My 2001 Passat wagon is drive-by-wire, and the system has been nearly flawless for 7 years and 40k miles / 65k km of mostly severe service congested suburban driving. When the idle got a bit rough earlier this year, I pulled, cleaned, and reinstalled the throttle body and the mass air flow sensor. This is the only maintenance or repair work I have needed to do on the throttle system . The car is no ball of fire, but its performance is more than adequate. (My wife and I have almost always driven underpowered cars.) My wife sometimes complains a little about turbo lag with the 150hp 1.8T / tipronic combination when accelerating from a dead stop, but I can minimize this by finessing the gas pedal. In the critical 30-to-60 mph / 50-to-100 kph range, there is plenty of power for merging safely onto a freeway.
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"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
Carlton: 1962 Franco Suisse, S/N K7911
Peugeot: 1970 UO-8, S/N 0010468
Bianchi: 1982 Campione d'Italia, S/N 1.M9914
Schwinn: 1988 Project KOM-10, S/N F804069