No. These were not designed or marketed as tow vehicles. Brakes, unibody, suspension etc are the same regardless of engine. Keep in mind
I'm aware they werent designed or marketed as tow vehicles, yet the reputation is Jetta's tow better than any compact in the world, and the Passats are like upsized Jetta's with the same highway mileage and probably safer than a Jetta if both are towing the same weight. Is there any part of those comments you disagree with?
This is no different than questions asked years ago where there's people with Jettas towing home other Jettas and otherwise doing class 2 jobs with it.
Give it up. Buy a Chevrolet Colorado (in which you can get a 2.8 L diesel engine as original equipment) or something else that has the requisite tow rating built in, with a legit, commercially available Class 3 hitch.
At this moment i'm looking for a daily driver to replace the Saturn I drive and tow 1200lbs with now, and the separate, also being explored decision of how best to handle the harder loads I currently have which are currently going to a gas powered fullsize pickup. Just because i'm toying with the idea of wondering if one vehicle can do both jobs realistically it's probably not going to work out that way, but don't bash my thread just because i'm publically testing about six separate ideas in my research at the same time.
I would LIKE to replace the Saturn with something that can take a class 2 weight distributing hitch instead of the class 1 I have now, even if exactly what weights and aerodynamic loads still being open to discussion simply because that would let me stretch upwards at times some things that i'm pulling now with the pickup. Whether the figure is 2000lbs, 2600lbs, 3000lbs, or 3500lbs is irrelevant - it's more than my Saturn is pulling now.
Regardless of what you think of my 'projects', or whether you are frustrated because you think everything being asked is for the exact same project, at the end of the day if nothing works I just fall back to the system I have now - light towing compact car daily driver and heavy towing pickup. I dont know if a Colorado will do my combination of jobs best either because the financing cost skews the spreadsheet numbers and makes me start thinking things like a power boosted TDI Dakota midsize might be the better mid-to-heavy tow setup.
Where I choose to draw that line in the future might still be an open debate but I don't understand why youre wanting to close my topic which others talk about all over the board of their personal tow habits. I like the idea of a car that in a pinch can haul home it's own weight even if it's at 55mph (or less at some weights) with the best progressive trailer brake controller made, and part of me is curious WHY it has this reputation whether it's just the TDI torque that fools people into a false sense of security or if there's something else. Reputations aren't established over nothing.
I'm also focused on towing the same levels others seem to have safely done in the past vs going into uncharted territory, not one thing i've asked by itself has gone beyond what I have evidence of usually at least two other people already doing. If what i'm contemplating towing "is done every single day in Europe" then let me worry about it and if a Passat has better brakes/suspension to do a job than the same weight behind a Jetta I don't see how discouraging a Passat is more sensible.
I have a passat bhw sedan with dvc tranny and stage 2 tune.
A few months ago I towed home a 2500 lbs fin keel Catalina 22. Maybe 3000 lbs with trailer. I don't put much stock in tow ratings as this is just a suggestion. Vehicle wear, tire choice and vehicle design can make some vehicles tow loads within the rated towing capacity a lot better than others.
That's kind of my point, there are people doing things that are perfectly legal yet foolhardy. I've been at times forced to drive things that were "legal" but actually unsafe for a driving job I quit. I get a little frustrated when too many assumptions start being made usually based on partial information just because I ask alot of questions with overlapping purposes.
And there again is a weight about what i'm considering for a Passat, 3k. Did you have a lawyer riding with you asking if that was legal for you to tow? Have you driven 61mph in a 60mph zone? There are times when the only thing i'm concerned about is if my girlfriends car broke down across town 20 miles away, can I just tow her home with the Passat at 45mph using a really good TBC normally used for flat towing cars behind pickups... because maybe the day of the breakdown the pickup wasn't available, or because we can only park two cars instead of three the pickup is parked 100 miles away at a friends place.
Then if that ends up being safe to do there's a part of me that wonders if I happen to have the Passat and a trailer but the pickup again just isn't available, and I find some really good craigslist deal on ( x ) making me $1000 in one trip... is it safe for me to haul it home because it's slightly overweight?
Everything is a question of small careful steps from the place you were before, not giant leaps of stupidity. Were all watching for slippery slopes and clearly limits are hit at some point though. It shouldn't be assumed that just because I want to tow a little over the limit, that i'm simultaneously speeding, running barely legal near bald tires, having just drunk some alcohol but just under the limit, and doing this during a blizzard with black ice.
