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Passat Rental

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PricklyPete

PricklyPete

Lifer
So I have the new Passat as a rental and I have to say, the car is pretty good for the market they are targeting. I really only had one major complaint with the car and that is the sluggishness of the 5cyl engine. The faster VW dumps that for the upcoming 1.8L Turbo, the better. The 4cylinders from the Accord, Sonata, Camry, etc. are much smoother/responsive. The 5 cylinder isn't the end of the world, but I would definitely choose one of the other engine choices.

Other than the engine, the rest of the car is quite good. The transmission works smoothly and with well timed shifts, steering was reasonable, the suspension is great for this class of car, and there is plenty of space in the interior. Sure it looks like a "large" Jetta, but I think the look is a classic clean look that hides the size of the car well. The interior is typical drap German (at least with the metallic trim in the rental), but the materials are high quality and fit/finish looks great. This is a HUGE improvement over the current Jetta which I had as a rental a few months back.

I have the SE with basically no options..so you're looking at a ~24K car. If VW can get the 1.8T into the car for the same price and that engine proves to be anywhere near as good as the 2.0T...this should be a real winner.
 
Aharami said:
i think the real winner is the Passat TDI
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I would agree. I have not driven the TDI in the Passat, but I have driven it in several other cars (A3, Golf) and it was much better than the 2.5L petrol engine. At $26K with a manual transmission/43mpg...that's hard to beat.
 
Another thing I noticed is that the Leatherette is getting remarkably good. No it is not as good as the high end leather used in up market cars, but it is easily as good as the hard leather used in most of its competitors. If this has better wear/maintenance characteristics over the Leather, I am all for it.
 
The VW 2.5L engine is pretty crappy. My fiance's Jetta has one, and it's pretty sluggish for the size of the car. I couldn't imagine using it on a larger car, like the Passat. The Passat should really come standard with the 1.8/2.0T engine, and have a TDI option (which it does have).
 
LTC8K6 said:
No one wants the V6?
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The V6 is likely awesome...but I don't think that kind of power is neede for the target market that a midsize family sedan is going for. If I'm going to get V6 power, I'd rather have a car that is going to make use of that power. A peppy 4 cyl or diesel make near or the same hp/tq that old V6's did in this segment...and it really is plenty with better gas mileage to boot.

Now give me a RWD sedan, then I'll be interested in a ~300hp V6.
 
I've never read anything positive about the 5 cylnder Volkswagen engine. I guess it must be cheap to produce; I can't think of any other reason why they keep using it.
 
Knavish said:
I've never read anything positive about the 5 cylnder Volkswagen engine. I guess it must be cheap to produce; I can't think of any other reason why they keep using it.
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I have heard one positive thing...it apparently is one of their more reliable engines.

The engine isn't horrible...it just isn't up to what other manufacturers are putting in their mid-size sedans. It feels lazy (slow to rev) and while the hp/tq numbers it posts aren't bad they seem to all happen higher up on the rev counter which isn't good if it is lazy engine). To top it all off, the gas mileage is less than ideal.

But yes...I think it is cheap and reliable so they haven't been very quick to replace it. But it appears the upcoming 1.8T will be used to replace it in many applications. It is unlikely that engine will be more reliable as it will likely be much more complex.
 
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