The sloping-roof, four-door "coupe", pioneered by the Mercedes-Benz CLS, comes to Volkswagen in the form of the Passat CC, which goes on sale in North America in the fourth quarter of 2008. The car is just over an inch longer and wider than the standard Passat sedan, but it is nearly two inches lower. Standard seventeen-inch wheels fill the wheelwells, while eighteen-inch wheels are optional.
Positioned above its conventional sedan sibling, the Passat CC ladles on the electronic helpers, including a Lexus LS460-style hands-free parking program, lane-departure prevention (which goes one step farther than lane departure warning by actually steering the car back into its lane), intelligent cruise control, and a three-mode adaptive suspension that also modifies steering effort. Additional options include a full-width glass roof over the front seats, a rearview camera, heated and cooled front seats, and heated rear seats.
Powertrain choices, however, will mirror those of the standard Passat, with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four as the base engine, available with either a six-speed automatic or a manual gearbox, and a 3.6-liter V-6 with a six-speed automatic and all-wheel drive.
Click the link below for high-resolution Passat CC images.