Jazz -Passat W8

Missed out on the 2.3l. W8 probably bit crazy for around town but what are they like anyway.

our one has done 260,000km with no major problems had the gearbox rebuilt but only because of poor servicing in Japan, engine burns no oil and still goes very well every led in the car works perfectly as well as all the heated seats, eventually the cat converters will crap out, but you can buy mini cats from the states to trick the 02 sensors into getting a good reading, drive lines are bomb proof and quite honestly its THE BEST all around car i have ever driven some people say go for a 5 series BMW i say take one of these for a drive and see the difference.

Hi Pat,
Pretty much. What Scotty said!
They arn't that horrendous on gas for what they are so as long as you don't mind a bit of a premium on the fuel bill go for gold.
Lovely, lovely machine.

Scotty, could you perhaps fill us in on how you are finding the Urban/Country economy!

My guess would be 15l/100km's round town and 9ish open road.

Funny thing is some people paythat much to run a people mover around town and think nothing of it.

The Passat is supposed to do just under 14l/100km around town so your guess is likely close. I was just curious as to what people found in the real world. I find VW tested figures tend to be a bit on the high side. but if this were the case it would be a very economical 8 Cylinder

The figures for this one were from the U.S EPA so I am not sure how they correlate in the real world like I am with the usual VW figures.

They are supposed to do uner 10l/100km on a trip.

I used to have a 99 Lexus LS400. This used no more than 15/100km's round town and high 8's on a trip. This type of car (i.e. 4000cc 8's) really aren't as bad as people think.

What is the rear in estate like for space! Probably should have a van if I'm totally practical, but really don't want one so looking for a compromise.

What's this about the o2 sensors! My lad's 2.8 had the cats chopped out prior to him buying. Sounds a little hollow but what else could that affect!

Best to go and check one first hand, I find the wagon has plenty of room in the back for the size of the car. That's one reason why they were popular with company reps.

I have never chopped one out so take this with a grain of salt. On the old cars with one oxygen sensor it would no doubt cause no issue, that I am pretty sure on.

However newer cars have two 02 sensors (pre and post cat) that compare the results between them. The 02 sensors look at things like the O2 content and also how long it takes for a change in gas volume to get through the converter. That way they can tell if the Cat is functioning correctly.

Therefore I can see the gist of what scotty is getting at. I wouldn't be surprised if you got a warning light or engine check code for a faulty 02 sensor or cat as a result. It would no doubt depend on the cars software and how it was programmed to deal with the situation.

In a worst case scenario I could see the car perhaps assume there is a faulty 02 sensor and put itself into fail safe mode, this is a case of possible but not super likely.

Again, I am taking educated guesses here. I have a reasonable understanding of car ECU's but like I said I have not tried removing a cat.

BTW, putting a resonator in place of the cat on your son's car may improve the sound.

Also, given you will likely be looking at a Passat with much lower km's than Scotty'sI wouldn't be too worried about the Cat converters. They usually last for fairly high milage if the car is serviced and treated well. I wouldn't expect the Passat would burn them out any earlier than the next car. Only thing with 8 Cylender cars is you tend to have twice as many to replace.

BTW, these people that cut out Cat converters are not going to be happy chappy's if NZ implements some kind of proper emissions testing like they have overseas!