VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT

Capacious estate strives to keep pace with techy newcomers in its ninth generation

- MATT SAUNDERS

The tech-centred era in which the car now seems thoroughly ensconced presents certain problems for the established players, especially where older "legacy' models are concerned.

The Volkswagen Passat is one of those. Now entering its ninth generation, it has a longer history even than Wolfsburg's hero model, the Golf- and because so many of us feel like we know it so well, we've come to develop certain expectations of it that simply don't encumber the likes of BYD, GWM and Nio.

We expect, for starters, a certain sense of maturity, functionality and grounded sensibleness from the Passat - a car that has always served as a filter of the affected, fleeting and superfluous.

Do we expect a 15in infotainment touchscreen with built-in ChatGPT artificial intelligence? Probably not here. And when you see one on the dashboard of a car like this, drawing your eye like some sort of digital totem, you can't help thinking: "Crikey, do I really need all that?"