A5 Jetta - couple questions, not sure if anyone can answer them yet tho

Hi - a couple of questions about the Jetta... maybe some of you have seen it
at an autoshow, or have been talking to a VW sales rep who's been to the
product course on the car.

I've been looking at the pictures of the new A5 Jetta... it's growing on me,
but from the front it's not as much of a young-guy car as the old one (tho
black/grey seems to make it MUCH better over the silvery colour I saw in the
first few pictures) The rear end looks much more modernized with the jeweled
taillamps (tho they don't look "German")

There is my first question - where are the turn signals? I am guessing they
are ambers behind clear glass in the middle of the bigger (outer) circle -
please tell me they aren't doing it up American style and using the outer
rings as running lamps/brake lamps/turn signals! I hope they aren't using
red turn signals either - contrasting colours such as amber signals/red
brakelights are much easier to see faster - and independant lamps for
brake/running/turning are, in my opinion, safer.

Second question - it has an inline 5 engine (with competitive power
output... yay!). I have read it's 1/2 a Gallardo V10 (one bank of the Vee? -
this seems improbable)... It's not a V5 for sure - nor is it related to the
engine called V5 (or is it VR5?) in europe - I would believe a derivative of
the VR6, but not sure at all about this - as we get no info on european
motors in Canada. I have also read that it (the new motor) is a derivative
of the current 2.0L engine (designed in the early 70's, originally) - this
is according to Car and Driver... Which is it? If it's the
update/add-a-cylinder of the old engine will it still use an iron block?...
Hopefully it won't burn oil!!!

Looks like it'll be a nice car - might be my first new car if it's any
good - i'll wait till the Golf/GTI comes out first tho... Gotta see how it
runs with a diesel engine too, tho diesel fuel/performance/winter operation
is ****ing me off right now...

"Rob Guenther" > wrote in message
...
> Second question - it has an inline 5 engine (with competitive power
> output... yay!). I have read it's 1/2 a Gallardo V10 (one bank of the
> Vee? - this seems improbable)

That's what I've heard too.

>It's not a V5 for sure - nor is it related to the engine called V5 (or is
>it VR5?) in europe

I believe Europe had the "V5" in some A4 cars...badged as a V5 but was
really a VR5. VW overseas has been downplaying the 'R' in the "VR..."
engined models for several years now via leaving the 'R' off of the badging.

>I would believe a derivative of the VR6

Yes...the V(R)5 was a derivative of the VR6 (displacing 2.3L if I remember
correctly, and is basically one cylinder lopped off).

>I have also read that it (the new motor) is a derivative of the current
>2.0L engine (designed in the early 70's, originally) - this is according to
>Car and Driver...

C/D did say that but I'm not sure how true it is. Remember too that VW has
had a 2.5L 5-cylinder gasser in it's lineup since '92 in the T4
(Eurovan/Caravelle/Multivan) and that engine in turn was based on the Audi
5-bangers of the 1980s. Wouldn't surprise me if this was a different
version of that engine...maybe someone can clarify? Then again, maybe that
1980s Audi 5-banger was a 70s VW 4-banger with essentially one more cylinder
added on? Who knows... But if it is a derivative of the Audi engine, it'll
be tough. That engine was pretty indestructable in the T4 (except for
timing belt breakage of course).