After four years of reliable service, the Mazda 3 has been retired. I needed something with more room, and after spending days comparing used Lexus, Genesis, Ford, etc. I ended up re-discovering the Arteon R-Line, which sparked memories of someone showing theirs off to me years ago.
It's got heated and ventilated seats, 2.0l Turbo from the Golf R making 300hp/295lb-ft paired to the DSG and sending power through VW's 4Motion AWD system. VW took all of that, threw it in a big, comfy fastback sedan with a liftgate, handsome lines, and whatever other bells and whistles they could chuck at the car and called it a day. I'd list more but I keep discovering new little features here and there, like the angled corner headlights that kicks in when you slow down while a turn signal is on.
Then they proceeded to tell almost literally no one about it. Which sorta works out for me.
I love the hood being so large it's basically the whole front of the car. They solved the 'hood line' issue by just pushing them as far as they could manage.
I really love the lines on this, easily VW's best.
And just look how massive this trunk is with the seats down.
) but I do love the styling of the AT4s.
I just figured that if I was already looking at $35-40k for a used one (especially after that happened during the test), at that point $10k for a brand-new truck with a warranty made more financial sense. That, and the Elevation only has a single speed transfer case. The AT4 has the two-speed transfer case.
