4-cylinder AWD a bad combination?

I was at a a VW dealer yesterday looking for a 4-cylinder AWD Passat sedan and the salesman had a V6 AWD and Front wheel drive 4-cylinder, he "informed" me that the 4-cylinder AWDs were hard to find and not a great idea anyway because the four cylinders were underpowered with the added weight of the AWD.

Now of course he was trying to steer me towards what he had in stock, but is there *any* truth in this? I wanted AWD cause I hate the idea of getting stuck in snow or ice, but wanted to keep it to four cylinders to minimize the mileage hit you take when you add 4Motion (I thought the acceleration with the 4-cylinder FWD was sufficient, but I haven't found a local 4-cylinder AWD to try yet.)

Thanks!

P.S. I'm looking at 2005 models.

first off he is wrong.

the 4cyl. is a great car. Yes if you wont more power then the V6 or W8 would be a better choice.
I have sveral Customers that Have these 4Cyl cars and they love them. They feel they have lots of power and great in the snow as we live real close to some nice ski areas.

But he is right they are real hard to find. They where not the most populor engine AWD combo out there so this is very hard to find. Plus no one is giving theres up so used markets do have them.

good luck in your serch and keep us in the loop.

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I have an '02 V6 4motion, and I didn't know that they made 4-cyl AWDs.

Here's the deal, though - 4 cylinders (in many peoples' eyes) in a Passat is a little underpowered, and can consume a lot more gas because you need to be heavier on acceleration. The engine has to work harder to move the car. My last Passat was a '99 4-cyl with no 4motion and to be honest, I drove it very conservatively (manual transmission), and I didn't get the best mileage. Go with the V6 AWD - they're so much nicer to drive.

kosmotheoria wrote:

I have an '02 V6 4motion, and I didn't know that they made 4-cyl AWDs.

Here's the deal, though - 4 cylinders (in many peoples' eyes) in a Passat is a little underpowered, and can consume a lot more gas because you need to be heavier on acceleration. The engine has to work harder to move the car. My last Passat was a '99 4-cyl with no 4motion and to be honest, I drove it very conservatively (manual transmission), and I didn't get the best mileage. Go with the V6 AWD - they're so much nicer to drive.

That's interesting because one of the reasons I was looking at the four-cylinder was because I was getting a case of the guilties over using more gas in a V6 AWD.

(The salesman told me the MPGs weren't that different but of course I didn't believe him.) :-0

I did think the 4-cylinder turbo was a little underpowered, but the V6 AWD was unnecessarily quick off the starting line--that's why I thought of the 4-cylinder AWD (but they're *extremely* difficult to find).