Test drive: 2006 Volkswagen Passat

"German engineering". It's one of the most overworked and overused car cliches this side of... well, now that I think about it, it's sort of in a league of its own as far as car cliches go. It refers, I believe, to the plethora of brilliantly intricate mechanical devices that have been wrought by German hands over the years. Unfortunately, the term has been used to describe enough mediocre cars to dilute its meaning. Canadian-engineered test driver Philip Powell has driven enough German-engineered cars over the years to know the what "German engineering" really means -- and it seems that the all-new 2006 Passat is one of the few cars really worthy of the moniker. In fact, Philip liked it enough to give it a five-star rating. Get the details here. -- Aaron Gold