The Why Not 100

The Why Not 100 is a blog about creativity. Books, poems, films, quotations, characters, settings, descriptions, ideas, words, pictures. So why not take a detour into photography, too? It is setting as story, moment as description, picture as poetry. Not only can he turn the everyday moment into a masterpiece, he has photographed icons ranging from the Obamas to Adam Sandler. That was about three-dozen years ago when my parents, my siblings and I were visiting his family in Pittsburgh. You see, George is a cousin of mine. He must have only been about 19 or 20 at the time, but he led us to his backyard and photographed us against a stark white background. The photos still hang in my parents’ second-floor hallway. My point is this: He can make anything look good. And he recently wrote a book offering suggestions to allow the rest of us to take perfect pictures, too. The Unforgettable Photograph by George Lange with Scott Mowbray offers “228 Ideas, Tips, and Secrets for Taking the Best Pictures of Your Life.” Each tip is accompanied by a fantastic photo representing that very notion. It’s a gorgeous yet practical book—inside information to get you to think outside the box. 67. Let the kid play!

Like the exterior, the new Passat also sports an extensively upgraded interior. A new seating concept was developed, and the seats were completely redesigned with head restraints that now have horizontal adjustment like those on the Touareg, and there are new door trim panels. The latter can be equipped with elegant ambience lighting. Different decorative trim configurations are used in the door panels, depending on the equipment line. Another option: a new climate seat is available with active ventilation and massage function for driver and front passenger. Redesigned in many aspects are the surfaces and details of the dashboard and the centre console with their intuitive displays and controls, as well as chrome inserts around the air vents. In the process, Volkswagen has fundamentally upgraded the composition and quality of the materials used, bridging over to the next higher market segment. Interior designers have placed an analogue clock at the centre of the instrument cluster - as you would expect to find in the luxury class.

The layout of switches in the lower section of the centre console was also completely restructured, i.e. around the gearshift lever of the 6 or 7-speed gearbox. Now arranged there are a switch for the electronic parking brake and, with the Keyless Access option, an engine start button. An especially bright interior ambience is created when the panoramic sunroof is ordered; this new option was developed for the estate car. The Volkswagen Passat is available in different interior colour combinations. The classic "Black" colour emphasises the Volkswagen's sports appeal. The third colour, "Desert Beige," is borrowed from nature, and gives the Volkswagen Passat an even more spacious appearance. Two-tone seat patterns are available in the optional colour combinations "Natural Brown / Desert Beige" (Highline) and, as part of the sport pack, in "Truffle / Black" (Comfortline and Highline). Volkswagen is offering a selection of ten direct-injection engines with four valves per cylinder in the new Passat. Four of them are classic high-tech petrol engines that output 90 kW / 122 PS (1.4 TSI), 118 kW / 160 PS (1.8 TSI), 155 kW / 211 PS (2.0 TSI) and 220 kW / 300 PS (V6).

The top engine has six cylinders; all of the other petrol engines are charged four-cylinder engines. Also charged is the 110 kW / 150 PS engine (1.4 EcoFuel) that is configured for natural gas. Another derivative of the 1.4 TSI is the MultiFuel engine with 118 kW / 160 PS designed for use with up to 85 percent ethanol fuel. Petrol - three four-cylinder TSIs and one V6: Fuel consumption values are impressive. Setting the pace among the petrol engines is the Volkswagen Passat 1.4 TSI with optional BlueMotion Technology. It outputs 90 kW / 122 PS and consumes 5.8 l/100 km (equivalent to 138 g/km CO2). While the groundbreaking previous model exhibited a nearly identical low fuel consumption figure, fuel economy improvements in the more powerful engines are even more dramatic. Consider the Passat 1.8 TSI with 118 PS: Here the development team reduced the engine's combined fuel consumption from 7.4 to 6.9 l/100 km; this resulted in a CO2 value of 160 g/km.