04 Passat Tdi in US

I think more and more people are taking performance more seriously than they used to, and this includes in family car purchases. Even though the average SUV is no faster (or only marginally faster) than a Eurovan, they tend to *feel* much faster because most of them are sold with V8s, or fairly high-power (240Hp or more) V6s. The Eurovan is an oddity on the American landscape, because it never conformed like the ever-popular Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge or Toyota minivans, and it was never clearly marketed as a cargo/large passenger van like the GMC Savanna. Ever more, vans have dropped off in popularity severly in the U.S. over the last 5 to 8 years, it's an evolutionary thing. When my parents were children, the mothers all drove station wagons, when I was a child, they all drove minivans, and now they all drive SUVs.

It may be "dangerous" in that it require you to be watching the road ahead and perhaps anticipate things, instead of being able to mash the go pedal to get your butt out of the fire. It is funny, as you point out, how people's perceptions are often very different from reality.

A good example is the "safety" of SUV's in bad weather. I had to go out this weekend in some snowy weather and virtually every one of the spinouts or accidenst I saw in the 100 or so miles I traveled involved an SUV. False security is often a dangerous thing, and technology is rarely a substitute for some good old common sense!

Your thoughts on the eurovan are correct, but you make me feel old. When I was a kid most folks seemed to get by with regular old sedans...I have witnessed the coming and going of the wagon, minivan, and now the SUV seems to getting competition from wagons again...go figure.

As a fellow T4 owner, I agree with your observations. The T4 isn't an all-around winner but it certainly doesn't deserve the reputation that it has.

In addition to what you mentioned above, the Eurovan (not sure about early ones but the later one with 4-wheel discs and ABS) have excellent brakes with performance on a par with sport sedans.

The Eurovan also is incredibly maneuverable. It's no longer than most midsize sedans and I rarely have to actually turn a u-turn into a 3-point turn thanks to its turn circle which is quite tight.

You do know you aren't driving a sports car because of the high body and very high seating, both which amplify your feeling of sway-ness, but I'm sure the vehicle isn't leaning as much as one may think it is. Then again, it's not a sports car either. The lazy steering ratio also takes getting used to.

Haven't driven an '01 or later model myself (mine's a '00) with the slightly lower suspension and rear antisway bar, but I plan to lower mine and maybe install the rear bar, and people have said that the simple lowering really transforms these vehicles' feel.

Bottom line is that these vans aren't as fat as the reviews seem to indicate and a few simple mods make them into an awesome vehicle.

No, sub-6-second is hardly necessary, but according to C&D (I think it was C&D) it's over 9 seconds! The Passat 2.8 w/Tip just feels weak off the line compared to other cars I've driven. And I'm not talking about stoplight drag racing, just pulling away from a traffic light - it feels like you have to give it a lot of gas to pull away as quickly as the guy in front of you, but then all of a sudden you're right up his ass. Didn't have that problem with the ol' Saturn. I think part of the problem is the trans - there's something just not quite right about the behavior of first gear, like it slips too much or something. The TC doesn't lock until you hit 2000 RPM in 2nd gear. Maybe that's it. I'm just less than satisfied with it, is all - like I've said, everything else about the car (including its performance above 30-40 mph) is just great.

-- Mike Smith

The Tiptronic has been the Passat's weak link since VW introduced it as an option. It's lazy and slow to react in automatic mode. It works perfectly well in manual mode, but nobody buys a tip just to drive it around in manual mode all the time. The W8 was created to rectify the Passat's poor image as a sports-family-sedan, but it's high price and it's utterly unimproved Tiptronic tranny keep it out of real contention. And they hardly bothered to touch the suspension. It's become blatantly and somewhat painfully obvious to me in the last year that VW simply *does not care* to remain competitive. They do what they want, how they want, and when they want, without any regard to what the competition is putting out. Poor choices like putting an underpowered VR6 in the base model Toureag and an overpriced V8 in the upper model, devoting millions of dollars to the Pheaton when it's obvious no one will buy it, and giving the MKV GTi only 200 horsepower when competition like the WRX and Neon SRT-4 are making anywhere from 225-240 Hp all add up to one thing: VW is on it's way out. I've had a lot of fun with my GTi, But I'll be going elsewhere for my next purchase if something doesn't happen soon.

I've been driving it in manual mode more and more. Do you (or anyone else) have any idea whether the various "Tip-chips" I've seen really help much?

-- Mike Smith

I've been told that they make quite a difference.

Thanks. A friend of mine who's got one from

-- Mike Smith