Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Just test drove an A4 1.8T !!

A friend of mine had both an SVT and an Audi S4.
Guess which one he enjoyed 'driving' more! When he owned both at the same time, he drove the CSVT! The
S4 has tons of power but it was too refined and
he has now bought an M3. Those Audi's are nice
but they are a dime a dozen up here....plus
my SVT will dust them performance wise....and
wait until it comes time for repair$$$$$....if
the audi is anything like the VW, it will be
eating brakes....

I wouldn't go for a new one, though, it'll cost ya an arm and a leg. See what you can get, used.

I do believe taht the Jetta rides on a smaller platform than the A4, a platform that the New Beetle, Golf, and TT share.

I think the A4 and the Passat share a platform. Flame me if I'm wrong, but the sizes are much more similar.

Matt

A4/Jetta same exact car.
Passat/A6 same exact car.
Beatle/TT I believe same exact car.

I will probably never buy an audi just because just about 7 out of every 10 people around here have one....they are too easy to get...my uncle and aunt have an A6, and no one thinks its anything special(other than a well built car, its not)...my mom on the other hand....has a 32 valve 4.0 jaguar s type....which there is only one other one around....and the car has a lot more class(not to mention it has 2x the power and handles four times as good)

Of course the Jetta also comes in a turbo diesel that hums along quite nicely, and if you were to add the Mini Smart-Box from Van Aaken, you are going to have more torque at your disposal than that in the VR6! (Still less HP though, but torque is what it's all about!) Jetta is now a stationwagon ( sport wagen would sound more appealing I'm sure!)
Diesel also available in Golf, and New Beetle!
Gets 65 MPG (58 in auto)

Not quite.

The Passat and A4 are much closer kin than the Passat and A6. Passat & A4 ride on very similar basic platforms, with the Passat receiving the same 'zero-scrub' four-link front steering/suspension geometry, but carrying a beam axle rear suspension rather than the A4's fully independent.

Passat and A4 share the same north-south engine configuration with FWD/AWD transaxles, and--up until this year or so with the introduction of the 3.0 Litre V6 in the A4--share the same basic engine choices (S4 notwithstanding).

The Jetta is a smaller, more traditional front-drive platform that places the engine east-west under the bonnet and rides (in addition to other choices, one of which is obviously the Audi 1.8T) an uplevel 2.8 Litre Volkswagen-designed VR6 (as opposed to the Passat's Audi-designed 90-degree 5-valver 2.8 Litre V6).

There is little-to-no platform relation between the VW Jetta and the A4.

my sources tell me the "leatherette" is a better deal anyways. Last longer and you can't tell the difference.

Those are really nice cars , I can't wait to see this new SR6, 450hp twin blenders AWD - now thats a combo !
The new 1.8t motor is one bad mofo though - my buddy at work just received his "along waited" 337 GTI, for only 23k thats one awsome deal. I'm looking into a reg 1.8t GTI 17"s leather & $$$ leftover for mods

While the 1.8T is good for small applications - Jetta, Beetle, a 1.8L is too small for a big car like the 2002 A4, which weighs I think 3600lbs with AWD.. This means the car is turbo dependent - NEEDS boost for decent performance. So off boost power sux. Lag was nonexistant with the low pressure 150 HP version but has increased noticibly with the higher boost 180 version. Have not yet driven chipped version but expect even less linear power delivery unless perhaps a different turbo is used.