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20 - The Oakville Beaver, F rida y M a rc h 8, 2002 BEST WHEELS Is the world ready for a $43,305 Volkswagen? Readers may have noticed that the Volkswagen company of today is a far dif ferent firm from the one that sold the Beetle and model 410 sedan/411 wagon three decades ago. Volkswagen is now a huge conglomer ate. Besides the cross pollination that goes on between it, Audi and Porsche, VW also owns SEAT in Spain and Skoda in Czechoslovakia. There are V 10 engines about to go into mass production at VW and a V12 or W18 supercar from Audi is just around the comer. None of this is by accident. VW des perately wants to shed its cheap-image cars for the masses identity and supplant it with Euro-leading designs and engineer ing. The Passat was introduced as a new model in 1997 and moved VW one more step up the ladder to the mid-size family range but not quite near-luxury. That happened last year with the 2001, second generation Passat that showed strong styling affinity to the runaway-suc cessful Audi A4. R O A DW O R TH Y But just to be dif Jim Robinson ferent, the Passat fits into the space between the Audi A4 and A6. If there was such a thing as an Audi A5, the Passat would be it. As the price and the high level of stan dard equipment goes up, so, it seems, does demand with VW recording its best sales ever in 2001 with Passat up 14.3 per cent over 2000. In December 2001, Passat sales were up 99.3 per cent over December 2000. Obviously luxury and Passat go together. OAKVILLE marked with a red-glow at night contrasted by indiglow blue on the speedo, tach and smaller gas and engine temp gauges - very Euro-cool. The Passat starts at $29,550 as the GLS with a 1.8-litre turbo four-cylinder with an optional V6 with 190 hp and 206 ft/lb of torque. The GLX is only available with the V6, but a V8 with no less that 274 hp is in the wings, such is the desire at VW to keep moving up ladder to match the amenities people want and are willing to pay for in their vehicles. There are three GLX versions based on drivetrain: the five-speed man ual, the five-speed automatic with Tiptronic and the same car with 4Motion, VW's ver sion of all-wheel-drive based on a TORSEN (TORsion SENsing) centre differential. Instead of most of the power being at the front in normal driving conditions, 4Motion splits it 50/50 front/rear. On low-grip sur faces the wheels with a higher level of grip get more torque, allowing the front wheels to get up to 67 per cent of traction and the rears 33 per cent or vice versa. As noted above, the GLX comes with everything includ ing, multi-function trip com puter, nifty folding ignition key with remote transmitter, cruise, one-touch up and down front power windows, central locking, heated outside mir rors, eight-way power seats, fully automatic climate con trols with rear vents, power glass sunroof, self-dimming mirror, even heated wind shield washer nozzles. Also part of the GLX pack age was the eight-speaker Monsoon sound system. The quality of sound in today's cars is amazing and the Monsoon is one of the best. Also available in wagon form ($44,480), the GLX 4Motion Sedan tested here was also impressive in terms of interior volume. The trunk is 10 cu. ft. and the total pas senger volume is 92 cu. ft. Rear seat passengers are royal ly treated with 35.3 inches (8% mm) of leg room and 54.6 inches (1,387 mm) of shoulder room. With its 0.28 drag coeffi cient, the body of the Passat is quite aerodynamic. That is usually a benefit in terms of fuel, but in svelte-shaped cars, things that hang out in the wind like remote mirrors and antennae tend to create a lot of noise and drag. The Passat quells this by mounting the antenna along the rear of the roof while the mirrors have had a lot of thought put into them because the loudest sound coming into the passen ger compartment at speed was from the dedicated mud and snow tires fitted. Based on that, I expect summer driving on regular tires would result in near silent running. I couldn't help thinking that while I was driving a Volkswagen, the car, in fact, is no longer just a Volkswagen. The Passat V6 4Motion I drove is up in the near-luxury category and is very competi tive there too. Near-luxury Passat GLX no longer just a Volkswagen For 2002, the Passat features some 2,300 changes both technically and visu ally. My tester was the top-of-the-line GLX V6 with 4Motion all-wheel-drive and Tiptronic sequential shifting. There is only one option, side curtain airbags at $375. To say the GLX 4Motion I drove was opu lent is an understatement. First and foremost was the way the interior greets the driver. Last year I drove a Jetta turbo diesel and lamented the fact the interior was a sea of dark black that imparted a somber feeling. My 2002 GLX 4 Motion did have a black hood and instrument panel cover, but the rest was mix of butternut leather seating and light tan trim peppered with dark wood inserts and real heavy-gauge chrome on the Tiptronic shift gate. There is a multi-function steering wheel, a HomeLink transmitter system and I just love the way all the instruments are Zero to 100 in six seconds Now four years old, the second-generation GS-series con tinues to amaze and impress. The GS 430 is a packed to the gills with a 300-horsepow er 32-valve 4.3-litre DOHC V8.and five-speed automatic transmission propelling the rear-wheels. Lexus claims a very rapid 0-100 km-h time of about six seconds for the 430. If you prefer a more sedate form of transportation, the GS 300 comes with a 3.0-litre DOHC inline six-cylinder engine rated at a healthy fl5 horsepower. The GS 430's spoiler and optional 17-inch wheels offer the only clue as to what lurks under the hood. State-of-theart technologies that go into the GS models include headprotecting side curtain airbags that supplement the existing seat-mounted side-impact airbags. You'll also find the usual high-wattage Lexus stereo. Other features include a hydrocarbon air pollution sensor, one-touch-open power moonroof and windows, and steer ing-wheel-mounted transmission shifting controls. N ew Beetle O akville Volksw agen 557 Kerr Street 905 .844.3285 fc W i Drivers Wanted. The Lexus GS 430 continues to amaze and impress.