Just reading through the specs of the new turbodiesel Forester released in Australia today. Interesting.
Flat 4 turbo diesel. 108kw at 3600rpm, 350nM from 1800-2400 rpm in a 1560kg car.
The flat 4 diesel has very tight packaging of the turbo which is now at the bottom and front of the motor, will be interesting how well that fits and
packages into vw cars.....
Also I see the TY 5 speed has been modified into the TY 6 speed and strengthened to handle the torque of the turbodiesel. The casing has extra ribs on
it for strength and first and second gear have carbon double synchros for smooth shifting.
Best of all my reversed gearset fits these boxes so now we can fit a shortened, strengthened 6 speed and turbodiesel motor into beetles, Kombis and
Vanagons.
Interesting gear ratios in the Forester :
1st 3.454, 2nd 1.75 3rd 1.062 4th 0.785 5th 0.634 6th 0.557 Final drive 4.44
Wow
drove one , boring
+ 35 kgs for this gear box
wheel stand any one 
I agree, I think 108kW, particularly at only 3600rpm, would be pretty boring. It you want something that pulls like a tractor, buy a John Deere
Review here (including some commentary on the gear ratios):
http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/first-drive-subaru-forester-diesel-2010060...
Generally it seems that everybody thinks that as a first try on the boxer diesel it is 'close but not quite there'.
Hi
I had an extended test drive of a Passat CC with a 2 litre TDI, it also had 350 nm of torque, in large car a like the Passat it was pretty punchy.
That amount of torque in a VW would need a very strong tranny.
The way the ECU is integrated into the car and with fly by wire it would be hard retrofit into another car.
Steve
sorry, but that's 8kw and 30nm up on the pug I drive and I love that car. That motor in a light kombi would be epic.
.... I would prefer the H6 with twin turboes though. 
So, they are a boxer engine...
I've been waiting to see whether it would be a boxer engine...
LEE
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as an ex turbodiesel owner I will say this: they are built for economy not horsepower...and do NOT underestimate 350nm of torque! 
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| Originally
posted by Baja Wes I agree, I think 108kW, particularly at only 3600rpm, would be pretty boring. It you want something that pulls like a tractor, buy a John Deere |
I don't really see the need for a diesel Forester, and I see even less need for a diesel engine to be a flat-four. Surely they could've fitted a V6 in the Forester?
I know what 350Nm of TDI torque is like, my friend has a GT TDi Golf with that much torque. He even took it to the drag strip the night I took my bike
out there. Sure the torque is nice for everyday driving, and the economy is great, but it's no fun for spirited driving. When you really want to play
you get this nice surge of torque, then you have to change gears cos it's run out of revs. So that means you always have to be in a higher gear,
which essentially counters the high torque output of the engine (because torque at the engine is divided by the gear ratio your in to get torque at
the wheels).
You can make an engine that makes 1,000,000Nm of torque, but if it only makes 100HP then it will be a piece of s**t because it would have an extremely
low rev range.
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Pete, TDi is for hippy's that think they can save the environment, tight arses that want to save on fuel, and currently for racing Le-mans purely due
to the current technical regulations.
Anything that has the engine selected for fun, has a petrol motor. Look at motorcycles. Look at supercars. Look at sports cars. I've driven TDi's, I
know they aren't fun.
Strangely relevant to the conversation, I just went for a spin in a friends Audi A8 with a 4.2L V8 TDi on Saturday night. Sure the 650Nm of torque was
very impressive, and accelerated the car effortlessly, It was fast too, it did 0-100kph in about 6 seconds. But ultimately the engine was too lazy to
be fun. It didn't surge in HP towards the redline like a "fun" high performance petrol engine. Despite the crazy 650Nm of torque, it was only good
for about 240kW of power. That means it doesn't rev.
Maybe in a kombi a TDi would be ok, because it is a brick that will be driven slowly. You wouldn't mind an engine suited to cruising.