Anthony’s Analytics: 2022 Volkswagen Arteon SEL R-Line 4Motion

by Anthony Fongaro  - Photos via Volkswagon- 10/24/2022 

Back in 2008, Volkswagen created what I would say is one of its best-looking vehicles. It was the Passat CC, later renamed as the CC. CC meant “comfort coupe”, and it was a sleek four-door coupe. It was not one of their best-selling cars, but it felt significant. Looking at a regular Passat was like looking at an extremely bland, yet practical, sedan. Four-door coupes always have less rear headroom, but they’re bought for their styling. 2017 brought about the replacement for the CC, the Arteon. Although I’ve already tested a Volkswagen Arteon, Volkswagen made some big changes for 2022. I loved that Arteon, and wanted to see what some of these changes Volkswagen made?

In terms of the exterior, there aren’t many changes. Why would they have to? This is the most handsome Volkswagen in their current lineup, if not for quite a while. The swooping coupe-silhouette helps the Arteon stand out in any parking lot situation. This particular Arteon was the SEL R-Line, which means it has large 20-inch wheels with a windmill design. Combining that with some silver accents and a beautiful Kingfisher Blue Metallic, the Arteon gets a lot of attention. Looking at the front, there's a big grille with sleek lights and a light bar that extends the width of the grille. At night, you have plenty of visibility and my friends were impressed seeing those lights in their rearview mirror.

 

Following that is the side profile which showcases that coupe silhouette. You can tell that the rear passenger headspace is compromised with slightly smaller rear doors, but this is more about design. The rear end may be considered the Arteon’s “weakest design”, but it still looks great. My only complaint is the fake exhaust design component. What consumers may not know is that the trunk utilizes a full hatch! It is useful, but the SEL R-Line doesn’t have electricity, so it is quite heavy to open or close. All-in-all, the Arteon is an extremely handsome four-door coupe. 

Jumping inside, Volkswagen decided to keep most of their basic cabin designs with a few Arteon touches. Similar to their entire lineup, the steering wheel uses capacitive buttons for infotainment and adaptive cruise control. After a few drives, you’ll get used to them. In front of the driver is a fully digital driver’s display which can have a full navigation screen, traditional-looking dials, or a combination of them with other features. Thankfully, Volkswagen has an older infotainment system which means that not everything is in the touchscreen. Volkswagen doesn’t have the best navigation system, but the Arteon comes with Apple CarPlay and Android. Arteon has a separate section for climate control, but it utilizes sliders which takes getting used to. Part of this section also has buttons for the heated seats.

If there is a big complaint, it’s one that isn’t surprising. The rear seats aren’t very comfortable. Of course, it wouldn’t be. That sloping rear eats into the cabin and the windows go about 60% down? You’ll want to be in the front since those seats are nice and supportive. Once you open the heavy hatch, there’s plenty of space, but a large drop-down for the cargo area. It would be quite difficult to place or get heavy items out of the hatch. The Arteon exclusive features include pillarless doors and sleek air vents and trim which mimic that lightbar at the front of the Arteon. It’s a nice cabin, if not a little bland. Build quality is good, and there is wireless charging, but some plastic is lower down in the cabin.

Under the hood, there’s a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four which the past Arteon had. It has been uprated from 268 horsepower to 300 horsepower/223 kW and 295 lb-ft/400 Nm. Now, the Arteon uses a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic and the SEL R-Line has 4Motion AWD. When you combine all of this, the Arteon goes from 0-60 MPH in 4.5-seconds. This is a quick vehicle, even when you put the drive mode in eco. Speaking of, there are five different drive modes. These include eco, comfort, normal, sport, and custom. I found myself cruising about in comfort mode, but the Arteon pulls hard in sport. There wasn’t any wheelspin thanks to the 4Matic system that does a great job of keeping the power in check.

Cornering is also better than the past Arteon, but it’s still not an all-out sports car. There is a limit of grip for the AWD system, but it takes a lot to make the Arteon understeer. I found the best way to drive the Arteon is to cruise in it and have confidence going through traffic or having to overtake it. When you want to let the car do more of the driving for you, there’s stand adaptive cruise control, decent-sized mirrors with blind-spot monitoring, and lane-keeping assist was useful. Arteon uses a stop-start system which thankfully, you can shut off. There are few big blind spots so I had to use blind-spot monitoring quite a lot.

This brings us to a few different numbers. The engine is strong and returns 22-24 MPG. Arteon SEL R-Line 4Motion is the middle trim level with the top-of-the-line being the Premium SEL. These come with ventilated seats, Harman Kardon sound system which sounds much better than the regular SEL’s sound system, and a 360-degree camera. Regular SEL R-Line Arteon costs around $48,000, while the Premium is around $50,000. Which trim would I go for? This is one of the few times where I say go all-out. You wouldn’t be disappointed with the SEL R-Line, but the Premium getting those upgrades to make the experience even better. If you want a rare and handsome vehicle with a powerful engine and great interior, take a look at the Volkswagen Arteon.