What was vw smoking in the early 2000s?

One of the very few cars to offer a w8 engine in a sedan. Especially in a model targeted at lower budget consumers. Were they going for a German muscle car sort of vehicle? Nonetheless it was slow. Surely an 8 cylinder 4wd sedan should be quicker than almost 7 seconds 0-60? Even worse it’s a midsized budget sedan with 18 mpg and slow even for the era. Certainly a quirky car with its twin vr4 setup. But what really was the point of it when it’s as slow as a 2004 Toyota Camry v6 with fwd? It’s a shame all the cars these days have such boring powertrains. We used to get such interesting engines with awd drivetrains in budget cars.

I lied actually, this wasn’t budget at all. 40k in 2004, which is about 60k today. Nobody is spending 60k on a vw Passat today. Such a wacky and useless car. Suprised they sold 11k of them. You could buy an Audi s4 or a6 for the same price in 2004.