A guy at work managed to get a 24hr test drive of a new VW Passat 2.0 TDI, due to him requesting one for a company car.

He knew I was into my VW's, so asked if I wanted to take a look around/drive etc.

I obliged & it's a very nice car, but I'll get back to that later.

Anyway, he had to take it back this lunchtime & asked if I could follow him & then bring him back to work. We dropped off the Passat @ the dealer & took the "scenic" way back to work. Now, this guy also owns a TVR Griffith, which I had the pleasure of taking a passenger ride in. It's a monster, no doubt about it.

He commented on how he liked the interior/exterior etc. At this point I hadn't "opened it up" until he said "what's she like on full chat then?" . You don't have to ask me twice. Various comments were made including "clucking bell!" etc.

The comment that took me a-back was "it feels as quick as my TVR!"

Now, in no way I am going to kid myself that it is as quick as the Griffith. I know the torque makes it feel quick, but I wasn't expecting that comment.

Thought you were going to say it was nearly as fast as a Fabia VRs :P

OK, sorry... couldn't resist.

Going to stand in the corner.

Cue backlash from the Octy mob...

And the SDi mob...

Slap

hehe. That TDI is nice though, regardless

I must admit the torque is very punchy...

...When I didnt have my car for nearly a month I was lumberd with a 1.4 jobbie, when I got my car back the torque was amazing, I couldn't believe it! A week later I was used to it again :(

And the SDi mob...

And the 1.2 Mob!

Did he say how it compared to the performance of the 2.0 TDI in the Passat?

Chris

Did he say how it compared to the performance of the 2.0 TDI in the Passat?

Chris

The Passat is a very nice car to drive. Refined, very quiet inside (although the road noise from the Continentals let it down) & a fair bit of torque. The handling is superb, far better than Fabia, but the Fabia never was the best.

The 2.0 TDI has a good spread of power compared with the PD 130, & it's power delivery is smoother. It feels at ease with you reving it past the 3.5Kpm mark, which I never felt the PD 130 did like.

However, a remapped PD 130 is quicker & more aggressive with it's power delivery - a big whack of torque almost instantaneously, shift up a gear, whack - another wave of torque. It hits you with no fuss or hesitation. This is one of the comments my colleague made.

The Passat is a bigger & heavier car, which slows it down but it's a good looker . Nicely styled front & back end, & this particular model (I think it was a Sport) had 17" 6 spoke alloys & sports suspension. The key was just a remote fob - no key as such, just a slot in the dash for the remote which you push in & the car starts up. No handbrake either, just a button on the dash.

Nice & roomy inside, but it is a big saloon car. In summary, a nice car!

I'd love to drive a remapped 2.0 TDI, as I can imagine they would quite entertaining.

When i took a test drive of a Furby VRS i let my best friend have a ride. She used to go out with a fast driving wide-boy type of fella. He's owned various fast fords and things over the years, More recently she went out in a guy's Audi TT. After a quick blast in the Furby she reckoned that it had more "shove" than any of those! Now i know that the TT she went on is, on paper at least, quicker than the VRS, but the narrow band-torque on the Fabia is amazing.