By Kamil Kaluski
This is the new Volkswagen Arteon Shooting Brake. Take a long, hard look at it and then forget that this wagon exists. Volkswagen said nein to this vehicle being sold in the United States. That’s a real shame because just look at it – it is gorgeous. And it isn’t exactly easy to call many Volkswagens gorgeous.
Adding insult to injury, veedub also nixed the high-performance Arteon R sedan from our shores. We can’t really blame VW for those choices because sedan sales in America have dwindled down and wagon sales are basically nil. So much so that VW even killed the popular Golf SportWagen and Alltrack models.
At least you can now plan to rent one one of these on our next European vacation. But hey, we have the Atlas Cross Sport here.
Jeff Glucker
This is the sort of thing that makes me wish I could have had a Mazda6 AWD wagon instead of a CX-5. Now the CX-5 is a one of the best crossovers in its class but it’s still a crossover and not a true station wagon like a Mazda6 or a true MPV like our Mazda5.
New Mazdas are great. The 6 would sure make a sweet wagon.
To my mind, Volkswagen has a very appealing, straightforward, simple design language. I quite like it. It’s just a bonus that fancified spinoffs like the Arteon even exist. The first time I saw one, this was new and exhibited at our airport in 2017. Yellow-gold paint and such a crisp, sharp design – these are better in real life than in pictures.
I want to be enthused, but not at the sort of money VW wants for the Arteon. It’s a little loud, and it drives… okay? At that point, I’d rather go for the Volvo V60 we can already get.
…aaand this is why I can say I like them without ever having considered buying one.
Also, I can’t quite get past the European VAG product driver stereotype and not refer to these as Arseyons
Newest contender for shortest rear window on a car?
Oh. VW teases us with a vehicle they aren’t sending to North America. Let me respond by not paying attention to your brand for another decade. That’s what you want us to do, right? Because that’s how you do that.