re vw passat advice sought in article apr remus rutgers edu hong remus rutgers edu hyunki hong writes i am currently in the car market and would like opinions on a vw passat glx how does it compare to a toyota camry i thought the car looked very solid stable and european only disappointment so far is that that it doesn t offer an airbao my next question is why isn t vw offering automobiles with airbags should i pay the extra three thousand for a bmw is even though it is smaller and less powerful than than the passat i think vw got caught out on the airbag thing it s only been in the last year or two that airbags have become a significant selling feature vw assumed that automatic belts would satisfy govt requirements for passive restraint but didn t guess that the merican consumer would actually make buy decisions based on the presence of an airbag vw is really hurting right now in the us market check out the article in last week s autoweek about the crisis at vw golfs and jettas will be coming from the plant in mexico but they don t have the quality at that facility as per normal vw practice the us launch of the jetta iii is delayed again and again until a good chunk of the useful life of the design is spent i think that passats come from germany so there is not the same quality and availability issue it s a nice car with a nice engine whether vw will be a player in the us market in two year s time is a different question i ll leave the passat camry flamewar for someone else
