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A mate and I were in a VW dealership by chance on Saturday and I asked about the new Passats that are arriving next month and specigically if they knew when the new "R" Passat would arrive. They said 18months to 2 years!! Ouch!!
For those that do not know, the new Highline V6 Passat has the same 3.6lt motor as the current R36 and CC and develops the same power and torque, but does not have the R36 trimmings. So, for the new "R36" to be designated with the "R" tag it will need to have a motor with more power and torque and therefore an upgraded motor to differentiate it from the standard Highline V6 Passat that will be arriving in possibly a few months.
Also, the new "R36" Passat may notnecessarily be an R36 as this motor may not take kindly to be being turboed due to it's relatively long stroke, so I have been told, which then starts to ask questions about what they will use for the motor and, just as importantly, the gearbox as the current 6 speed DSG is only rated to take about 350Nm as the new R Passat will need to have more torque than this. I know people have put more than that through the 6 sp DSG, but VW have to warrant the gearbox and therefore they are conservative. I am sure that they will have to use a new DSG.
As for the motor, will they do what they did to the Golf R32 and go to a turbo 4 cylinder of some description, or raid the parts bin of Audi and use the S4 3lt V6 and turbo it? If they do go the Audi 3.0lt V6, will it be north-south like in the Audi S4 and mount it to a new DSG, or will they mount it east-west as the current R36 motor? Can they fit the 3.0lt V6 east-west and put thne DSG behind it as it is in the current R36? Will it have to go north-south? On the other hand, using a turbo 4 cyl certainly makes it lighter, especially over the nose, and therefore should have a better power to weight and probably better handling. Questions, questions!
Anyway, the dealer told me that the new R Passat will not be released for 18months to 2 years! This was borne out by me visiting another VW dealer and they said the same thing!
So, I asked the first dealer what about the current R36 and when would the production of that be stopped and he said that it has already ceased production and there was only one brand spanking new R36 wagon left in Australia that he knows of, an Icelandic Grey with auto rear tail gate. The second dealer advised that there were absolutely no new R36 wagons available at all! Panic!
Being the skeptic that I am and never trusting a dealers word, I looked on the net and it seems that there were 3 wagons available at dealers around the country, but as far as I could tell 2 were already registered and had various small amounts of Kms on their odo's and the 4th was black which I didn't want. I've had a black car and never again!
The dilemma for me is that I didn't want to keep my Candy White R36 wagon for another 2 years waiting for the new R Passat to arrive as I would have clocked up 100,000kms by then which would severely dent the resale value. Also, who knows whether the new R Passat will be the same price or dearer which means that not only my resale is less, but the new car is even more expensive so the change over may be huge! So, I got a trade valuation and it was so good that I decided to go for almost the last brand spanking new R36 available in Australia.
Interestingly, when I purchased my Candy White R36 wagon two years ago, I was in a quandry as to whether I wanted Candy White or Icelandic Grey, so now I will have had the best of both worlds.
For those that do not know, the new Highline V6 Passat has the same 3.6lt motor as the current R36 and CC and develops the same power and torque, but does not have the R36 trimmings. So, for the new "R36" to be designated with the "R" tag it will need to have a motor with more power and torque and therefore an upgraded motor to differentiate it from the standard Highline V6 Passat that will be arriving in possibly a few months.
Also, the new "R36" Passat may notnecessarily be an R36 as this motor may not take kindly to be being turboed due to it's relatively long stroke, so I have been told, which then starts to ask questions about what they will use for the motor and, just as importantly, the gearbox as the current 6 speed DSG is only rated to take about 350Nm as the new R Passat will need to have more torque than this. I know people have put more than that through the 6 sp DSG, but VW have to warrant the gearbox and therefore they are conservative. I am sure that they will have to use a new DSG.
As for the motor, will they do what they did to the Golf R32 and go to a turbo 4 cylinder of some description, or raid the parts bin of Audi and use the S4 3lt V6 and turbo it? If they do go the Audi 3.0lt V6, will it be north-south like in the Audi S4 and mount it to a new DSG, or will they mount it east-west as the current R36 motor? Can they fit the 3.0lt V6 east-west and put thne DSG behind it as it is in the current R36? Will it have to go north-south? On the other hand, using a turbo 4 cyl certainly makes it lighter, especially over the nose, and therefore should have a better power to weight and probably better handling. Questions, questions!
Anyway, the dealer told me that the new R Passat will not be released for 18months to 2 years! This was borne out by me visiting another VW dealer and they said the same thing!
So, I asked the first dealer what about the current R36 and when would the production of that be stopped and he said that it has already ceased production and there was only one brand spanking new R36 wagon left in Australia that he knows of, an Icelandic Grey with auto rear tail gate. The second dealer advised that there were absolutely no new R36 wagons available at all! Panic!
Being the skeptic that I am and never trusting a dealers word, I looked on the net and it seems that there were 3 wagons available at dealers around the country, but as far as I could tell 2 were already registered and had various small amounts of Kms on their odo's and the 4th was black which I didn't want. I've had a black car and never again!
The dilemma for me is that I didn't want to keep my Candy White R36 wagon for another 2 years waiting for the new R Passat to arrive as I would have clocked up 100,000kms by then which would severely dent the resale value. Also, who knows whether the new R Passat will be the same price or dearer which means that not only my resale is less, but the new car is even more expensive so the change over may be huge! So, I got a trade valuation and it was so good that I decided to go for almost the last brand spanking new R36 available in Australia.
Interestingly, when I purchased my Candy White R36 wagon two years ago, I was in a quandry as to whether I wanted Candy White or Icelandic Grey, so now I will have had the best of both worlds.
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