Drew Dowdell

"A few Saabs but nothing from GM".... uh.. what? Unless they're driving a 25+ year old Saab, they're driving something from GM. but, your anecdotal evidence from inside your bubble is just that.

August 7, 2012 Drew Dowdell Managing Editor CheersandGears.com A couple of weeks ago William gave us his review of the 2012 Volkswagen Passat SE 2.5. While William loved the roominess and quality of the interior, he was less impressed with the 2.5 liter gasoline 5-cylinder motivation. I have driven the Volkswagen 5-cylinder in the Passat and a few other vehicles and I'm inclined to agree with him. In response to that, the Passat is taking another turn in the CheersandGears.com garage this week except this time with an oil burner under the hood and me at the helm. Diesel powered cars have been enjoying a rapid increase in sales lately and Volkswagen is one of the largest purveyors of diesel cars in the US. Diesels accounted for 19.4% of Volkswagen’s sales in July of 2012. This 2012 Passat TDI has a sticker price of $28,665 and is equipped with sunroof, and automatic climate control. At first that may sound high for a conservative mid-size car, but given the amount of room, equipment, and of course fuel economy, the Passat TDI starts to look quite the bargain. The Passat TDI is EPA rated at 30mpg city and 40mpg highway with a combined rating of 34mpg. The only other mid-size cars that can touch that are the hybrids from Toyota, Hyundai, and Kia. However, the Passat TDI regularly gets real world numbers that beat the EPA rating by a substantial margin. As for power, the 2 liter turbo diesel is rated at just 140 horsepower but also sends 235 ft-lb of torque through the 6-speed DSG to the front wheels. All 236 ft-lb becomes available at just 1,500 rpm which I unwittingly found out when making a left hand turn during my initial drive and ended up slapped by the traction control nanny as the front wheels broke loose. The pull from the engine around town is a lot stronger than anyone expects from a 2 liter 4 cylinder. For this week, I will be driving my normal commute till Friday to get a good read on the city fuel economy. Starting Friday evening until Monday afternoon, I will be taking the Passat on a long distance trip so I can get a good reading of the cruising fuel economy. Even just the first 5 miles of driving the Passat reinforced my “smooth but different” opinion of the Volkswagen 6-speed DSG transmission that was established during the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle Turbo review. So gear up your questions for this week’s interactive review of the 2012 Volkswagen Passat TDI. Drew Dowdell is Managing Editor of CheersandGears.com and can be reached at [email protected] or on twitter as @Cheersngears View full article

Software doesn't have the ability to do that. How can I block someone out if they aren't registered? I can't go by IP address, that changes all the time.

MSN.com autos section. Best vehicle data site on the net.

True, but still just 4 cyls...it will be interesting to see how the current turbo 4 trend plays out...turbo 4s were fairly widespread in the 80s, most of them turned out to be crap and a passing fad. and still just as irrelevant. The Turbo-4s that are out now don't need to rev to get power or torque out of them. You're not going to be happy with a naturally aspirated 4 no matter what... we all know that already. The Regal GS Turbo-4 puts out more torque and at a lower RPM than the FWD Northstar did. Very true olds that the current crop of Turbo 4 or even Turbo 3 engines put out more than v6 or v8 engines did in the 80's or 90's. Yet when driving one of them, there still seems to be something missing from the over all experience of putting your foot into a turbo 4 banger compared to a v8. I call it the seat of your pants experience, but I do not get a satisfying feel from driving a turbo 4 in comparison to a v8. Yes I am probably biased a bit from having big power V8's all my life, but when I push a small engine even turbo charged still seem to strain in my perception compared to a v8. Limo drivers don't tend to care about such "seat of the pants" experience. They care more about fuel efficiency. Oh good Cubie... down vote me because I bothered to go look up the numbers you couldn't be bothered to actually know...

I previously mentioned, the turbo 4 has the same output as the outgoing V8. The MKT probably weighs 1000lbs more than the TC did...a 4cyl in the MKT is absurd as a 4cyl in the Enclave or Acacia would be.. You're wandering into SMK territory with just making up $h! numbers to suit your agenda. The Lincoln Town Car is 4413 lbs. The Lincoln MKT 3.7 V6 FWD is 4499 lbs. For a total difference of 86 lbs. Just the switch from a 3.7 liter V6 to a 4-cylinder turbo is enough to make up for the 86 lb weight gain, so there is even a chance that the MKT 2.0 will weigh less than a Town Car. Add to the fact that the MKT has a 6-speed rather than a 4-speed so I would expect the MKT to out perform the Town Car. The 2.0T can make 280 ft-bl at 1700rpm - 4500, just 7 ft-lb less than the peak torque 4.6 V8 makes at 4600rpm. Stop making stuff up just to suit your agenda.

That's ok, the current Liberty can only just harm the Jeep reputation if it was allowed to live.

I think you may have misunderstood. The car is no longer "under recall" after the repair work has been done. If they want to rent or sell the car, no problem, just have the recall work done first.

True, but still just 4 cyls...it will be interesting to see how the current turbo 4 trend plays out...turbo 4s were fairly widespread in the 80s, most of them turned out to be crap and a passing fad. and still just as irrelevant. The Turbo-4s that are out now don't need to rev to get power or torque out of them. You're not going to be happy with a naturally aspirated 4 no matter what... we all know that already. The Regal GS Turbo-4 puts out more torque and at a lower RPM than the FWD Northstar did.

Updated with pics gallery