The curious case of the VW Passat

Earlier this week, we'd reported on VW discontinuing the Passat (news link). Now, VW sends across the following information:

"We at Volkswagen continue to sell the current generation of the Passat through our dealer network. As with all our products, serviceability and availability of spares will never be an issue. The requirements of every Passat customer will be catered to with meticulous attention. Globally the next generation of the Passat is being readied and we shall introduce it in the Indian market at the appropriate time."

Is the Passat on sale or not? Nope. For one, there have been zero factory dispatches of the Passat since October (sales report). We spoke to 3 different VW dealers from Mumbai and all of them state that new Passats are no longer available. A Chembur dealer has a couple of 2012-build Passats (at a heavy discount), thus confirming that the model has been slow-selling for a while now. They were quick to add that the all-new 8th generation Passat will go on sale sometime in 2014.