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Daily Driver: 2015 Volkswagen CC

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, reviewed by the staffers that drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 Volkswagen CC Executive, reviewed by Seyth Miersma. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. And don't forget to watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. Show full video transcript text [00:00:00] Hi, guys. This is Seyth with Autoblog, and I'm driving the 2015 Volkswagen CC. The version of the car I'm in is the VR6 4motion car, so it's got a six-cylinder engine and all-wheel drive. This six-cylinder is actually a little bit of an odd duck at this point for the class. It's a 3.6 liter V6. It makes 280 horsepower, 265 pound-feet of torque. It's really living in a world that's been [00:00:30] overtaken by potent, two-liter turbos. I think something that's particularly difficult, especially in light of what I know about the Volkswagen family, the new engines getting great fuel economy. The 1.8T and obviously the TDI are real champs in that regard. Unfortunately, this VR6 is really sucking down the premium. These days, a 20 MPG combined rating is not particularly good. This definitely isn't a sports car. If you throw it hard into a corner, it leans a little bit, you can feel some roll [00:01:00] through the suspension. Handling is tidy, but it's not particularly precise. Of course, it's not really meant to be. This is a car that's meant to be great on the highway, great cruiser, look pretty stylish, and with a good powertrain, it can be exciting enough. Because you're not getting anything else that's very sports car-like about this car, other than the power delivery, and even there it's not quite on-pace with some of the sporty sedans that you can buy for right around the same money. It just makes for an interesting mix; something that's a little bit fast, [00:01:30] not very fuel-efficient, not a great handler, not a premium badge. Let's cut down right to it. This car is $44,400 and some change. Again, the VR6 4motion Executive Trim level, which means it pretty much gets everything you can get in a CC. We've got leather seats; they are heated. They have a massaging seat on the driver's side. I've got some 18-inch wheels that look pretty good. Big head unit with touch-screen and [00:02:00] navigation, satellite radio, better sound system. Just in general, the car feels very well-appointed. It feels like an entry-level luxury car.

Did Lexus make a BMW? Or did BMW make a Lexus? This and other 2017 surprises

It's that time of year again. The calendar is about to reach its end, Star Trek Cats 2018 is about to take its place, and I'm reflecting about all the cars that graced my driveway this year or summoned me to exotic places. You know, like Stuttgart or Phoenix. In 2017, I drove at least 57, and as I perused the list of them, I started to notice a common refrain: "This car surprised me." Most were pleasant surprises, but there were a few head scratchers and facepalms for good measure. In both cases, it was generally the result of car companies seemingly trying to break out of an existing mold. Nowhere was that more apparent than the pair of Lexuses slathered in Infrared paint: The LS 500 that left me this week and the LC 500 that was my favorite car of 2017. Though Lexus has been trying to shake its crusty, gold-packaged reputation for some time now, its efforts always seemed like an old man choosing Hollister to redo his wardrobe after realizing it hasn't been updated since 1987. I fell in love with the LC, genuinely floored by its near-perfect take on the GT. It's characterful in sound, appearance and tactility. It was at home in the city, in the mountain and on the open road. It was both comfortable and thrilling, and after driving the mechanically related LS 500, I can report that the LC's talents aren't an outlier. The LS 500's turbo V6 may make different noises than the LC's naturally aspirated V8, but it nevertheless invigorates the cabin when the car is placed in Sport+ mode. The steering is truly communicative, body motions are kept in miraculous check, and I absolutely forgot I was in an enormous luxury limo ... and a Lexus one at that. It was everything that the BMW 530e was not. I drove that on the exact same roads and was utterly bored the entire time. Generally doughy, lifeless steering, more distant than Planet 9. And no, the plug-in hybrid powertrain had nothing to do with that. At least it shouldn't. The Porsche Panamera S e-Hybrid I also drove this year proves that, as do the Hyundai Ioniqs, which are surprisingly adept and fun little cars regardless of what powers their wheels (Hyundai + hybrid = fun really blew me away). I would drive that Lexus LS F Sport over the BMW 5 Series any day of the week, which seems like a shocking thing to say in relation to either car. While Lexus is seemingly breaking out of its old crusty mold, BMW seems to be climbing into one.

VW stock plummets as Euro markets open

The fallout from Volkswagen's installation of an emissions "defeat device" on nearly 500,000 diesel-fueled models in the US is already hitting the automaker hard on the German stock exchange. At one point, the share price plummeted 23 percent to erase the equivalent of $17.6 billion in value. Things eventually bounced back slightly to a still severe 19.23 percent loss, according to Bloomberg as of this writing. The scandal couldn't come at a worse time for chairman Martin Winterkorn. The VW supervisory board takes up the issue of renewing his contract on September 25, Bloomberg reports. If things get bad enough, the door could be open for a new boss to step in. Dealers in the US might start feeling the pain from this, as well. Affected 2015 VWs that are still at showrooms are now under a stop sale. Until the issue is straightened out, the Environmental Protection Agency isn't certifying the company's 2016 diesel models with the 2.0 TDI, either. The diesel emissions problem was first discovered by research from West Virginia University and the International Council on Clean Transportation. In some cases, the engines can produce 40 times more nitrogen oxides than allowed. The automaker could be on the hook for $18 billion in fines for the breach, but the actual figure is expected to be lower. In response, Winterkorn has issued a public apology and ordered an independent investigation into what happened. The EPA and California Air Resources Board have also been looking into the situation. This could become an international problem, though. According to The Detroit News, European authorities might begin similar inquires to check the automaker's diesel emissions there.