Vorsprung Durch Technik - 2003 Passat, Another car review.

Prologue: Daniel Hawking's Common Driving Experiences

This section will have no photos, because fuck taking pictures of my friends' cars.

Some people drive a car to get from point A to point B. Take into example my second girlfriend, who had been given a 1999 Toyota Corolla CE (E110 with 1ZZ-FE engine) by her parents. That car was adequate for what it needed to do; it got up to 4 additional passengers (or, usually, 3 passengers and a car seat) from place to place, at a decently legal speed, with aresults.

Take into example another friend of mine, who drives a 1999 Honda Odyssey EX (RL1 with J35 engine), also given to her by parents. That car seated far more people, and was far more useful than my vehicle taking cargo back and forth from San Francisco International Airport, or Lake Tahoe, and being a minivan, has a cavernous amount of space for horizontal interpersonal activities.

My mother's car, in fact, is a very nice 1996 Acura 2.5TL (UA1 with a G25A4 engine - I-5!), which was pretty much the perfect size and all that. In fact, I really wanted a 2.5TL as my own car, to have parts compatibility and ease of maintenance when compared with her car. That 2.5TL serves us well to this day.

Each of these cars had their own problems, however.

The Corolla, being small and usually loaded down with people, had no oomph. Merging onto a highway was a nightmare. The trunk was usually loaded down with other things, as well. Also, since the owner of this vehicle was usually with child in the back seat, that toddler generally ruined the headliner by dragging it off the ceiling.

Honda had forgotten how to manufacture a transmission, by the time they made the Odyssey. The gearing allowed me to lose speed going up a 12 degree incline (loaded down with passengers, yes), the transmission also kicked when shifting between 2nd and 3rd, and somehow Honda managed to engineer it to self-generate a magnetorheological fluid after 90,000 miles; by inserting a self-detonating bearing in the autobox.

UA1 series 2.5TLs were popular with the tuner market, being Honda sedans, and it's impossible to find one that hasn't been slammed or otherwise ruined with boneheaded aftermarket compponents.

Having driven both of these automobiles before I came into having my own, I had several features that I wanted to keep in mind.

1.) The car needs to be fast. Not too fast, because I don't want to get into too much trouble, but it needed enough oomph to stave off boredom.
2.) The car needed to be of a good size. The Corolla was miserably tiny. The Odyssey had a horrible turning radius and was too large.
3.) The car needed to give me a good sense of driving feel. Both the Corolla and Odyssey were sort of miserable in that respect.
4.) The car needed to have a lot of practicality. The Corolla was, again, miserably tiny, and I didn't want a sedan. A hatchback would have been fine, too.

At around the time I really wanted an automobile, one of my neighbours was considering selling us a 2004 Honda Civic LX (ES1 with a D17A1 engine). I decided to waffle on that until a better opportunity showed itself. Another friend was considering selling us a 2003 Honda Accord LX (CM5 with a K24A4 engine), but that was almost too big, and possibly too anonymous.

Then, the alternative showed up.

The Alternative

Another family friend of ours was selling his own car.



This is a 2003 Volkswagen Passat Wagon, using the Volkswagen Auto Group B5.5 platform, shared between this Passat, the Audi A4, and some Skodas. This platform features a longitudinally mounted engine with compatibility for both 4Motion/Quattro (using the Torsen differential!) and front-drive. This specific car is front-drive and is the third highest trim level; the two higher than this one would be all-drive and then the W8 engine.



My car mounts the ATQ engine, which carries 6 cylinders with a total displacement of 2.8 liters, 5 valves per cylinder head, port-injected as opposed to direct-injected. These cylinders pull the vehicle with 190hp/193PS/142 kW of power at 6000 RPM, and 210lbf/280Nm of torque at 3200 RPM.



And here it is with the engine cover off. Note the coil pack right up in the front there. Weird, isn't it? I've had to replace it.



Its suspension is in fact not stock, and I can't remember what they are. I think they're Bilsteins, and are significantly tighter than the original suspension. There is very little body roll in the corners, I'd say no more than +/- 6 degrees. The car has in fact been lowered by 3 centimeters as well. (This makes going over speed bumps a bit of a challenge.)

Right, on to the interior



Everything is located where it should be located. Unlike the Camry and Altima previously reviewed on this site, the steering wheel of this car has both cruise control and audio controls mounted, with the former on the left and the latter on the right. This sentence is a link to a higher-resolution image of the dashboard. The original Monsoon audio system has been replaced with an Alpine system, a CDA-105. It's nice. CD slot is behind the front face there, and there's a USB interface for my iPod, which is beautiful. On the left of the audio system are buttons for the rear defroster, another roller for the driver's side seat heater, and a ESP OFF button. Which is also nice.



