New season, new car. Well, sort of. I drove my 2020 Arteon from September through to earlier this week. It has now been replaced by a 2021 Arteon - the "facelift" model. In my opinion it's even prettier. I adored the "Rosario" 20" turbine wheels on my previous Arteon, but I'll admit this new "Nashville" style has grown on me faster than I expected. The machine-finished face sets off perfectly against the Pyrite Silver paint I spec'd for this car, which comes paired only with black leather - another change from the two-tone in my last car. Aside from some revised bumpers and minor details like the badging, the other big visual difference is a full-width light bar in the front grille.
Same powertrain as before, but a noticeable improvement for me in terms of calibration. As before, the "wow" factor for me with Arteon is the way it rides. With the adaptive dampers set to Comfort it's utterly sublime, but still well-controlled. It's also exceptionally quiet for a car with frameless glass.
Inside, a bunch of little changes add up to a pretty substantial change in how it looks/feels. The dash is more modern and the old analog clock is gone. Materials are improved, with stitched surfaces on the upper doors and dash set off by lovely aluminum trim. There's new ambient lighting that shines through the trim on the doors and ties into the digital gauges. There's wireless CarPlay/Android Auto, but I prefer to just plug my phone in. Biggest cool factor for me? The new R-Line steering wheel. It's chunky, wonderfully shaped, and perforated at 9 and 3. Completely changes the feel of the car for me, somehow.
This silver stunner will waft me until the fall, at which point it will be replaced with something smaller, (much) faster, and bluer.
