The Volkswagen Arteon Saloon Is Dead, But The Shooting Brake Lives On

We applauded Volkswagen when it brought out the Arteon back in 2017. Picking up where the old Passat CC left off, it offered something genuinely interesting amongst a surging tide of amorphous crossovers.

We applauded it even more in 2020 when it introduced the Shooting Brake, which made estates sexy again, and the 315bhp R, which injected both body styles with an extra dose of pace.

Now, though, the end is nigh for the Arteon. VW confirmed to Motor1 that the half-saloon, half-hatch liftback version of the car quietly ended production late last year, and Volkswagen UK’s website now lists it as ‘available from stock only.’

There’s better news for wagon fans, as VW confirmed that the Shooting Brake version will stick around until 2026. Given they’re keeping it around, we’ll forgive VW for its abuse of the term ‘shooting brake’, which should really be reserved for three-door cars.

We’ve known the end was in sight for the Arteon since last summer, when VW said it was planning on dropping several more niche models, amongst which were the Arteon and the unloved T-Roc Cabriolet, to chase greater profitability. Now that the Arteon and the Passat are both estate-only, it’s only the electric ID.7 that carries the torch for Volkswagen saloon cars in Europe.

In VW’s defence, it’s not exactly shifted Arteons by the bucketload - can you recall the last time you saw one? It feels like the sort of car that might lose value like Elon Musk loses credibility, but actually, they seem to hold up well.

If you want an R saloon, with its 315bhp and 4.9-second 0-62mph time, then the cheapest we could find at the time of writing was a chunky £33k. That’s quite a lot, but then it’s a lot of cars, and you won’t see too many others. Especially now.