In the domestic B-class sedan market, Magotan has successfully established its benchmark position in the market with its exquisite and dignified design and comfortable and spacious rear space. But friends who are familiar with Magotan should know that the current B8 generation Magotan has been in service in China for nearly 8 years since it was launched in 2016. In order to adapt to the new market environment and consolidate the position of Magotan, FAW-Volkswagen officially released a new generation of Magotan this month, and the new car will also be unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show.
In terms of exterior design, the shape of the new generation of Magotan makes people feel completely new, and the overall look is younger and more fashionable. At the front, the multi-spoke chrome grille of the old model has been abandoned in favour of a sportier blacked-out grille design.
In the center of the front of the car is a chrome trim strip that runs through the front face, and an LED light strip is integrated under the trim, with a luminous VW logo, the front face has a sense of technology and recognition. In terms of details, the new car has canceled the front fog lights, and the two sides of the front bumper are designed with fangs, and the gloss black material is matched, adding some sporty atmosphere to the front face.
In terms of lighting, the new car still uses matrix LED headlights, and the number of LED partitions is more than that of the ID.7. Therefore, when irradiating objects that are smaller than the oncoming vehicle, such as street signs, etc., the new Magotan can also directly turn off the LED partition at the corresponding angle to avoid dazzling objects such as street signs.
Coming to the side, the overall proportions and window line design of the new car have changed. Unlike the ratio of the old Magotan with a short front overhang and a long rear overhang, the front overhang of the new Magotan has become significantly longer, and the body proportions look more symmetrical. In terms of windows, the new car canceled the classic rear window corners of the previous two generations of models and changed them to a more mainstream triangular window shape, which will be more coordinated overall. THE MODEL WE PHOTOGRAPHED IS EQUIPPED WITH 19-INCH AERODYNAMIC WHEELS AND 245/40 R19-INCH DUNLOP SP SPORT MAXX TIRES, WHICH ARE QUITE DECENT TO MATCH WITH THE VEHICLE.
In the door area, the door handles and waistline are still integrated, and the waistline extends from the front fenders to the rear. However, in the skirtline, the new car does not have the complex profile design of the old model, and the chrome trim under the doors has also been eliminated, and the side design style has become more simple and generous.
In terms of size, the length, width and height of the new Magotan are 4990/1854/1487mm, which is 124mm longer than the old model, 22mm in width and 8mm in width and height respectively, and the wheelbase is still 2871mm, which is the same as the old model. However, compared with the new Passat PRO, which is also significantly lengthened, the new Magotan is still slightly inferior in terms of length.
In terms of rear design, the biggest change of the new car is the use of LED taillights and illuminated tail markings similar to those of the ID.7, which look very delicate when lit. The lower rear reflector also has a through-line design, and the "fake exhaust" decoration has been removed and replaced with a fully concealed design.
Due to changes in the styling of the rear end, some functions of the rear had to be redesigned. For example, the old model's reversing camera and trunk switch are integrated into the tail mark, while the new model returns to the more mainstream license plate lights. Although the new Magotan also has a hidden exhaust design, the 380TSI model we photographed has a single-sided dual-outlet exhaust layout, while the old model has a double-sided single-outlet layout.
In terms of interior design, the new Magotan continues the style of the overseas version of the B9 Passat as a whole, but in order to meet the needs of domestic users, an entertainment screen has been added in front of the co-pilot. On the center control panel, the new car only retains the traditional physical button of double flashing, with 30 colors of ambient lighting, the interior looks very simple as a whole, and has a certain sense of technology.
In terms of details, in front of the driver's line of sight is a 10.25-inch LCD instrument cluster, and the screen display effect is quite delicate. Underneath the screen is Volkswagen's classic three-spoke steering wheel, and the multi-function buttons of the steering wheel are a whole piano lacquered panel, which has vibration feedback when pressed.
In addition, the new Magotan has eliminated the traditional mechanical shift knob and replaced it with the same rotary pocket gear as its own ID series electric vehicles. In addition, Volkswagen's classic knob-type light switch has also become a button operation, and everything is designed to be simpler.
