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VW Passat PD 4motion

Put your Passat's wheels in 4motion! VW now offers its four-wheel-drive system in conjunction with the potent TDI PD 130 engine. Does it work? We're fans of all the PD turbodiesel models, but with so much torque dumped on the front wheels, the traction control light can often flicker in slippery conditions.

By Chris Thorp

October 2002

Put your Passat's wheels in 4motion! VW now offers its four-wheel-drive system in conjunction with the potent TDI PD 130 engine. Does it work? We're fans of all the PD turbodiesel models, but with so much torque dumped on the front wheels, the traction control light can often flicker in slippery conditions.

Not so with power distributed to all four wheels. Although the 4motion's 0-60mph time is half a second slower than the standard model's, the 10.4 seconds mark is more easily achieved with every wheel driven. But there are other sacrifices. A 43.5mpg economy figure is 5.5mpg less than the front-drive model's, and company car drivers will be hit by the higher emissions of 176g/km. That puts the new model in the 20 per cent tax bracket compared with the front-driver's 18 per cent.

The 4motion models go on sale in Britain this month, with the top-of-the-range Sport version expected to cost ΂£20,000, and the SE variant estimated to be priced around ΂£19,500.

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FIRST OPINION

    Passat diesels with VW's 4motion system are slower than their two-wheel-drive counterparts, as well as costing more to run and buy. So do you really need the extra traction? It gives better grip, but unless you must have four-wheel drive, stick with the standard models and let the traction control do its job!
 
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