The Volkswagen CC has no reason for being other than style. Under that super sleek and super chic skin beats the heart of a four-door family machine. Sure, it may look like a coupe, but count the doors. If you don't count four, you're looking at the wrong car. This thing, well, it's a Passat sedan that's been crossbred with Marlene Dietrich and a melted wedge of Muenster. It's practical, beautiful and a bit cheesy. But there's really nothing else quite like the Volkswagen CC.
VW's thinking behind the Volkswagen CC is to add glamour to the workaday Passat and create a premium sedan that can be slotted just above it. So all the bits that matter — the chassis, suspension elements and drivetrain components — port over directly from the Passat. The CC even rides on the same wheelbase as the Passat sedan. And at one point, the name of the CC was going to be the Passat CC. If you're a killjoy, go ahead and look past the VW CC's sheet metal to see the Passat underneath.
But why ignore how the Volkswagen CC looks? It's the looks that matter. And the CC is a flat wonderful-looking piece of highway-legal rolling sculpture. The first CC appeared during the 2009 model year, and that machine had a body that could stop tectonic plates from moving. From the smile on its nose to its elegant red taillights, the CC looked like, if not a million bucks, then at least twice as much as its bottom line. And the first Volkswagen CC was finished like a surgical instrument.
Theoretically, the VW CC is a luxury car. However, at its introduction it was one of the few on the market in North America that was available with a thrifty four-cylinder engine and either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission driving the front wheels. A V6 was also offered and the automatic came with it. The V6-equipped Volkswagen CC models could also be had with all-wheel drive.
Gorgeous as it is, the VW CC is still a Passat at heart. The Volkswagen CC is not a gadget-laden bahn-burner or diplomatic shuttle, but an easygoing German glamour queen.
