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