I can't answer your question about "chipping" the TDI, but if you buy the car, you may well find that the Passat TDI will have adequate merging acceleration in stock form. I have a Jetta TDI wagon. Even with its manual transmission, it is probably little if any quicker 0-60 than the Passat with the autobox. When I bought the car, I thought I might feel the need to make it faster, but I have found that it does just fine stock. I won't win many drag races, but I have plenty of power to merge with traffic, and plenty of power to cruise comfortably at 80mph.
Maybe you have more of a "need for speed" than I do, but you might be surprised at how well a "stock" TDI will do.
I am planning to get a new Passat TDI. I hate the fact I can not get it in a manual trans. The performance with an auto is poor. 0-60 stock is around
10.2 sec. If I chip it, can the 0-60 times drop to around 8 sec.? This would be adequate, although faster yet would be better.
Just curious how much improvement just a chip can do. I know the horsepower/torque gains, but I want some 0-60 times or 1/4 mile times to compare to. Merging with traffic shouldn't be something you have to think about. Any info is greatly appreciated.
0-60 is misleading... The diesels aren't bad at all for merging - I've never had trouble getting on the highway with my 4 speed automatic 90hp Golf - even with 5 people and baggage...
Look up the 30-50mph passing times they shouldn't be too bad.
I have the powerbox in my Golf TDI now, and it improves things nicely... chipping is even better. I can keep up with a Pumpe Duese 5 speed Jetta in flat out acceleration (we went up to around 80-90kph - as it was an 80kph zone... and ~90-95ish is the normal traffic speed for the neighborhood we were in... I was slightly ahead due to his ESP/ASR kicking in initially... but I can't rev up my engine so I'd say takeoff is fairly equal)
It sounds like you haven't taken the car on a test drive, I would suggest one... numerical performance of the diesels is fairly misleading
Maybe a V6 is the better option for you too - or the 1.8T gasoline engine... Not as good fuel economy though, but you have to sacrifice performance for fuel savings.
0-60 in 10.x seconds isn't all that slow. I think most of us would classify, say, an '85 Golf 1.8 8V 85hp 1.8 as reasonably peppy (though hardly a sports car) and that car did 0-60 in about that time when it came out.
Yes the Passat TDI is slower than a gas-powered Passat and compared to midsize sedans in general it's slower, but I don't think 0-60 in just over
10 seconds puts one in the "gotta think about it first" category. I also wonder if that 0-60 figure you mentioned is with the transmission shifting itself or if you might be able to do better with the Tiptronic and shifting the gears yourself.
Also, I'm not sure what the passing power is like on a Passat TDI but often times the 60-80 time for a diesel might be far quicker than the 0-60 time would lead one to expect. For example, Car and Driver about a year ago I think it was tested a Euro-spec Chrysler PT Cruiser with a diesel engine and it was far quicker at passing speeds than the 2.0 gas counterpart even though the 2.0 gasser was quicker 0-60. I rented a PT Cruiser back in '01 and found that it was indeed rather weak in 60-80mph passing times so the diesel doing so much better was impressive. I don't remember the numbers but it was something impressive (making this up for example's sake) like
60-80mph was 6.5 seconds for the gas engine and 4 seconds for the diesel. Something like that...it was quite a big difference.
FWIW I looked on the UK site and the 130hp Passat TDI there with a 5-speed is listed as 0-62mph as 9.9 seconds...not that much quicker than the auto version...so you aren't losing that much to the automatic. I do wish we could get the 5-speed here though only because I like to stir my own gears anyway.
Yes I do need to take it for a test drive. I wanted a 4Motion 1.8 man. but with 160 mile commute each day, I'll do without the unavail. manual, and
4Motion for a TDI. I know the gas mileage difference is slight on highway, but I sure like the exclusitivity of a TDI with possible outcomes of 38-45 mpg. Noise of a diesel?? I LOVE it. Speed freak?, yes but not for racing, only on the Interstate with light traffic to make good time.
