The engine was surely designed to Audi standards. Only two companies (the other being Ferrari) can brag about packing five valves in each cylinder, and only Volkswagen can make the claim with a 4-cylinder engine. A motor so gifted in its breathing abilities makes the perfect candidate for a turbo, and this force-fed 1.8-liter unit shows no strain in extracting its 170 horses.
The problem arises when the stable has to pull 3,600 pounds. Combining 4 cylinders with 4MOTION burdens the most portly of Passats with a stratospheric weight-to-power ratio of 21.2, and that's with the turbo on. Response from a dead stop is dead indeed, then the shift to second gear has the engine screaming towards redline. Boost always awaits in the upper rev range, but there's no denying the hesitation between call and answer, and rarely does the fury from the engine room get mirrored by the speedometer.
Normal driving involves frequent falling into the chasm of the engine's power curve, and it takes deep digs at the gas pedal to climb out. You'd think the manual-shift feature of the Tiptronic (marketing jargon courtesy of Porsche) could cure this, but VW's control-freak programming has it upshifting before redline and bumping down three gears when the pedal's floored - a concept from the any-color-you-want-as-long-as-its-black school of engineering. The lever itself provides all the thrills of tapping your spacebar, and the need to press the brakes to shift out of Neutral feels like an echo of paranoia from Volkswagen's "unintended acceleration" days. The shifts themselves are usually smooth, but there have been happier marriages of car, engine, and transmission than found here.
The news improves on fronts common to all models. The steering has a nice heft, provides decent road feel, and its 14.3 response ratio seems just right. The suspension steps silently over bumps, never clomping or clunking and rarely sending any undue vibrations back up through the spine. Once up to speed, it's easy to find yourself going faster than expected - not always beneficial but easy to admire. The slightly spongy, occasionally hard-to-read brakes are the only dynamic downside common to all models, but at least those brakes are antilocking discs at every corner.
|