Mario James, Gleaner Writer

HOW THIS drive happened was a bit of a lark. Etus Coleman, brand manager at Volkswagen, has been constantly saying that his brand offers the best 'bang for buck' out there.

Said he, "V-Dub has always been a popular mass-market car. We have always strive to be the most fuel-efficient, value-oriented brand out there. But you do know that Audi has been acquired by us since Wopi kill Phillip, right?"

I didn't remember that. Vee-Dub acquired Audi in 1964.

Slowly and deliberately, Volkswagen has been moving upmarket. Sure the marque started with the Type 1, but the ranks have swollen to include the Jetta, Toureg and Tiguan SUVs, the Polo, Eos and Golf plus today's featured ride. Now owned by Porsche, the 'Bug', folks, are quite a technological tour de force, aren't they? And they've got all that luxury experience while building Audi into a luxury brand.

Conundrum

So yours truly was most intrigued.

"Step into a Passat," he said. And I did. He told me that my tester had "Only the 1800cc engine. Feel the ride, check the features and tell me what you think."

So there I was in a bit of a conundrum. Firstly, on exiting Motor Sales on to Camp Road, I gave it part throttle and turned left, expecting the thing to ooze out into traffic. Nah. She wasn't having it. There was first the slightest of hisses, then we felt how good the seats really were ... followed by squeals of tyre protesting against the huge torque swell being output from this ... what? 1.8-litre-power-plant? No sah. Something doesn't jibe here.

Icing on the cake

So the car is stopped by the gas station at Windward and South Camp roads, and a quick walk around the car revealed three very interesting letters tucked away ever so innocuously under the right rear tail light. TSI. Hooboy. Isn't that Audi nomenclature? Could it be? An even quicker look under the bonnet cemented the hopes. That big turbo down pipe running from east to west in the engine bay just made my day. It is too quiet though. Having that spine tingling 'Pssst' between gear changes (Passat has a six-speed auto gearbox) would be the icing on the cake.

This car is all about midrange grunt; most of the 160 or so horses are corralled within the first inch of pedal travel. What the real kicker is though is that all of 184 lb ft are released at 1500 rpm. Want perspective?

The Toyota Camry (2.4 litre), and Honda Accord (2.0 litre) have more displacement, and therefore should be more tractable than the high-strung turbo engine from low revs. But they're not. Camry's 2.4 has its torque peak (165 lb ft) at 4,000 rpm, Honda's 139 lb ft comes on at 4300. Power from so low down makes Passat's fuel figures reasonable. The engine is turbo-charged, but the folks from Wolfsburg managed to eke out 7 litres/100 km. Camry and Accord? Camry does the EPA loop with 9 litres/100 km and Honda gulps 10 litres for the same distance. There's a non-turbo version, but really, with these consumption figures it makes no sense.

We've got a winner

Then there's the features. Things that really aid in driving and ownership, y'know? Like hi-def bi-xenon headlights that turn when you steer, and a wrap-around lens that lights up when you turn the tiller hard over, illuminating the side of the road. Park hold, which eases the soles in traffic by braking the vehicle so you don't have to.

Audible parking assist and a novel wiper park feature that pulls the wipers out of their bay underneath the bonnet so you can clean them. On wheel controls so you can concentrate on what is important. And yes, the six-CD eight-speaker sound system sounds good too.

Couple this with the germanic ride and build quality that seems to be a signature these days and you've got a winner right out of the box. $4.4 million ain't cheap by any standards, but for what you've got to spend to get more than this, V-Dub's Passat will certainly raise some eyebrows. And don't rib Etus about having an Audi engine in his VWs!