Volkswagen's impeccable Arteon - Do you really need that SUV?

By Stuart Johnston

Klaus Bischoff, Head of Volkswagen Global Design, is proud of the fact that the new Arteon is “90 percent show-car”. By this he means that the key elements present in the original design study that inspired the Arteon have made it through into production, and that’s no small feat.

The car that gave us a taste of the Arteon was the so-called VW Sport Coupé Concept GTE, shown in Geneva back in 2015. At the recent launch of the Arteon in Johannesburg, an audio-visual presentation revealed how strikingly similar the production car looked to the show vehicle.

Striking design elements

Key elements to this are the low, swooping bonnet and the innovative use of LED lights that, in effect, “bleed” into the grille. The low bonnet line is a rarity in these days of pedestrian collision protection regulations – the upright grilles on modern Mercedes-Benz cars being one example of the stylistic “impact” of these regulations. Volkswagen worked around this problem by developing an impact-triggered system that raises the bonnet at the rear in the event of a frontal collision.

The light treatment is particularly notable on the Arteon, as the LED daytime running light tubes actually align with the bars of the grille, and there is no distinct cut-off point or definite framing between light and grille.

Clam-shell bonnet

Another key design element is the clam-shell bonnet, which wraps around the whole front of the car, so that the cutting point of the lateral edges of the bonnet are in line with the wheel arches of the car! And as an added nod towards Gran Turismo-type sleekness, beneath the bonnet is a body-coloured panel affixed to the top rung of the grille that gives the appearance of the bonnet sloping right into the grille.

Seriously long wheelbase

The Arteon profile is typically sleek, in the modern sub-niche known as “sportbacks”. The profile looks even sleeker as the Arteon has a particularly long wheelbase at 2 841 mm, and this has also resulted in the Arteon achieving best-in-class rear passenger legroom. Because the roof is proportionally long, the rearward slope to give it that coupé-like profile is also managed so as not to intrude into realistic headroom for the rear passengers.

What’s more the “fastback” design with the rear hatch-lid means that there is generous boot space, and even space for a genuine size spare wheel!

Frameless windows

Other details that will delight on the exterior of the Arteon are the frameless windows, another touch that the Arteon carried through from its GTE Coupé Concept gestation, and the clean flanks with the shaved wheel arch flares. In the metal, the Arteon truly deserves its name (derived from Art, and Eon, as an expression of an art form). As one internationally-respected journalist commented, this may be the first poster VW since the 1955 Karmann Ghia!

Keenly priced in its class

With all this, and an interior that is strikingly appointed and topped off by VW’s latest rendition of its “expanding digital” instrument cluster, one would expect the car to be priced at a very premium level. Yet, by basing the Arteon on its so-called MQB parts commonality matrix that numbers a host of transverse-engine-layout cars within the Volkswagen Group (Audi A3, VW Golf, Tiguan, to name a few) VW has contained the costs on this halo model.

Thus, the very premium-looking Arteon weighs in at a respectable R599 900 for the TDi, rising to R649 900 for the TDI R-Line, and topping out at R699 900 for the potent petrol-engined TSi R-Line 4MOTION model.

20-inch alloys a visually-correct option

In the front-wheel drive, diesel-engined base car, you will have to be content with 18-inch alloy wheels, but the R-Line TDi and TSi come with 19-inch alloys as standard, which really do fill those striking wheel arches nicely. For the ultimate in “show-car” impersonation, we would recommend opting for the very striking 20-inch alloys, 8J in width, and fitted with 245/35 series rubber.

While the Arteon is specced only with four-cylinder engines, VWSA were nevertheless keen to show off the very capable handling characteristics of the car, as well as the not-inconsiderable accelerative capabilities of the TSi model. Given that this a large car, it is surprising to check out the TSi’s 0-100 km/h sprint time of just 5,6 seconds, and a 250 km/h top speed, thanks to almost-Golf R power levels of 206 kW and 350 Nm of torque. All Arteon models are equipped with DSG gearboxes, a six-speeder in the case of the diesel models, and a seven-speed DSG for the TSI.

Zwartkops in a big sedan

Thus we found ourselves heading to the Zwartkops Raceway in late afternoon traffic, where we couldn’t exploit the TSI power, but were impressed at the refined interior noise levels, unless you activated the Sport function on the console, when things became a bit more vocal.

We had a few laps around Zwartkops, and I was impressed with the straight-line stability of the car on the back loop, as well as the crisp turn-in, and mid-corner grip provided by the TSI model’s 4MOTION all-wheel-drive. Often in a large all-wheel drive sedan, there is a disappointing moment mid-corner when you apply the power and the whole plot descends into tyre scrubbing understeer, but this was largely absent on the Arteon.

A GTi for more mature grown-ups, perhaps

VWSA’s Stefan Beurhmann, head of Product Planning, reckons this is the car that Golf GTI aficionados may well graduate to, once they’ve reached that “more sensible” stage in life. Indeed, as an enthusiastic driver, I could see the attraction in opting for the Arteon over an SUV. With so much talk of the “sedan being dead” at the mercy of a world-wide SUV tidal wave, Beurhmann reckons that the Arteon still fills a niche as a premium sedan offering, at moderately post-Passat and Tiguan pricing levels.

There is no doubt that the Arteon cuts much more of a stylistic dash than the Passat, excellent though that unsung hero of the VW range is. And as for the Tiguan, the dynamic enjoyment you get from driving the Arteon compared to any high-centre-of-gravity SUV is worlds apart!

Volkswagen Arteon Pricing

2.0 TDI 130 kW Elegance DSG	R599 900
2.0 TDI 130 kW R-Line DSG	R 649 900
2.0 TSI 206 kW R-Line 4MOTION DSG	R 699 900

 

Click here for Martin Pretorius's technical impression.