Diesels (okay... modern diesels) are fast on the highway..... They'll charge right up to top speed, which is BTW way too fast for North America anyways... My TDI cruises nicely at 150kph.... which is 20kph faster then the normal flow of traffic around here... Meaning at 130kph the car is incredibly relaxed... The Passat will be even better.
Automatics are nice for commutes... especially since you can't even use cruise control anymore with todays traffic.
Noise... diesels do have a cool noise... sound of power - and they're quieter then gasoline when cruising.
I figured with all that torque it should feel just like what you described about 60-80mph "passing times". I am going from a 17 mpg SUV to probably a Passat TDI. Needless to say, I'm excited. What is it going to take to have VW offer it with 4Motion and a six speed manual ???
Ah yes I remember that. The cars in the test were the E320 diesel, PT Cruiser Diesel, and some VW (either the T-reg V10 TDI or a Jetta TDI). The E320 was the one that was the most impressive in terms of out-doing its gas counterpart in the number of areas that it outperformed it. The E320 diesel was for sure an impressive car. IIRC didn't it still return something like
40-45 mpg in testing while still outperforming the gas version? Well, all diesels in the article were impressive but the E was the most impressive overall.
Fuel Economy: 25 city, 44 hwy, 34 combined cycle... C/D observed 28mpg... only one less then the I-4 PT cruiser
Fuel Economy for the gas... 16(ouch) city, 31hwy, 24 combined, C/D observed
22mpg
And the big Audi A8 is even more impressive... less so on fuel economy but
156mph top speed, and very fast times for all the clocked runs... and I've seen a video from Britain of that very Audi getting 800 Miles to one tank of fuel... tho the engine was sputtering by the end of it... The driver was trying to get fuel economy so all electrical was off, not going above
Our '04 Passat TDI sedan will spin the tires easily from a stop, and has that great diesel "pull" at highway speeds. It frequently doesn't have to downshift at 45-55 going to 65+, it just goes. Never a problem merging. My wife always drives it and she loves it because she's a leadfoot. Even so, she still gets about 30mpg, mostly in-town. Highway we get 45+. Very nice car to drive.
Anyway, I doubt that this engine is all that suitable for "chipping". I think that VW has already done a fair bit of that. The engine has
5% more displacement that the 1.9 TDI, but puts out 35% more horsepower and 40% more torque. How much farther can you push the limits before you blow it up?
It also puts out almost 50% more torque than the 1.8T, and 20% more than the 2.8.
I've been driving an 05 TDI Passat for 5 weeks. I've been driving VW diesels since 1978, turbo diesels since 1984, and 1.9 TDI Jettas since the first A4s arrived. The 2.0 TDI in the Passat is definitely the best yet. I've never owned an automatic before, and saw that as a major downside of the Passat, but I have no complaints at all about the Tiptronic.
I just got past the breakin period recently. A few days ago I took it on a trip to downtown Toronto, which is about 100KM / 60Miles on the freeway, and then drove around in the core for a few hours. Anybody who has a problem merging into traffic with this car doesn't deserve to be driving. I am convinced that on a short ramp it pulled to speed much more quickly than the Jetta could. In downtown traffic it was great. On the highway it runs about 2100RPM at 115Kph (70Mph), and it very quiet and smooth.
Go find a dealer with a demo and take one for a test drive. The hard part may be finding one.
Tell me about it - I had one of those (don't remember the year). I got rid of it when it started having the runaway problem sucking oil from the crankcase. The new ones are very different engines.
If the only diesel car you're familiar with is a 70-something Rabbit, you'd be amazed by the new ones. I never owned a Rabbit diesel, but I have driven them, and they are slow, noisy, and if you push the right pedal down very far, smokey. The new TDI's, (mine is an '04 Jetta), are amazingly quiet and refined. While not fast by today's standards, they have plenty of power for normal driving, including merging with freeway traffic.
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