By Chris Doane
Monday, Jul 6th, 2009 @ 5:11 pm

Raccoons must really like Volkswagen vehicles. I can only assume this is true because every time I test drive a VW, those little black-eyed bandits run out in front of me to get a better look of Wolfsburg’s latest and greatest.
This fall, in the Tiguan, I dodged an entire family of raccoons.

And last spring, in a white R32, things did not go quite so well for any of us. The night ended with the R32, sans part of its lower fascia, its coolant and some of its wiring harnesses, on a flat bed wrecker. The raccoon, on the other hand, was simply ended.

So it came as no surprise when a raccoon darted out in front of the 2009 Volkswagen CC Sport I sampled during one of my test drives. What was a test of steering immediately became a test of braking. As Rocky would tell you, the brakes performed quite well.

Familiar tune
Driving Volkswagen ’s CC got me in a Korean state of mind. More specifically, the Hyundai Genesis sedan I’d driven just a few weeks prior. Both have fantastic interiors that could easily find homes in more expensive cars. The CC has an excellent, contrasting interior with black, tan and aluminum elements throughout. The dash and door panels are made of high-quality plastics mostly soft to the touch. Even the seats look great, with tan leatherette seating surfaces and black leatherette covering the rest of the chair. Handsome stitching also shows someone at VW wanted to make these thrones look much better than average.

The only downer inside the CC is the backseat headroom. With the lowered roofline, passengers over six feet tall may not enjoy riding in the cheap seats.

Unfortunately, the CC also reminds us of the Genesis sedan in the way it handles and rides. The ride is not smooth enough to be a true luxury sedan, and its handling isn’t quite good enough to make it a sport sedan. Like we said in the Genesis review, you can’t be a luxury sedan and a sport sedan at the same time.

Now the roads used by this Detroit-area reviewer aren’t exactly up to par. If the tarmac in your neck of the woods is of higher quality, then you might find the CC’s ride quite acceptable. During our test ,though, we found jolts from even moderate road imperfections made their way into the cabin.

On the sport side of things, it didn’t seem to take much road imperfection for the whole car to get a little unsteady through a corner when the speed increased. The steering doesn’t fair much better as it’s weighted too light. That’s great for low-speed maneuvering in parking lots, not so great on roads that curve. Toss is a dash of understeer and a modest helping of body roll and we’re left with a bad taste in our mouth.

For such a big car, the smaller 2.0-liter, four-cylinder turbocharged motor does a great job of propelling the CC’s 3,300 lbs around town. You will never feel like the car lacks oomph. With an impressive 21mpg city and 31mpg highway rating, you may also not feel the need for the optional VR6 motor. That said, if you have to have VW’s 4Motion all-wheel-drive system on your CC, the VR6 is your only choice.

A six-speed manual transmission is standard on the base level CC Sport, and it could be a little smoother in its shift motion. A semi-automatic, Tiptronic transmission shows up on the options chart.

Tough choice
Say you drive down to the local VW dealership — to the right, you have the Passat and to the left, the CC. Why anyone would anyone would pick the Passat is beyond me now that the much better looking CC is available. The regular Passat is nearly the perfect definition of a conservative German sedan. It goes pretty well and it’s comfortable, but it’s very boring to look at – and for 2009, it lost virtually all of its optional equipment.

The CC is something altogether different. It’s sporty-looking, has an aggressive stance, sleek lines and is, dare we say, exciting to behold. The lower roofline and coupe-like appearance make this one of the best designs to come from VW in a while. When you factor in that the CC can be had for a little less than the regular Passat, how difficult does the decision become? Sure you do give up one seat in the back of the CC in favor of rear, center console, but you really don’t like that fifth person that much anyway, do you?

Why you would buy it:
You want a sedan that’s sleek, sexy and costs only $28 grand. There’s almost nothing else on the road that looks like this.

Why you wouldn’t:
The only other sedan that does look like this is the Mercedes CLS. If you’ve got to have the best, then the CLS is what you need. You’ll also need about $43,000 more.


2009 Volkswagen CC Sport base price, $27,100. As tested, $28,225.
Sirius Satellite Radio, $375; Destination, $750.

Words and photos by Chris Doane.

29 Comments
  

LeftLane

Login

  • LeftLane

    Copyright © 2005 - 2012 Left lane News.
    All rights reserved.