The Morning Call and Mcall.com's view

Volkswagen at one time manufactured one car, the well-known VW Beetle, a car that was right for its time. During the 1960s the Beetle accounted for 60 percent of all imported car sales in this country. Times, to be sure, have changed. The beloved Beetle has long since dropped from the lineup and today most Volkswagens sold in this country are built in United States.

The German auto manufacturer, however, still builds a lot of vehicles in the old country and a much wider variety of vehicles than in the Beetle days. VW even offers a luxury vehicle, something that may seem a little strange to the VW heritage but since every other manufacturer is offering a luxury car these days, so what? The only problem is it seems like Volkswagen failed to tell anyone it is offering a fairly high-ticket vehicle.

In a previous Road Test column I made mention that the Volkswagen Jetta was a well-kept VW secret. Well, today’s test vehicle – the Quantum but a Volkswagen by innocent bystanders who were forced into a car identity quiz. What I didn’t find surprising, however, was that the car it was most mistaken for was an Audi. Since VW and Audi are all part of one big happy family, there’s bound to be some Audi in Volkswagen and some Volkswagen in Audi.

The test vehicle (supplied by Lehigh Valley Volkswagen, 1346 Lehigh St., Allentown) was a Wolfsburg Limited Edition Wagon (A rather long title, even for a German car) means is it is a mid-year entry – it is listed as an 1984 1/ 2 model – with a promotion price and a long list of standard equipment.

The Quantum is a high-ticket item so try not to get sticker-shocked when you see the price. The base is $14,280 with a dealer preparation charge of $220 and a transportation charge of $300 added which brings the total price to $14,800. Most people would concede that is a lot of money for a Volkswagen. But the question is, is the Quantum really a Volkswagen?

While you are pondering that, we’ll list the standard equipment, which includes air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, power windows, tachometer, digital clock, cruise control, AM-FM stereo cassette radio, central locking, heated electrically operated outside mirrors and all the special items that makes up the Wolfsburg package such as deeply contoured sport seats, smaller-diameter, leather-wrapped steering wheel, shift knob and boot, black trim around the windows, a black roof rack, black door handles and 6X14-inch light alloy wheels with low-profile performance tires. All-in-all, a very complete vehicle with a high standard of trim. But that is what you are paying for.

You will notice from the following figures that the Quantum Wagon is a decently sized vehicle. With a wheelbase of 100.4 inches, overall length of 183.1 inches, width of 66.9 inches, height of 55.1 inches and curb weight of 2,665 pounds it is comparable to a mid-sized American wagon.

The two f ront seats are quite large and should accommodate drivers and passengers of all shapes and heights. The back seat can hold two adults in comfort or three in a squeeze. With the back seat in place, there is room for 38.4 cubic feet of cargo. With the seat folded, cargo capacity increases to 64.7 cubic feet. The back seat has a 60/40 split, a convenient feature. What can’t be fitted inside, can probably be strapped to the roof rack.

The Quantum Wagon has a firm feel about it. The seats are firm, the ride is firm, the steering is firm. This is a German automobile characteristic and is by no means an undesirable one.

The test car proved to be an easy car to drive without any particular bad habits. The Quantum has four wheel independent suspension which isn’t an unusual feature these days but is still somewhat uncommon in a station wagon. Up front there’s MacPherson struts, a stabilizer bar and negative steering roll radius. In the rear is a torsion-beam trail ng arm rear axle with coil spring struts and pivot mounts with asymmetric bushings. This last piece of equipment, according to VW, is to eliminate rear wheel ”steering” under high lateral loads or, as we in the States say, hard cornering. Also, the wagon’s suspension features a Panhard rod for lateral support when loaded, or when towing. Rounding out everything are the healthy-sized 195/60 HR14 steel-belted radial tires.

One of the most interesting features of the Quantum is its engine. It measures 131-cubic-inches (2.2 liter) and is rated at 100 horsepower at 5,500 rpm and 11 foot pounds of torque at 3,000 rpm. That, of course, is not unusual but having five cylinders is. Since Audi also has a similar five-cylinder engine, it doesn’t take much to figure where it came from. Not too many years ago it was thought an uneven number of cylinders in an inline engine wouldn’t work. Apparently it does. I doubt you will see many other manufacturers copying the design but it works well for the Quantum and it runs smoothly. Also it has an unusual and pleasing sound about it – it sort of growls when its pushed.

Appropriately enough, the test car had a five-speed manual transmission to go with its five-cylinder engine. Like other VW manual transmissions, this one works smoothly. This combination provided more than adequate performance for all Lehigh Valley driving conditions. Also, fuel mileage was quite decent for a vehicle this size. The test car averaged 15 miles per gallon for city driving and 24 mpg over local highways.