By Miles Downard
The world of saloon’s has been slowly dying over the last decade as crossovers and SUVs take hold of the motoring public. One can see why, too. SUVs especially offer go-anywhere practicality while maintaining the ability to carry all and sundry.
Such is the move away from saloon’s that locally they are being taken off the non-premium showroom floors. Ford, Honda and co no longer offer a family size saloon. Rumour has it that VW South Africa will stop selling the Passat, even.
Puzzling that we see the VW Arteon here, then. Perhaps the thinking is that the traditional family saloon is, ahem, a bit too boring? And something as exciting looking as the Arteon will perk up the segment?
Well, what I can tell you is that the Arteon is quite a nice vehicle, not least to look at. Of the remaining family sized saloon’s that are popular, it’s the coupe-esque variants that are most appealing to buyers. This Arteon has an R line exterior package, which gives more aggressive styling features across the front bumper, along with unique interior trinkets on the steering wheel and seats.
It is of course based on a VW group platform that includes a list as long as my arm, covering various Audi, VW, Seat and Skodas (the last two not sold in SA), including the Passat which is a vehicle I raved about last year. So it’s no surprise that I like the Arteon, too.
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On the inside you can get all the VW group’s latest goodies, like an interactive dashboard so you can customise what info you see alongside the digital speedometer. Navigation is nice to see there, but equally nice on the heads up display projected onto the windscreen. The rather massive 9.2’’ Discover Pro touchscreen has gesture control, which honestly is a bit of a gimmick, but nonetheless available. Blind spot indicators and a 360 degree parking camera are also very useful tools.
Powering my test unit was VW’s 2.0 diesel lump, good for 135kW and 350 torques. A DSG double clutch automated gearbox transfers power to the front wheels. A nice combination overall, very quiet and refined and frugal too, if one can overlook the potential long term problems that come with the DSG unit. On the road the Arteon is quite comfortable, with the right sort of tendency toward a relaxing drive rather than sportiness.
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From a family saloon point of view, I must say the Arteon covers the bases well. It’s very generous on interior space, comfortably seating four adults, so kids almost won’t have any issues and sports a boot that’ll swallow anything you throw at it.
It’s potentially the pricing front that throws a spanner in the works here. This Arteon TDI R Line costs R650,000. An equivalent Passat, which it must be said doesn’t look as good, is near R90,000 less. And worse still one of those pesky Tiguan SUVs is also cheaper. Looking further abroad, Audi’s A5 Sportback is the same money, albeit it less well equipped and the same goes for the BMW 4 Gran Coupe.
Accordingly it’s quite a tough sell for the Arteon. You have to really like the cool styling to try justify the purchase price differential to vehicles under the same roof, never mind competitors.
