Quote:
Originally Posted by BeauCharles
I'm looking at a 2023 Taos SE with FWD
I've heard stories about VW reliability, but a close friends parents had a Passat and he said it was a great car for them for many years.
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My brother loved his passat and he laments that Volkswagen announced that the Passat will be discontinued in the United States after the 2022 model.
Adding AWD is an extra $1,450 on the SE trim.
Consumer Reports says the Taos AWD drive delivers uneven acceleration with an initial huge delay followed by a burst of power. They agree with your decision to stick with FWD.
The 2022 VW Taos SE features everything the 2022 VW Taos S features, plus additions like 18-inch alloy wheels, wireless charging capabilities, and additional driver assistance systems like autonomous braking and blind spot monitor. The SEL trim comes exclusively with AWD.
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FACT: Over half of cars sold in America are now 4 cylinder models which range in displacement from 1.3L to 2.8L, although the majority of models are between 1.5-liter and 2.5- liters. Even high end brands like Lincoln, Cadillac, Acura, Genesis, Infiniti, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo ,Audi, BMW, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz all make
turbocharged 4 cylinder vehicles today. The only brands that
do not have 4 cylinder vehicles for sale in America are McLaren, Maserati, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Bentley,
Dodge ,
Chrysler and
Ram (only has a 4 cylinder van).
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Pros and Cons of an alternative:- The 2023 Subaru Crosstrek AWD has an MSRP of $27,995 with an $1,225 delivery fee.
- The 2023 VW Taos SE FWD has a MSRP of $28,925 with an $1,195 delivery fee.
- The Volkswagen Taos has a 1.5-liter turbocharged four cylinder engine that generates 158 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque.
- The Subaru Crosstrek (sport trim) has a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four cylinder engine that generates 182 horsepower and 176 lb-ft of torque.
- The Taos has an eight-speed automatic transmission, while the Subaru Crosstrek has continuous variable transmission.
- The Taos 60.2 ft³ with seat down, compared to the 55.3 ft³ of the Crosstrek.
- The Taos has 18" wheels, while the Crosstrek sport trim has 17" wheels. The Crosstrek Limited trim is $1500 more , but it has 18" wheels.
- The Taos ground clearance is 6.4-6.6 inches while the Crosstrek ground clearance is 8.7 inches
- The Taos has an EPA combined city/highway 31.11 mpg, which is better than the Crosstrek's 29.40 mpg
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- Subaru dealers generally do not put an Additional Dealer Markup (ADM) above MSRP. The Taos and Sport trim Crosstrek each have pros and cons.
- For some people CVT is an automatic dealbreaker so they would get the Taos.
- I prefer a 2.5L naturally aspirated engine to a much smaller 1.5L turbocharged engine even though it gets 1,71 mpg less. The naturally aspirated engine is less likely to face expensive maintenance problems,
In my humble opinion, these very small turbocharged engines are potentially a serious problem, and I would go with the Crosstrek. If you do a google search you will find many mechanics that are concerned about increasing complexity built into cars to get less than 2 mpg of fuel savings.
But I should point out that there are at least 10 other models sold by 7 other brands that also use small 4 cylinder turbocharged engines (and some new ones with 3 cylinders). They are all trying to get better fuel economy to stay ahead of the EPA regulations. So the opinion of these online analysts and mechanics is very conservative, but they deal with the repairs all the time.
These vehicles are sometimes referred to as
turbo-downsized because they are not using turbocharging in the traditional manner to create a performance vehicle, but to get better fuel economy from an ordinary vehicle (instead of using more displacement)
1.5L Turbocharged 4 cylinder
Volkswagen Taos, Jetta
Chevrolet EQUINOX
GMC TERRAIN
Honda Accord, CIVIC, CR-V
Mitsubishi ECLIPSE CROSS
1.4L Turbocharged 4 cylinder
Buick ENCORE
Chevrolet TRAX
1.3L Turbocharged 4 cylinder
Jeep Renegade
FIAT 500X AWD
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