I have to apologize for the two pictures today, as they’re essentially the same. Thing is, there are two awesome bits illustrated on the stick shift and there really isn’t any other way I can think of showing them.

The first awesome bit would be the fact that the R32 is all-wheel drive (VW’s moniker for this feature is “4Motion”). One of the main reasons I wanted this car is because not only does the all-wheel drive translate into unprecedented handling, but it also means not having to deal with tire chains when heading up to Tahoe. I only had to put them on the Passat twice, but that was more than enough to convince me that AWD is the way to go (if you like to head up to Tahoe in the winter, that is).

The added bonus for us in San Francisco is that the 2004 R32 is the shortest car lengthwise that has this drivetrain.