I have enough space in here. The panels for the doors are concave instead of convex, giving me a much better illusion of room. My mother's TL has larger exterior dimensions, but worse interior dimensions. This car is very, very smartly designed on the inside. Cupholder count is 4 forward and 2 in the back, by the way; two centre console, one per door in the front, and 2 more in the fold-down armrest in the back.



Speaking of the back, I've received no complaints from my passengers back here. The seats are nice and cushy, and I've in fact fit more people than would be legal if moving back here. (I wasn't moving.) There's a cigarette lighter, but that's broken because my idiot friends keep kicking it.



Sorry about the mess. This is the real reason I have this car. It's a station wagon. There's far too much room in the back. It's easily the second most spacious car among all my friends, and somehow magically fits more cargo than the 1993 Ford Explorer that yet another buddy owns. Note the hubcap taken off a dead Prius.



If I ever need more room, though, the seats fold flat. I've only folded down one side for this photo, because fuck off. This gives me about 62 cubic feet of storage space. I have slept in the back of this vehicle before. Also, again, the amount of floor space I have gives a lot of opportunity and useability for horizontal interpersonal relations. Also, since the suspension is stiffer, it doesn't rock as much.



Front-side passengers have a lot of space, too. The vision out of this car is splendid, being a fishbowl. Some problems may include heating during the summertime, due to being a fishbowl and acting like a greenhouse. That's okay, though, because the A/C blows very cold when it needs to.

All Right, How Does It Drive?



Very wonderfully, thank you for asking. The firm suspension feels wonderful going through corners. It tracks very well and, again, firmly; it's very precise with moderately heavy steering and responsive feedback from the wheel. Its 2.7 turns from lock-to-lock, which aids the quickness of the steering. Taking it on California mountain back roads is a very fun experience, and it's fun to drive it at least 10 mph above recommended velocities.

The long wheelbase allows me to remain on-track at all attempted highway speeds, and I have taken it up to 117 mph/188 kmh with no issue. My usual cruising speed is 80 mph/130 kmh, and as a result my mileage does suffer between 22 and 25 mpg (10.6-9.4 l/100km) on the highway at those velocities. If I decide not to speed like a shithead, my mileage at 65 mph/105 kmh improves to 29-31 mpg (8.1-7.6 l/100km).

Fine, but is it any good?

Mine? Yes, yes it is.

The average? I don't know. VW electronics are spotty and finicky. I've been pretty lucky in that I've had few electrical failures (coil pack and wires went to shit) in my experience. Others may not be so lucky. Avoid the 1.8T engine at all costs, it doesn't have enough oil in it and will suffer from sludge issues.

You suck. Give us a more interesting car experience.

All right, fine. This is for next time:

"Honda had forgotten how to manufacture a transmission, by the time they made the Odyssey. The gearing allowed me to lose speed going up a 12 degree incline (loaded down with passengers, yes), the transmission also kicked when shifting between 2nd and 3rd, and somehow Honda managed to engineer it to self-generate a magnetorheological fluid after 90,000 miles; by inserting a self-detonating bearing in the autobox." i loled

By the way what is that little thing sitting in front of the center display on the instrument panel? Almost looks like a microphone?

It's a microphone for the bluetooth system that the Alpine radio has. I could hook up my phone to Bluetooth if I really wanted to, but that's stupid because the sound quality is terrible.

And yeah, that autobox is SHIT

[BUMP]

Tesla is allowing public test drives of the Model S in Winter 2012. Stand by. Until then, the next test drives I'm going to try for are:

Scion FR-S/Subaru BR-Z
Volkswagen Passat V6 (7th Generation/NMS)
Fiat 500 Abarth
BMW 328i (F30)

Got any other suggestions?

Let me know how the BRZ is, ME WANT

Test drove 2013 Acura ILX Hybrid today. It's nice. Will make a proper review of it later. For now, I'm going to screw around on the Internet.

I can't let you know about the BRZ but I CAN let you know about the Toyota 86! Our demonstrator arrives here in two weeks!!!!!!

From what I can tell, the difference is the front bumper and the badge, so sure!

Gonna try to test out a GT86/FR-S sometime this week. I really should work on that ILX review.

very nice review.

Could be hard to get your hands on one. Last I heard was that Toyota was struggling with production and that it would be until after memorial weekend that the first cars would be delivered. Here in Aus, we have to wait an extra week to receive our allocated dealership cars. Even worse, we can only source one at the moment because of such high demand. Not sure how Subaru is coping but I'd imagine it's much the same. Ever since the 86 was rated ahead of the Cayman by one Australian magazine, the toyobaru has gone through the roof.