The poor Passat had to take the logs away. It was on it's knees after I had loaded it up with the full tree and the headlights were so high. Not sure how heavy it all was, but each log was heavier than I meant. I had the boot stuffed and the seats down. Then looking at the car I thought, Oh dear its only a 1.6TDI
Was it overloaded, probably, as it did have the slammed look at the rear. I did even think about removing some logs, but thats all I did! If the police had stopped me I might have been in trouble, but hey you never see them unless they are on a bridge with a camera, so not much chance of getting stopped!
However driving home, 2 up and headlights turned down, the car pulled great and whipped along at 70mph without any fuss. It never hit its bump stops or felt overloaded. better stil it didn't change it fuel use and returned 54mpg on way home, which is the norm for this trip. All in more than I thought a Passat 1.6L was able to do, without fuss. The engine surprises me all the time, its a little gem for a 1.6l.
Shame my back never did as well. pulled something when unloading the car, so pain for last 2 days!!