Test drive Volkswagen Passat B5 2000 - 2005 sedan

Away from the people

The wind blows where it wants. However, in Wolfsburg they have long learned to tame the passators. The most powerful is the VW Passat W8.
 
No, after all, this car was probably in vain in vain. Without chrome moldings, W8 4Motion spaces at the stern, four chrome pipes and 17-inch alloy discs, this would be a real wolf in sheep's skin. Imagine: some kind of bastard is attached to the tail and signals requires to give way. You pass and after a second you cut after the xenon headlights. Having driven the offender to the right, yours, as if an ordinary Passat with a roar, goes to the point. For more details, see the famous work of the writer Remarque.
 
A STORM WARNING. In fact, the northeastern tropical wind in the original source of such impulsive passats-in the primary source-did not yet know the story. Passat with a 2.8-liter V6 develops only 193 hp. Projektzwo and Zender tuning companies manage to steal a four -cylinder turbocharged engine until 195 hp. Finally, the famous racer Christian Abt did not play for a long time on an extreme 265-horsepower passat. And already in September, serial Passat W8 C 275 horses under the hood, with a 6.5-second acceleration of up to a hundred and a torque of 370 nm at 2750 rpm, will go on sale. For comparison: in the 300-horsepower Porsche 911 the moment is only 350 nm.
On Volkswagen, the novelty was positioned as a representative of the middle class. It is probably the way it is. In any case, no one in the segment C today can boast of eight cylinders, and far from all-minced meat, which is offered in the standard configuration of a car, which was once a folk brand. In addition to the mentioned xenon, sports discs and chrome pipes, it is also such a trifle as a new system of wiper cleaners - the brushes are optimally pressed to the glass, regardless of the speed of the car. Inside - half a dozen eirbags, automatic air conditioning system, chromium, genuine leather and wood. As options, a navigation system, exclusive radio training, TV, as well as Recaro seats, covered with Alcantara and NAPPA skin, having 8 adjustments are offered. And this is only the top of the iceberg.
Sail. Since all television portions from the international financial forum in snow -tied Davos began with a demonstration of the advantages of Quattro, all -wheel drive has become almost an obligatory attribute of a representative class. The VW Passat W8 is standardly equipped with a Torsen all -wheel drive system with automatic differential locking, which, together with traction control and course stability control systems, should inform the car the maximum level of active security.
In the standard configuration, a 6-speed mechanics are placed on W8. A version with a 5-speed tiptronics costs $ 2 thousand more expensive, and, I must say, this money is not wasted. The machine operates exclusively smoothly. And the margin of traction force of the motor is so great that it allows you to accelerate much more intensively, smoothly adding the gas than lowering the transmission with a sharp press on the pedal or resorting to the services of the tiptronics - in this case, the jerk will only occur after a tangible pause.
If adaptive automatic transmission itself is adjusted to your driving style, then the driver should get used to the mechanics. Long-flowing uninformative clutch pedal at first makes the city riding a real torment-not to stall at the start and switch without jerks, you must constantly burn on the gas, promoting the engine from 3-4 thousand about/min. Unclaimed during urban operation and excessive gears. For example, at a speed of 60 km/h you can move both on the 2nd and 5th, feeling the difference only in the position of the tachometer arrow. By the way, the elastic work of the W8 in the cabin is practically not heard. But at a speed of more than 200 km/h you have to add volume of the radio in order to block the noise of oncoming passats and monsoons.
The maximum speed of Passat W8 is artificially limited to 250 km/h. However, simple hacker work will neutralize an electronic limiter and enjoy a speed of 275 km/h.
Where does the wind blow. Among the consumer qualities of the car, everyone has already managed to note the solid engine appetite. In urban mode, a four -liter engine will swallow 19.4 liters of fuel per hundred, in mixed - 13.2. This is more than consumes, for example, BMW 540i or Mercedes E430. The all -wheel drive transmission and great weight make themselves felt. However, let the fuel save remain the destiny of the owners of VW Lupo 3L. W8 will have somewhat other owners.
The buyer Passat W8 is the gentlemen from Volkswagen as follows: the held mid -level manager of a large company, a successful owner of a middle company or simply oriented to Luxury an entrepreneur who is tired of traveling to the V6 and V8 other brands. It is very similar to the famous definition of one hundred percent American: WASP-White, Anglo-Sax, Protestant. And this is not without reason - out of 10 thousand W8, which the concern is going to produce annually, 60 percent will go to the United States, where today half of the passatted passathes has an V6 engine. Another 3 thousand cars should buy conservative Germans, many of whom all their lives drive only on the passathes.
As for Russian folk, it is hardly possible to expect a special excitement about eight -cylinder Wagen. In Germany, the W8 costs from $ 38 thousand. It is easy to calculate that after customs bells and whistles, the price of the car will easily go off for $ 60 thousand, and in this case it will be bought unless the selfless fan of the brand. However, as a large man from Wolfsburg told us, in Russia the concern plans to sell about a hundred cars. Probably, their buyers should become those who began to ride a Passat with skiing ahead ten years ago, moved to the V6 a couple of years ago, and today, making sure that it was more comfortable to fly than an economist to rise to another step. Away from the people. Closer to the wind.
      
Text Grigory Mitin, photo of the author and VW AG

 

Source: "Autopilot"