CarBuyersNoteBook

Volkswagen "NMS"

Although the Passat has been a relative success for Volkswagen in the U.S., the company is hard at work on a replacement midsize (or mid-market) sedan, with a not-so-clever codename: NMS. The final designs have been approved with prototypes being shown to dealers in Wolfsburg. This new U.S. targeted sedan will be larger than the Passat and priced to start around $20,000.

The car is designed with Americans specifically in mind. “It will be bigger and sleeker, and it has items necessary for Americans – space, seat comfort, cupholders, Bluetooth and other electronics. Very importantly, it remains a VW. It has been totally designed and engineered for the needs of American consumers,” said Stefan Jacoby, CEO of Volkswagen Group of America. It is expected to arrive in 2010.