Agreed, in the end the Euro Passat got us (Audi was a bit steep for me on 2n hand - damn my Scots Irish, dutch German heritage sometimes)
The Haldex diff thing I am not sure how it affects real world driving. Test drove the latest Audi's/VW/Skoda 2012 models and only went for the 4motion/Quotro/etc **** front wheel drive I thought.
In the end the same VW offer to the Audi was 8K cheaper... plus it is a top of line model (no sunroof, I kinda always thought I would miss it if I didn't have it again, but I didn't actually remember what I sued the sunroof for and I only just recall that it doesn't have one and the others did as I type this... ramble ramble, blubbler blubbler, blah blah blah)
So 3.2L V6 4 Motion Passat with all mod cons - except that sunroof that no-one ever uses but MUST have - whats up with that??? anyway thats what we drive and it is rather nice. Official feul had it pegged at same as our old legacy, but **** me the thing was pulling 7.7L/100Km/h on the motorway at uh hum hum hum 100Km/h mr Constinoon...
So pretty chuffed so far really
Oh yea took an RS4 and S4 for spin, RS4 is a real hoot but couldn't handle that **** daily, S4 far more nicer