VW Jetta (was Job for Flavia? ) WAS:Re: [DMCForum] Re: Tom's DMC12... for sale!?

["therealdmcvegas" <dmcvegas@xxxxxxx>]

--- In DMCForum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Andrei Cular <acular@xxxx> wrote:
> 
> 
> therealdmcvegas wrote:
> 
> >Bettles have a unique styling, and Golfs do serve a purpose as a hatchback alternative 
to 
> >the Honda Civic. So I can understand the appeal of these cars. The Touareg is 
Germany's 
> >answer to the Nissan Murano. A "Cute-Ute" for people that never intend to off-road, 
> >except for lawns, and snowy roads. And as for the rest of VW's line up, all I can say is 
> >*uninspirational*.
> >  
> >
> The Touareg is far from a "cute-ute" it is a Porsche Cayenne with less 
> interior and a slightly less powerful engine.  Comparing it to the 
> Morono maybe in size and styling.  Because the VW is truly designed for 
> on and off-road use with it 3" adjustable suspension.  And when it comes 
> to towing cap for anyone that wants to pull a boat or camper I believe 
> the nissan can only handle about 3200lb where the V6 VW can pull 
> 7700lb.  The interesting thing with the VW is that tow cap is limited 
> due to the vehical weight not the engine power.  It simply isn't safe to 
> pull a larger trailer , according to the gov and manufacture, cause the 
> truck won't be able to stop in an emergency situation even with trailer 
> brakes.
<SNIP>

I'm not arguing the vehicles prowess. I'm sure that they can certainly handle their own with 
both towing, and ripping thru mud and ice. The reason that I call them "Cute-Utes" is 
because of VW's marketing demographic. VW keeps trying to give their vehicle line up this 
passive, non-threatening image of vehicles, that aim at late twenties, to middle age 
hipsters, that basicly don't want any trouble. VW and the word "aggressive" just don't go 
together. I think that the only VW commerical I've ever seen that involves showing off the 
car's potential is the one where the guy passes a cop on a two lane road. And that's not 
saying much. If the Touareg is really capable off-road, then VW certainly isn't telling 
anyone that in their commercials. Come to think of it, the last time I ever saw a VW off-
roading on TV, I think Erwin Rommel was in it.

As for the towing capacity, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Towing capacity of a vehicle is 
determined by both the drivetrain of a vehicle, and the wheelbase. The same I-6 drivetrain 
that is used in the Jeep Wranger, was also used in the Jeep Cherokee. Yet because the 
Cherokee had a longer wheelbase, the towning capacity was rated 1500 lbs. higher. That's 
because if you have to brake hard, the inertia of the entire trailer is shifed to the front of 
the towing vehicle. And the longer a wheelbase you have, the more stable the vehicle is, 
because it's ablity to resist the side to side swaying. Think of it like a fulcrum and a lever. 
The hitch on the back is the fulcrum, and the farther away the front wheels are, the longer 
the lever. And this prevents you from jack-knifing if you had to lock-up the wheels in an 
emergency.

Drivetrains can also play a big part too. Ford's small truck line of the Ranger/Mazda B4000 
both use the same 4.0L OHC engine in their XLT package, and both are available with 
either a 5-speed manual, or 5-spee automatic transmission. Yet because one transmission 
is more durable than the other, the version with the automatic trans can actually tow more 
than the manual. Same vehicle, same engine, different transmission.

> 
> >And if anyone ever brags about German engineering when it comes to cars, I've got 
two 
> >words: "Diesel Rabbit".
> >  
> >
> The early diesel rabbits that were brought into the US did have 
> problems.  But that was not due to design issues, it was due to US gov 
> regulations on the engines.  I know a couple people that have later 
> rabbits with close to 1million miles.  They live up in Canada and have 
> to plug the block heater in, but diesel owners in FL have to do that as 
> well, and have no problems with cold morning starts like the early cars did.
> 
> Andrei

Actually, the problems as I've read, were infact due to design issues on the first series of 
engines that made their way over here. At first, the engineers had specified way too high 
of a torque strength for the head gasket bolts. So allot of them kept blowing headgaskets, 
because they were way to stressed already, when first assembled. Plus they kept needing 
frequent valve adjustments, that caused poor compression, and horrible gas milage, and 
tons of soot to be poured out. Later on from what I have seen photos of, in the 90's when 
VW started to re-introduce diesel again, they put friggin' EGR valves on the motors. So 
then you started getting clogged intake manifolds on cars every 15K miles.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a huge fan of diesel engines. And lots of people in the US 
are as well. Except, we prefer them to be in trucks, rather than cars. Because trucks are 
not under the same restrictions as cars are, trucks have always had an easier time 
perfecting reliable diesels to the buying public. Now that VW is finally perfecting their new 
diesel "catalytic convertors" that efficiently burn soot & sulphur particles in the exhaust 
system,I'm sure well see quite a turn around how much diesels are percieved. Especially 
now that Common Rail Diesel injection systems will finally be deployed in vehicles, like 
next years Jeep Liberty.

Diesel powered cars have always had a shaky history in the US that have scared away 
consumers. And for good reason. It's not that people can't stand the smell of diesel 
exhaust, it's just that we've not had a good history of reliable, powerful diesel passenger 
cars. It's either 80hp, or high repair bills. Just take a look at GM when they tried to adapt 
diesels into their Cadillac lineup. They took a standard Oldmobile block that was intended 
for low, 8:1 compression. They slapped custom heads on it, and kicked the thing up to 20:
1+ compression! And in cases like this, most manufacturers here have dropped out of 
their diesel projects way too early, before they could continue development.

-Robert

---

Yahoo! Groups Links

• To visit your group on the web, go to:
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DMCForum/
   
• To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
  DMCForum-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   
• Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.