04 Passat Tdi in US

Great question. My 2001 Passat was just declared a total loss following a two-airbag collision with a minivan and guardrail. A TDI would be a wonderful replacement.....

It's going to be a 2.0 TDi with like 135Hp if I'm not mistaken. Can anyone confirm or deny this? Sounds like a great combination of decent performance and great gas mileage. It's only to bad I don't know of a single company doing chip tuning for sedan-Diesals sold in North America. I did once find a company selling chips for the Duramax Marine TD engines found in GM trucks.

Yep...that's about right...it's what I heard. It's massively torquey too (over 200 ft-lbs IIRC).

It's actually a very similar engine to the old 9A 2.0l 16V...except it is diesel, and has 134 HP @1300 RPM. They are now in port in Canada (Halifax) and that means that it will only be a number of weeks before we start seeing them.

Is this new PDI that the Passat has a 16V unit too? I thought I read on the Vortex that it would be a 16V unit overseas and an 8V unit here?

I have heard that it might be a 16-Valve...

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Steve Grauman) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m19.aol.com:

Upsolute Wettrauer RocketChip

...to name just three. Don't know if any of them have chips for the '04 TDIs yet (I'd kind of doubt it), but the definitely do for the '03 and earlier models. I have a RocketChip in my '00 TDI, and I love it.

Ooofff. IMO 135 hp in a Passat is not going to give decent performance. Even the 2.8 V6 is marginal. (Around town, at least - once you get on the highway it's fantastic. But from 0-50 mph it's a pig.)

-- Mike Smith

Jim B.

Jim B.

I don't need a 15s ET but I do find that the 2.8 V6 (with Tip) can be a bit sluggish around town, particularly right off the line. This may also be a function of gearing, because my last car - a Saturn LS2 with

180-hp V6 and 4-speed auto - didn't have this problem. Of course, this is one relatively small complaint and the Passat is so much better in so many other ways that I would never go back to the Saturn.

-- Mike Smith

Ditto, and I can't figure out why, for the life of me. My father's 1998.5 A4 had the *same* 2.8 V6 with Quattro. Given, it was a 5 speed, but it was faster than the Passat V6 FWD 5 speed! And when comparing the A4 2.8 Quattro with Tip to the Passat 2.8 4Motion with tip, the Audi's time is nearly a second faster to 60.

I dunno - the drivetrain in that LS2 was the one thing I *didn't* have a problem with. Everything else was starting to fall apart around it, though, after only two and a half years.

-- Mike Smith

I think I would take an R32 over a G35. The G35 is much too small and cramped inside. Plus, despite the complaints I've seen here about A4 models, I would trust VW's build quality over Nissan's. (If there were a 4-door version of the R32 in the US, there'd be no doubt in my mind at all.)

-- Mike Smith

The A4 is a smaller, lighter car than the Passat. We have a Passat GLX with the V6 and 5-speed. It accelerates just fine. I'm not sure I understand the market preoccupation with 0-60 times. Does everyone really need a sub-6 second family sedan?

We also have a Eurovan, and nearly every review I've read about it complains about the acceleration. It goes 0-60 in about 10 seconds which is faster than many old sportscars I used to own. It's definitely faster than my '76 Bus!

Todd Kuzma

I think I got 55 once in mine.