The size of the floating central control screen in the middle has reached 15 inches, the resolution is also 2K, and the built-in Qualcomm 8155 car machine chip, the car machine system should be the same as the ID.7. On the right is the 11.6-inch co-pilot entertainment screen, but unlike mainstream models, the co-pilot entertainment screen of Magotan has no interactive function with the central control, and the main and co-pilot can connect their respective mobile phones to the central control and co-pilot entertainment screen separately. However, since the model we photographed is not the final production version, we cannot experience this new car system for the time being.
In terms of interior materials, most of the center console and door panels of the new car are covered with leather and soft materials, and are equipped with stitching technology, which looks good to the naked eye. However, the padding layer in the trim panel is not thick, for example, the padding of the trim plate at the top of the center console is very thin, and the panel padding layer under the air conditioning vent is only slightly thicker, which is very in line with the consistent style of Volkswagen.
In the layout of the central island, due to the use of the pocket block design by Magotan, the front of the central island is designed with a mobile phone wireless charging panel and 2 charging interfaces. In the middle, there is a push-button start and an electronic parking brake, and the storage compartment on the right has an integrated foldable cup holder, which will automatically pop up as soon as you press the button on the storage compartment. When you don't need to put the cup, you can fold it down by simply pressing the cup holder down, which is a very practical design.
The center armrest box of the new Magotan has been changed to a folio design, and the armrest box is equipped with a sliding storage plate inside, as well as a 12V cigarette lighter power supply, and the depth of the armrest box is normal for this level. It is worth mentioning that the new Magotan is equipped with a central airbag on the inside of the main driver. In the event of a side impact, the airbags on the side of the seat can separate the main and passenger passengers, preventing a collision between the two bodies.
In terms of seat design, the seat shape of the new Magotan not only looks more three-dimensional than the old model, but also adopts a double-layer foaming process inside, and the seat has two layers of sponge, with a soft surface and a hard inside. In addition, the hardness of the seat padding has been optimised for different parts of the body. For example, the lumbar area of the backrest is the softest, while the shoulders are relatively stiffer. The seat cushion is relatively soft on the hips and stiff on the thighs. It can be seen that the new Magotan has put some thought into the seat design this time, rather than copying the design of the European version.
In addition to the design of the seat sponge, the seat configuration of the new Magotan is also luxurious. First of all, the front seats are heated, ventilated, with a 10-point massage of the backrest and manual leg rest adjustment.
What's more, the rear row of Magotan also provides heating, ventilation, and massage functions. And unlike the principle of blowing air from the front row, the ventilation function of the rear seats is to exhaust air inward, which is more suitable for the elderly and children. In addition, the rear seat backrests of Magotan can be adjusted by 10° to further enhance comfort.
On the roof, the new Magotan is still equipped with a panoramic sunroof that can be opened outward, and the traditional sun blinds are also retained. The opening method of the sunroof has changed from the old button to the current sliding touch type, and it needs to be used a little bit to get used to.
In terms of audio, the new Magotan did not continue to carry the 12-speaker Dynaudio audio of the previous generation model, but replaced it with a 14-speaker Harman Kardon audio, with a total system power of 800 watts.
In terms of assisted driving, the new Magotan is equipped with Volkswagen's IQ.Pilot assisted driving system, which meets the requirements of the L2+ level. To put it simply, this system is an integration of Volkswagen and DJI's solutions, and functions such as conventional ACC and lane departure warning are still Volkswagen's own solutions. In the face of complex driving environments such as congestion and lane avoidance, DJI's pure visual solution is adopted. Therefore, the new Magotan is not only equipped with a binocular camera in the front windshield, but also a millimeter-wave radar on the front bumper. As for the actual performance of this assisted driving system, it will have to wait for a later test drive to be revealed.
