it just as important to the automaker's balance sheet, and its success would go far to cure VW's ills.
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