When Volkswagen launched its VR6 engine in the Passat and in the Golf, it was a sure sign that the brand was moving upmarket. With its narrow cylinder angle of only 15 degrees, the engine was designed specifically for front-wheel-drive vehicles, where it would be transverse mounted. The VR-6 brought strong performance and silky-smooth power delivery to lower vehicle segments. It was subsequently fitted in a large number of VW Group vehicles, as well as the Ford Galaxy and Mercedes-Benz V-class minivans in Europe. In the U.S. market, it’s offered today in the Passat, the CC, the Touareg, and the entry-level Porsche Cayenne. But it looks as though its days are numbered.
In Europe, the VR6 has quietly been dropped from the Passat, the CC, and the Phaeton. It’s gone in the Touareg as well. Sales were so low that VW didn’t bother to homologate the engine to meet EU6 emissions standards.
The VR-6 engine was engineered at a time when VW fostered internal competition between brands. It was developed simultaneously with the Audi V-6 engine that eventually (and regrettably) replaced the brand’s formidable five-cylinder. Efficiency isn’t the VR6’s strong point, but it is exceptionally smooth and blessed with a sound that resembles ripping silk.
But with four-cylinder powerplants capable of more than 300 horsepower, there isn’t much of a raison d’être for six-cylinder engines anymore—certainly not in compact cars.
It’s not quite over yet for the VR-6. China gets a downsized variant with 3.0 liters of displacement, and VW has conceptualized a hybrid VR-6. In the long run, though, we fully expect engines with more than four cylinders to be confined to the VW Group’s larger cars with longitudinally mounted engines. The VR-6, in all likelihood, will be history.
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