In the past year, the performance of the rear of the pure electric sedan I have experienced is not ideal, either sitting like a small bench or scalp top glass. And when I sat on the new Magotan everything finally returned to normal. With my body of 180cm and 75kg, after adjusting the front driver's sitting position and putting the seat in the lowest position, the front head has more than 1 fist margin from the lower edge of the roof. At this time, come to the back row and adjust the backrest to the end, with more than 2 fists of legroom and just 1 fist of head from the ceiling. This kind of space performance is difficult to achieve even for medium and large pure electric cars.
In addition, since gasoline vehicles are inherently low-seated, there is no need to arrange the seats against the floor like pure electric cars. Therefore, even if the front seat of Magotan is placed at the lowest, there is still a certain amount of space underneath, which is convenient for rear passengers to put their feet in and get a more stretched and relaxed sitting position.
In terms of storage space, the trunk volume of the new Magotan is 520L by default, which is 13L smaller than the old model, but it is also at a good level. When the rear seats are folded down, the trunk has a larger depth and can hold some large items that are relatively long.
Although the wheelbase of the new B9 Magotan is exactly the same as that of the previous B8, it is easy to think that it is "skinning" on the basis of the B8. But in fact, the B9 has been replaced with the more advanced MQB Evo platform, which not only has a large improvement in the electronic and electrical architecture, but also focuses on improving the materials and detailed design.
First of all, in terms of body materials, the use of hot stamping steel in the whole car of the new Magotan has reached 33%, and the tensile strength of the current hot stamping steel is at least 1500MPa, which is used in important parts such as A-pillars, upper beams, and chassis beams, which will greatly improve the safety performance of the body. In addition, according to the official statement, the body rigidity of the new Magotan is also at the leading level in the same class, or even the best level, which means that the new car's control of abnormal noises and the texture of the body will also be significantly improved. However, at present, the official body torsional stiffness data of Magotan has not been officially announced, and some information needs to be verified.
In the body detail design, we can also see the difference of the new Magotan. For example, the old model has a single lock on the cover, while the new model has been changed to a double lock. The reason for this design is that the air flow of the vehicle can easily cause the canopy to vibrate at high speeds, and the double locking latch makes the canopy more secure, thus helping to reduce high-speed driving noise.
After talking about the body, let's take a look at the chassis, the suspension of the new Magotan is still a front MacPherson and a rear four-link structure. However, the chassis tuning of the new car is more focused on comfort, specifically, the new car reduces the damping of the shock absorbers, which makes the suspension softer. But a softer suspension also makes the body roll bigger, so to compensate, the new car uses a thicker anti-roll bar. This allows the softer suspension to filter out more shocks without causing excessive roll of the body.
In terms of chassis technology, there are also some differences between the old and new Magotan models, and the lower swing arm of the old front suspension is a single-layer steel plate stamping process, which is relatively lightweight. The new model we photographed is a double-layer steel tailored weld process, which is heavier than the swing arm of the single-layer steel stamping process, but also has higher strength.
In terms of power, the 1.4T (280TSI) version of the previous model has been replaced by a new 1.5T (300TSI), and the new engine has 160 hp and 250 Nm. The old low-power 2.0T (330TSI) engine was cancelled, and only the high-power 2.0T (380TSI) engine remained, still having 220 hp and 350 Nm.
As for the transmission, we expect it to remain the same as the existing model, with the 1.5T mated to a 7-speed dry dual-clutch gearbox and the 2.0T to a 7-speed wet dual-clutch gearbox.
Although the main theme of 2024 is new energy, this pure fuel Volkswagen B-class sedan still has a lot to offer. First of all, in terms of appearance, as a business and family model, the design of the new generation Magotan is still dignified and exquisite, and it does not make a strange hatchback shape for low wind resistance like electric vehicles. And in terms of space and comfort, Magotan even has an advantage, it is spacious, comfortable to sit in, and the configuration is equally rich. As for the power, although the 1.5T and 2.0T cannot compare fuel consumption and acceleration with the current plug-in hybrid, they are also sufficient for daily transportation. If you just want to buy a pure fuel B-segment sedan with mature technology, spacious and comfortable, then Magotan is still the mainstream choice in 2024.