Volkswagen Passat Variant - practicality and economy beat design

Since the Volkswagen Beetle Volkswagen is famous for practical car with a good value to price ratio. This is certainly true for the Volkswagen Passat, especially in the estate version - VW calls it Variant.
It does what you expect it to do, transporting five people with a lot of luggage from A to B. Depending on the engine chosen it can do that a bit slower or faster. The engine options go up to 3.6 liters and 300 hp. But already the 3.2 liter version of the v6 with 250 hp is more than enough for today's traffic. There are highly economical diesel versions too, especially the bluemotion editions that offer a lot of transportation capacity at low fuel/diesel consumption. It comes with front wheel drive or four wheel drive (4motion). There are tons of options you can add to the Passat including Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Assistant, Navigation, Park Distance Control, etc.. The difference to an Audi A6 Avant is basically the design and the price. An equally equipped Audi will cost you 30 to 50% more, that's a lot to ask for four rings and a more elegant shape and detailing. I must admit that the Passat is not really the design of the centry, but there may be even things in the Passat that actually work better than in the Audi sister or are better engineered. The DSG (double clutch gear box) for example is only available for the six cylinder engines at Volkswagen and this box is a clear differentiator.