Was poking around the engine bay of the Taos this afternoon and noticed that the water pump/t-stat housing is metal now on the 1.5TSI- all previous variants of the EA211 were plastic. Interesting, they also switched to a metal Timing belt cover. Guess they finally got fed up with plastic water pump failures? It was also interesting the variety of countries the parts are from, plenty of stuff made in Germany (lots of sensors, connectors, hoses), USA (AC Compressor, ABS actuator, ignition coils)), Poland (Brake reservoir, although the booster itself was Mexican made) and throttle body. Turbo, cooling fans, and a ton of other stuff was Mexican made, the timing belt cover was Italian made, Slovakia... The torsion beam in the rear was made in Germany. It's interesting to see just how many countries VW sources parts from compared to say, Ford (almost everything I see on Fords are Mexican made)
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