Auto1 Award: The Passat is Europe's Number One

Posted on 03/03/2006 under: News, Sedans/Saloons, Volkswagen

40 million readers, experts and editors put the Passat on the winner’s rostrum for the second time

The Passat has just won what is one of Europe’s most prestigious and important readers’ polls, in which over 40 million readers of 24 European magazines published by the AutoBild Group took part. The final round of voting focussed on 13 models, and the 40-strong jury of editors, technology and motor sport experts placed the Passat way out in front of its rivals.

The Auto1 Trophy weighing 5 kg was presented to Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, Chairman of the Volkswagen brand Board of Management, and Dr. Bernd Pischetsrieder, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, yesterday evening – Wednesday 1 March 2006 – at a ceremony parallel to the Geneva Autosalon. "The Auto1 Award is the crowing point of a series of successes", said Dr. Bernhard, thanking the readers and jury. He drew attention to the diversity of prizes won in recent times by the Passat, saying that this proof of the car’s "outstanding concept". He continued by stressing that: "Fame and honours are a very good basis, but satisfied customers and sustained commercial success are the criteria by which we want to be judged".

As far back as 1997 saw the Passat in its fifth generation win the Auto1 Award. Since its market launch in March 2005 (Variant: August 2005) the new Passat has established itself at the head of the middle-class saloon field and lost no time in continuing its predecessor’s winning ways, for example collecting the "Gelber Engel" consumer prize awarded by Germany’s ADAC automobile club and the "Goldene Lenkrad" presented by Bild am Sonntag, the German Sunday newspaper. The Passat has also been voted "Car of the Year" in several other European countries.

The statistics on new registrations compiled by the KBA (German Federal Bureau of Motor Vehicles and Drivers) for January 2006 show too that the car is number one in its segment, with no less than 10,264 newly registered Passats and a market share in Germany of 26.1 percent. The figures for 2005 as a whole were 98,136 new registrations and a market share of 17.3 percent.

Source: Automotoportal.com