In the U.S., the Passat has had a bit of an identity crisis. First introduced as the Passat in Germany in 1973
http://www.thedieseldriver.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/DSC_0824-ED.jpgand developed from the Audi 80/Fox platform (VW had acquired Audi in 1964), the new front-wheel-drive sedan with a water-cooled engine was the harbinger of things to come out of Wolfsburg.
When it reached the U.S., it wasn’t called the Passat, however. (Passat is the German word for “trade wind”; at the time, VW was heavily invested in naming its cars after winds, including
Golf (Gulf stream),
Jetta (Jet stream), and Scirocco (Sirocco).) It was called the Dasher, which is not a wind, of course, just as the Golf, which was introduced in the U.S. by VW in 1974 as the Rabbit.
We
first drove the new 2012 Passat TDI in June around the fine state of Tennessee but, since it didn’t reach dealerships until later in the summer, we didn’t get a chance to spend a week in one until just recently.
