I was at a a VW dealer yesterday looking for a 4-cylinder AWD Passat sedan and the salesman had a V6 AWD and Front wheel drive 4-cylinder, he "informed" me that the 4-cylinder AWDs were hard to find and not a great idea anyway because the four cylinders were underpowered with the added weight of the AWD.

Now of course he was trying to steer me towards what he had in stock, but is there *any* truth in this? I wanted AWD cause I hate the idea of getting stuck in snow or ice, but wanted to keep it to four cylinders to minimize the mileage hit you take when you add 4Motion (I thought the acceleration with the 4-cylinder FWD was sufficient, but I haven't found a local 4-cylinder AWD to try yet.)

Thanks!

P.S. I'm looking at 2005 models.

 

I have an 04 passat GLS 1.8T 5speed 4motion and love it! Under powered? not really, does pretty good! 1.8t=170hp 2.8na=190hp and heaver, so id'e rather keep my turbo! When I bought this one, it was the only one in the states i could find w/ these options. I also lucked out cause it had leather with cold weater package. Don't let sales man fool you, if you know what you wan't, keep looking and you'll find it. I stumbled across mine on creigs list. Good Luck!

Regards
Tim