| Golf courses to restaurants, the quaintness of the | | | | winding, more subtle state routes of approaching |
| small towns to the Pacific Ocean, there's nothing | | | | the peninsula.With the exception of the wheelbase, |
| quite like a visit to the Monterey Peninsula. But the | | | | which is the same as the 1998-2005 sedans, |
| 200-mile drive from Sacramento is also an ideal | | | | Volkswagen redesigned its midsize car for '06. |
| route for testing cars. The high-speed interstate | | | | The body has been extended three inches in |
| to narrow city streets, there's no place to hide a | | | | length and it's wider, too.For the first time, a |
| car's faults and there are plenty of opportunities | | | | navigation system, steering-linked, bi-xenon |
| for a vehicle to showcase its best attributes.My | | | | headlamps and either manual or automatic |
| weekly test drive on a recent visit to the | | | | six-speed transmissions, instead of five, are all |
| Monterey Peninsula was the 2006 Volkswagen | | | | standard. Front-wheel and VW's 4-Motion all-wheel |
| Passat. It's available in three versions, the | | | | drive are also both available, with my tester |
| 4-cylinder Value Edition and 2.0T (turbocharged) | | | | including the front-wheel drive option.The V6 |
| models and the higher performance V6 marketed | | | | Passat with its various options can exceed |
| as the sports model.I drove the 2.0T, which was | | | | $35,000. But my Passat for the week was more |
| plenty sporty and responsive on the high-speed, | | | | than $10,000 less. |
| often crowd open roads of Interstate 5 to the | | | | |