Volkswagen Passat Alltrack: The VW Allroad arrives

The VW Passat Alltrack - debuts in Tokyo

Volkswagen has revealed the VW Passat Alltrack, a rufty-tufty version of the VW Passat and Volkswagen’s take on the Audi Allroad. Debuts at Tokyo.

Volkswagen has jumped on to the Allroad bandwagon with its own take on Audi’s faux off-roader, with the reveal of the 2012 VW Passat Alltrack.

As you would expect, the Passat Alltrack is a butched-up Passat Estate with a raised ride height, extra bits of plastic round the bumpers, skid plates, flared side sills and 4WD – VW’s 4MOTION – for more traction in boot sale car parks.

But when you don’t need the 4WD, around 90 poer cent of the drive is through the front wheels – saving fuel – with the rear wheel drive only coming in to play when you start to slip and slide.

The Alltrack also gets the off-road driving programme from the Tiguan which can be called on with the push of a button. It teases the ABD and EDS so they work better on the loose stuff and you also get hill descent so you can get down a slipper slope without pain.

Starting point for the Passat Alltrack is the 138bhp 2.0 litre TDI with a manula ‘box, but you can opt for a 168bhp version with a six speed DSG ‘box. We would.

Standard stuff includes Alcantara upholstery (that’ll be good when you get in your new Alltrack after a muddy hike), Climate, Cruise, tyre pressure monitoring, iPod connectivity and 18″ alloys.

With the Passat Alltrack not due to go on sale in the UK until April 2012 – and first deliveries in July – we don’t have full specs or prices, but we’d expect the starting point to be the right side of £30k.