Wildncrazy

Have you noticed that the cheaper cars get a FWD drivetrain just stuffed in the back and all the better (more expensive) cars get it done right with a longitudinal drivetrain.

The cheaper ones struggle for years to tame the rear end characteristics (think MR2 and probably this VW) and the longitudinal mounted ones just seem to work well right out of the box.

allmota

this thing is deisel and turbo. so it has a emmission limiting exhaust.
a full 3 inch eaxhaust with no cat would yield about 50 tlbs of torque. maybe 30 hp.

not to mention you could get 300k miles out of it.

this car has ALOT of performance possibilities.

SpudRacer

Or people who daily drive their cars and get tired of the effort in heavy traffic on a commute of more than an hour each way. I get plenty of opportunity to practice heel and toe downshifts. It's gone way beyond challenging, through the satisfying stage, to now the drudgery stage. I'm actually thinking of checking out the Nissan 7 speed auto with paddles for the severely retarded.

The auto has been measurably faster than the manual in car mag tests with only about a 1 mpg penalty in fuel efficiency. I play with my wife's G35 5 speed auto in manumatic mode but so far it just doesn't feel comfortable to me. There's still that millisecond(s) delay between the command and the response that ruins the experience when compared to a clutch. But then in the hell of the daily commute an auto can be "set it and forget it" to quote the great philosopher, Ron Popiel.