Did they just deliver a big batch of 6MTs?

Apologies in advance for my newbieness, but is it just me or are there a lot of new 6MT owners on the board all of a sudden?

After ordering in Feb, I just picked up mine (midnight blue/cornsilk) last weekend and couldn't be happier.

After lurking for several months I am finally making my first post and it seems I'm not the only one lately. Do you think it's due to record Feb and March sales or perhaps they periodically just batch production of these MTs all together?

Anyway, being new to diesel and vw (an old '68 beetle excepted) I appreciate all the advice so far!

My initial observation is that the car is great and I'm super happy I waited for the manual. The hankooks so far seem terrible in the wet. I'm still trying to figure out how the computer comes up with the "shift gear" recommendations on the display as it sometimes seems a little wacky - like recommending 6th at 40mph or an upshift at 1200 rpm.

DandC said:

Apologies in advance for my newbieness, but is it just me or are there a lot of new 6MT owners on the board all of a sudden?

After ordering in Feb, I just picked up mine (midnight blue/cornsilk) last weekend and couldn't be happier.

After lurking for several months I am finally making my first post and it seems I'm not the only one lately. Do you think it's due to record Feb and March sales or perhaps they periodically just batch production of these MTs all together?

Anyway, being new to diesel and vw (an old '68 beetle excepted) I appreciate all the advice so far!

My initial observation is that the car is great and I'm super happy I waited for the manual. The hankooks so far seem terrible in the wet. I'm still trying to figure out how the computer comes up with the "shift gear" recommendations on the display as it sometimes seems a little wacky - like recommending 6th at 40mph or an upshift at 1200 rpm.

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VW ran out of leather seat material for SEL's in Jan production, so they switched over to 6 manual production for a while.

I've never seen many 6mans for sale in any state... Here in California, with almost 40 million people, there were only 5 available in the whole state, in the middle of February when I bought mine.

VW has their product mix, for sure, but I often wonder if they could sell all the 6 mans they make if they made a few more. Hard to sell what's not available at a local dealership.

Don't worry about the upshift light. On level ground, if in no hurry, 5th at 42 indicated and 6th at 55 indicated seems to be fine in mine, with no lugging involved. YMMV, key is to not rev the motor up, but load the motor up properly. Very easy to do in this car at under 2000 rpms with the turbo set up as is. It will pull 22.5 pounds boost at 1500 rpm.

Read your owners manual for proper break in procedure.

Bottom line, it has taken Vw America a little bit of time to ramp up production of NMS Passats here in America, and they were cautious with quality control and production methods. They now have most of the learning curve behind them, and are now finding out that they can't keep up with demand for the TDI's perhaps even more so with the 6Man transmission SE versions. As long as folks keep asking for them, and ordering them from dealerships, they will keep on making them, I hope. Product mix is always difficult to judge for a first year production model. In this case, I think it has become a demand pull situation for them, and they are catching up.

The most satisfying part about a 2012 TDI SE 6 man is when I go to fill up and see 45 to 52.5 mpg, every tank. I thank VW for making it possible here in the USA. 48.2 MPG life time average here, so far.

I highly recommend keeping the engine between 1400 and 3000rpm.

Niner said:

The most satisfying part about a 2012 TDI SE 6 man is when I go to fill up and see 45 to 52.5 mpg, every tank. I thank VW for making it possible here in the USA. 48.2 MPG life time average here, so far.

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That is sure impressive. I just came off a, four passenger, six-hour road trip all on a four lane, set the cruise control and put on your favorite tunes type of trip. I kept my speed to 68-70 as per gps (smokies were all over the place) and I got a MFD mileage of 42.9 mpg, which translates to me via experience with this car 41.5 mpg. I am very pleased, but you can probably tell I am a little envious of your achievement.