China-Only Volkswagen Gets Stretched to Almost 10 Feet Wide, Seats Eight
It’s so wide that the builder regularly has to clarify that the car is real and not Photoshopped.
The cheekily-named Lamando 5XL is likely the thickest Volkswagen you've ever seen. It's the creation of a man named Justin, who shared his build on TikTok.
It's based on the 2022 Volkswagen Lamando L, a China-only model intended to be a lower-slung version of the Passat. Stock, the sedan has a typical five-seat layout and measures 71.9 inches wide. However, this example has been stretched to almost 120 inches wide, and nicknamed the Lamando 5XL. As a guide, the US limits trucks to a maximum of 102.4 inches wide, and lanes are typically a maximum of 144 inches wide.
With all that extra space, the Lamando 5XL was given a two-seater bench in place of the front passenger seat. In the back, the rear bench was expanded to seat five. It nominally carries a total of eight passengers, but the car's builder reports ten people can fit in the car comfortably.
As you might expect, the widening process does require some significant changes. The engine is located on the driver's side, and looks to only be connected to that wheel. That much is obvious when Justin gives us a look under the hood, and even moreso when he stands in the giant gaping hole in the passenger side of the engine bay. We only see the car moving slowly under it's own power, which is of little surprise given its new one-wheel-drive layout.
Future work may involve putting a widebody kit on the already supremely wide car. It's just a shame we only get to see this build on TikTok. The vertical video format is perhaps the worst possible way to shoot an extra-wide car.
Overall, though, the aesthetic quality of the finished product is high. We don't get a look at how it was built, but the car looks remarkably stock inside and out. The panels look smooth and clean, and the extra back seats looks virtually stock. There's some extra gear on the passenger side of the dash, but other than that, the front cabin looks good too.
Of course, such a build is far from practical. Whether it's parking at the local supermarket or just trying to get around city streets, a car this wide is a liability. It is a fun build though, and we're sure there's always party atmosphere with eight people in the car.
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