At first blush, the CC seems like the best car from Volkswagen yet. It features a beautiful body design, nice interior, powerful engine, and cutting edge cabin tech. But a few quirks let it down.
Wayne Cunningham
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
The grille is more refined on the CC than on recent Volkswagen models, keeping its chrome above the bumper. This CC also has high-intensity adaptive headlights that turn into corners.
The VR6 version of the CC is at the top of the model lineup, so has many features standard in the cabin. But Bluetooth and navigation is still optional at this level.
The six-speed transmission has sport and manual modes, along with its normal drive mode. In Sport, it's not too aggressive, being a little late to downshift, but it holds the low gears well.
The navigation system is hard-drive-based, and traffic information comes over Sirius satellite radio. This map shows traffic flow on San Francisco Bay Area freeways.
