Nigeria - Stallion Motors Launches Passat CC In Nigeria - First Volkswagen's Four-door Coupe
By Seyi Gesinde
The Tribune
Stallion Motors Limited has launched, in Nigeria, the all-new Passat CC, the first four-door coupe from Volkswagen, the German leading automobile company. The Passat CC seats four, which provides easier access to the rear seats than a two-door coupe, with 3.6 V6 Fuel Stratified
Injection (FSI) engine, offers a full-time 4Motion all-wheel drive as standard equipment. Like many cars on the market, the Passat CC features a radar-based cruise control system to regulate the distance from cars ahead, while the Nigerian version of the engine is available with a 1.8 litre engine, built to consume 7.6 litre of fuel per 100km
Unveiling the latest auto brand at an event held at the Volkswagen centre showroom at Gbagada area of Lagos State, the Marketing Director of the motor company, Mr. Anurag Shah, said for now, Passat CC had no core competitor in the global auto market.
Another version of the engine, which, for the Nigerian market, is optional, is a 3.6-litre gasoline V6 FSI, offering 300-horsepower at 6600 rpm and 266 pound-feet of torque at 2500 rpm, which the makers said could make a sprint to 62 mph in 6.6 seconds.
Shah disclosed that Stallion Motors, marketers of Hyundai, Honda and Volkswagen products in Nigeria, would bring more auto brands to the country before the end of the year.
He said he was proud to do business in the country, while assuring customers that his company could conveniently take care of the aftersales services for the new brand and others on the road.
"Volkswagen Centre had already trained some of its technical staff on the mechanisms of the all-new Passat CC; yet, arrangement had been concluded to send more technical staff to Germany for further training," Shah said.
He said his company's workshops, which spread across Kano, Kaduna, Port-Harcourt, Calabar and Maiduguri, among other states in Nigeria, had been adjudged the best in Africa, saying that of Ibadan was almost being completed.
Shah said with workshops of the company spread across different divides in the country, the aftersales service for the new auto brand would be available to customers no matter their location in the country.
The all-new Passat CC, which features Dynamic Drive Control (DDC) adjustable suspension, Shah said, would make it easy for the car to constantly adapt to the roadway and the driving situation and reacts to acceleration, braking and steering inputs.
With the "ACC Automatic Distance Control," the car automatically brakes and accelerates within a speed range input by the car driver beforehand.
Another high-tech feature in it includes the new "Lane Assist" technology, which starts at 40 mph to automatically steer the car back into its lane if it starts to drift out slightly, as long as the driver does not deactivate the system.
It works by detecting lane markings via a camera in the vicinity of the inside mirror or rain sensor.
With the "Lane Assist," it does not matter whether the lines are continuous or broken as in the case of a centre stripe, while it also operates in darkness or fog.
As soon as the system indicates that the car is leaving the ideal line, "Lane Assist" counters by softly steering in the opposite direction.
If drivers take their hands off the steering wheel completely, the system detects this and issues a warning, both acoustic and by vibration, to request that the driver resume control, and then the system switches itself off.
