Multivan question

[Greenboy]

Hi everyone,

I am looking to buy a Multivan in the near future. I have a question - why don't VW make a automatic Multivan with 4motion? They have snow and mud in Europe - there must be market for it. Are there any rumours automatic with 4motion will be included in a mid-model upgrade?

Thanks in advance.

Greenboy

[phaeton]

Hi everyone,

I am looking to buy a Multivan in the near future. I have a question - why don't VW make a automatic Multivan with 4motion? They have snow and mud in Europe - there must be market for it. Are there any rumours automatic with 4motion will be included in a mid-model upgrade?

Thanks in advance.

Greenboy

No rumours of Auto with 4Motion and no 4Motion auto in Europe by the looks of VWCVs German site.

[wandaria]

Had the same problem, really wanted the 4motion but not the manual, so in the end had to get an auto. reason was that in an emergency etc you just put the foot down in the auto, don't have to think about changing gears.

Hard if your driving in sixth on the manual and you have to slam on the brakes and then try to accelerate quickly whilst your in sixth ( unless your of course a trained racing car driver)

There is a lot of people here who buy those jap people mover import with 4wd so there would be a good marekt I think for a awd auto van.

[BobD]

I had the opposite problem! I wanted a manual two wheel drive to minimise fuel consumption. The Auto 128kw diesel chews 50% more fuel around town than my old manual T4 TDI, which is very disappointing. However, as I have said elsewhere, the fuel consumption is brilliant for towing and is probably lower than the TDI diesel that works flat out all the time when towing.

I reckon I would change gears much quicker in an emergency than the auto does. The auto doesn't want to kick down to a lower gear very quickly, which is fine unless you need instant power.

Have you found any need for the 4 motion since you bought your car Wandaria? I have never had a problem with traction, although the traction control is annoying when it savagely cuts power due to wheel slip when trying to accelerate quickly into traffic or similar. I could do it much better without the electronics to help I reckon.

Anyway, overall I find the MUltivan brilliant and would not have any other people mover after driving most of the opposition and now having owned the Multivan.

[Seano]

I am looking to buy a Multivan in the near future. I have a question - why don't VW make a automatic Multivan with 4motion? They have snow and mud in Europe - there must be market for it. Are there any rumours automatic with 4motion will be included in a mid-model upgrade?

Two reasons....

1) The 4Motion add-ons in the T5 (also the T4) aren't compatible with the auto gear box

2) VW don't bother developing and investing rectifying the situation because auto gearboxes aren't all that popular in Europe (which is their main market) particularily in conjunction with turbo diesels. There simply wouldn't be the volume to justify the expense..

You can see this effect in many of the new mid size cars now arriving in Oz with TDi engines.....they all have manual g/box because an auto box isn't available as yet in Europe....because they won't sell enough to cover development costs.

Having driven an auto T4 TDi........you'd have to work hard to convince me that an auto is the way to go in a T5 TDi....cause it was awful.

[wandaria]

If you can see an emergency about to occur then no problems, but I can tell you from experience and study that in an absolute emergency that comes unexpectedly, no one without a lot of training can without thinking thange down gears to use the needed acceleration if they are in too high a gear when some sort of emergency occurs.

I had to take into consideration the wife, who would be driving the car a lot so at the end of the day, it was much safer all round to go with an auto.

I would have liked the 4motion but the 2wd is good, most of the problems anyway as far as traction around my area relate to clay top soil, and whether you have 2wd or 4wd does not matter much unless you have the apropriate tyres to give more byte on the soil and clay.

Love the car, mind you It does certainly not drive as well as my Ford Territory, although I knew this going into what I was buying. I have always preferred rear wheel drive to front wheel drive. Mainly because with a slide in a rear wheel drive you can drive out of it, get in a front wheel skid on a front drive and basically you have have to waite, much harder to drive out of it.

Anyway, I got the multivan for the comfort for the family etc and there aint no better car out there. In fact I would not even buy the targo now, if I was to go to a competitor I would have to go to a new kia grand carnival for the bucks. At least 15 grand cheaper than the tarago.

[Greenboy]

Thanks everyone for the comments. Auto is my wife's choice - 4 motion would allow me to get the van onto beaches and would aldo perform better on dirt roads/forestry trails. It is mainly the USA that drives the demand for automatic products so I can see it is not economic for VW to develop a product for non-European customers excluding the USA.

Cheers,

Greenboy.

[Tornado T5]

Having driven an auto T4 TDi........you'd have to work hard to convince me that an auto is the way to go in a T5 TDi....cause it was awful.

....actually in my case having come from a 5 speed manual T4 to a T5 128Kw Tdi A6, I wouldn't go back to the manual even after higher fuel usage...it's only bettered by the ZF A6 in the Fords I drive imho.