Plain Jane Passat is Comfortable but Dated
I received a call from a friend of mine saying she was in town for only two days and that we had to "play", our code word for
having fun and hanging out. Unfortunately, I already had plans that Saturday night (obviously!), so instead we "played" on Sunday night.
I went over to her parent's place where she was temporarily staying and found that it was not only her that had come back for a brief visit, but her other siblings as well. We ate some homemade blackberry pie and chatted. Then the topic of jobs came up, and of course, that led to a suggestion of taking my temporary 2004 VW Passat to a local park on a "test drive", a test drive that included two six-foot plus males and one 5'10" female sitting in the rear, as well as myself and my "playmate". The Passat was full. But
even with a carload of adults, the base model Passat 1.8T with 170 horsepower at 5,900 rpm and 166 lb-ft of torque between 1,950 and 5,000 rpm performed quite well while accelerating up steep hills and while pushing it through tight turns.
Although my tester did not have the standard 5-speed manual transmission, the optional 5-speed automatic transmission with Tiptronic was sufficient. The 5-speed manual cuts nearly a second off its 0 to 100km/h acceleration; 7.9 seconds compared to 8.8 (minus a carload of crazy cats). But like I said, the 4-cylinder was still fun to putt around in.
I received a call from a friend of mine saying she was in town for only two days and that we had to "play", our code word for
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| An impromptu visit from a friend and her family was the perfect opportunity to load up the Passat and take it for a test drive. (Photo: Alexandra Straub, Canadian Auto Press) |
I went over to her parent's place where she was temporarily staying and found that it was not only her that had come back for a brief visit, but her other siblings as well. We ate some homemade blackberry pie and chatted. Then the topic of jobs came up, and of course, that led to a suggestion of taking my temporary 2004 VW Passat to a local park on a "test drive", a test drive that included two six-foot plus males and one 5'10" female sitting in the rear, as well as myself and my "playmate". The Passat was full. But
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| The base model Passat 1.8T, with 170 horsepower and 166 lb-ft of torque, performed well even with all the seats full. (Photo: Alexandra Straub, Canadian Auto Press) |
Although my tester did not have the standard 5-speed manual transmission, the optional 5-speed automatic transmission with Tiptronic was sufficient. The 5-speed manual cuts nearly a second off its 0 to 100km/h acceleration; 7.9 seconds compared to 8.8 (minus a carload of crazy cats). But like I said, the 4-cylinder was still fun to putt around in.