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posted on May 1st, 2009 at 08:16 PM
Passat
Another brain exercise for Phil?
The early Passats won a Wheels COTY in 1974. Apparently its twin the Audi 80 was pretty highly regarded as well. So why are they so much maligned now?
Where are they now?
h
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posted on May 1st, 2009 at 08:30 PM
ask dr. phil...
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posted on May 2nd, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Once upon a time the Wheels Magazine Car of the Year award was the only one, and it had all the cred, but not any more. Wheels' award started in 1963
(when the Renault 8 won), when the award was for Australian manufactured or assembled cars only. This changed in the 1970s after all the Euro
assemblers pulled out out of Australia - BMC, Renault, Standard, Simca and Volkswagen of course. The award was opened to imports - which caused
disputes with local unions at the time - and the Honda Accord became the first 'non Australian' winner in 1977.
Today everyone and their dog puts out 'Best Car' or 'Car of the Year' awards. Which one do we follow - Wheels, or Motor Magazine, or CarsGuide, or
SMH/Drive, or Choice, or the NRMA/RACV awards, or goodness knows what else? The Wheels award today is nothing like as important as it once was.
That said, plenty of bad cars won the award over the years - the Morris 1100, Renault 12, Holden Gemini and Camira, Mitsubishi Nimbus...the Commodore
has won it FIVE times and who would ever drive one of those, by choice?
Only two VWs have ever won the Wheels car of the Year. The VW Passat won in 1974, and the VW Golf in 1976. I would like to get copies of those
issues...
Anyway Chris to answer your question, you remember that VW bought the DKW-Auto Union car company from Mercedes in 1965, only because they wanted their
factories to make Beetles. But they retained the Auto Union design team, and they put out several series of new, modern DKW saloons, with Mercedes
engines, in the late '60s. VW decided to sell these as 'Audis', using a former Auto Union name that hadn't been used since the early 1940s. The
DKW name was retired (it was more famous for motorbikes anyway).
In 1972 Audi released a new smaller model, called the Audi 80, in two and four-door bodies with 1.3 or 1.5-litre engines and front-wheel drive. A
1.6-litre GT followed in 1973. Audi was also selling the larger Audi 100 series at the same time.
At that time - 1972 - VW was struggling as Beetle and Type 3 sales were dropping, and the Type 4 was a sales failure. VW tried selling an NSU model as
the VW K70 but it didn't work. As their losses mounted, VW turned to Audi to provide a new range of vehicles. They took the Audi 80 sedan, added a
new grille, and redesigned the tail into a 'fastback' style. This became the Passat, which debuted in 1973 in Germany, and 1974 in Australia. VW
also designed a station wagon version.
The Audi 80 was sold in Australia, appearing in late 1974 as the 'VW Audi Fox' (LNC Industries sold it as an addition to the VW range, NOT as a
separate make). It was positioned above the Passat, with more luxurious trim to justify a higher purchase price. It was quite popular here, with 1975
being the Audi Fox's best-selling year, nearly one Audi Fox for every three Passats sold. However it was downhill after that, as Australian VW-Audi
operations wound down.
As they only sold less than a third of the number of Passats, 1974-78 Audi Foxes are a bit hard to find now. But they are Passats underneath so they
are still good cars. I haven't heard anyone 'maligning' them - if they do they are uninformed.
Australian VW imports ended in 1981 with the last Golf and Passat diesels, and a few trickle sales of large Audi 100 saloons - they had been priced
off our market. However, LNC industries did arrange for the next series of Audi 80s - a bigger, roomier and more advanced 'Mk2' Audi 80 - to be sold
in Australia from 1982-85. They ordered them with the 2.2-litre 5-cylinder engine from the Audi 100, rather than the usual four, and sold them here as
the Audi 5+5. They were very good cars and are very collectable now - great exhaust note. We used to have one, and so did Dave Birchall.
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Phil74Camper
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posted on May 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 AM
This was the 2nd generation Audi 80, or 'Audi' Fox', but sold in Australia as the 'Audi 5+5', with a five-cylinder engine.
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amazeer
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posted on May 2nd, 2009 at 06:15 PM
but where are all these early passat/audi twins?
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posted on May 2nd, 2009 at 09:50 PM
Wasnt it the Recaro equipped "TS" Passat that won the car of the year ?
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posted on May 3rd, 2009 at 07:41 PM
Gone to the scrap heap I would think, like 99% of all the cars sold here in the early-mid 1970s. I haven't seen one on the road for ages. One of my
Dad's mates (another school teacher) used to drive one but got rid of it years ago.
You don't see Mk1 Passats on the road much either any more, and statistically you would have to see three of them before you would see one Audi Fox
(based on the numbers sold here). According to the FCAI, VW Australia sold just 3,046 Audi Foxes from 1974-1980 inclusive - an average of just 435 per
year, in the whole of Australia. No wonder you don't see 'em any more.
Euro you could be right, but as far as I know the award was given to the 'VW Passat', with no model specifier (unlike 1973's P76, which was the V8
version only that won). We would have to find a copy of the Wheels issue from 1974 that has the winner article in it. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheels_car_of_the_year
