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VW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and Taillights

The Passat mid-life facelift, also described by some as the Passat 8.5, was supposed to debut towards the end of 2018 according to internal documents. However, Volkswagen is only now putting the prototypes to work with some winter testing.
VW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and Taillights 21 photos
Photo: SB-Medien
VW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and TaillightsVW Passat B8 Facelift Spied Winter Testing With New Face and Taillights
The B8 is, in our opinion, the model that revitalized the mid-size sedan segment in Europe, with its premium car features. Having driven several versions, the autoevolution team can tell you that it's not perfect, yet things like driver enjoyment are probably not at the top of VW's list of priorities.

Changing the way the Passat B8, meanwhile, is. For starters, the front end is getting a makeover that's bigger than the one received by the Golf. You have headlights with a chopped inner section connecting to a new grille. Weirdly, it all looks like the 2019 Jetta, even though the two models never meet in either European or American showrooms.

As for the rest of the bumper, we seem to have a bigger "mouth" at the bottom, stretching to sporty-looking fog lights. This could be the R-Line body kit. Meanwhile, the taillights appear to be slightly narrower, which is probably not the case, while the graphics are less pixelated and mirror the new Touareg SUV. No surprises there!

The Passat facelift was probably delayed by all the engine testing VW had to do for WLTP. However, as we published in a recent story, you can already buy a Passat with the 1.5 TSI instead of the 1.4 TSI it came out with. We suspect further changes will include the BlueMotion 1.6 TDI being replaced by either a 130 HP mild-hybrid 1.5 TSI or a new 1.5 TSI.

While the 2.0 TDI will continue to form the bulk of European sales, it's going to get a new 7-speed DSG gearbox and a more competition from the 2.0 TSI with 190 horsepower and that frugal combustion cycle. Also, for those who mainly do city miles, there will be a 1.5 plug-in system offered not on the Passat GTE but as a normal engine available in the two top trim levels.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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