This is the Volkswagen CC, and there are a couple of things you need to know about this car. First, it is a VW which means it’s built beautifully, and performs pretty much flawlessly. As for the rest, well you just have to look at it.
If your idea of a modern VW is the Passat, Jetta or Golf, the CC is a revelation. It has the look of a swoopy Mercedes C-Class sedan, only for a lot fewer Deutchmarks. Where the other VW designs are frankly dull as yesterday’s strudel, the CC is sleek and sporty.
The CC, by the way, means Comfort Coupe. Yeah, it’s dumb. And, it’s not a coupe. It has 4 doors. I know, I’d phone the folks in Wolfsburg with my complaint, but they stopped taking my calls after I mentioned the bud vase in the Beetle was enough to prevent any buyer with an extra Y chromosome from even test driving the thing.
Ok, the name is dumb, but the car is smart. Our CC came with the turbocharged, direct-injected 2.0-liter four cylinder engine producing 200 horsepower and even with the 6-speed automatic transmission, a 0-60 time of 6.8 seconds. A V6 with 280-ponies is optional.
Our automatic had the usual flappy paddles to make you think it can be shifted like a manual. It can’t, they are annoying, and will never, I repeat, never substitute for a real gearbox.  Fortunately, an honest-to-goodness 6-speed manual is optional with the turbo, and I recommend it.
The Sport Plus package on our sedan added 18-inch alloys and a somewhat sporty suspension. The interior was swathed in genuine leatherette, which is a fancy word for fake leather, which is another way of saying vinyl. It is not really beautiful inside, but attractive and supremely functional. Would you expect less from Volkswagen?
On the road, the car is delightful, light, and handles reasonably well. I really like the CC, and at $33,670 dollars, it is a reasonable value considering the fact that no one, absolutely no one builds a car as solid as the Germans. Insert your own joke there, but the fact is the doors, trunk, everything closes with a solid thunk that I think has been patented by the Fatherland.
All in all, a great little car, and a very un-VW looking VW. And compared to the average Camry, Malibu, or Altima, looks like Pamela Anderson at the Boy Scout Jamboree.