My Desultory Blog

Despite the unabashed public appearance of a camo-draped Volkswagen Passat wagon on American soil, the company is not planning to offer such a vehicle for sale here, we’ve learned from company sources. The car seen in testing is headed for the European market, and is just undergoing some development in the States, as is common practice among automakers. With an abundance of engineering firms, suppliers, and rain-free and hot climes here, the U.S. frequently attracts cars that will never reach our dealerships. This is the case with the Passat wagon.

Other than Subaru’s offerings, wagons in the family segment have become deeply unpopular, and Volkswagen discontinued the Passat wagon after it repositioned the sedan in the U.S., dropping the base price by nearly $8000 and going after the mid-size market’s biggest players. With a renewed focus on achieving big sales numbers, Volkswagen doesn’t see a new Passat wagon as an effective use of resources.

With all of this said, we already know that aVolkswagen is working on a three-row crossover, priced like a Honda Pilot or Ford Explorer at or near $30,000. Since that is precisely the category to which former wagon buyers have shifted in the U.S., it’s the right product for VW and makes way more business sense than does a Passat wagon.