Volkswagen Repair: noise, winter area, air cooled engines

Question
I just purchased a 2002Gls 1.8 Passat.  The car is very clean but loud (in my opinion). Upon acceleration it seems a lot louder than other cars i have owned.  The service manager checked the exhaust system,  that is what i thought it was but found nothing wrong.  He had a mechanic drive another one to compare the sound and also said it was not unusual.  He did say that the turbo was louder than some other cars but not excessive.  I should mention that this is a used car with 17,000 miles.I know this is a subjective thing but what do you think?

Also, a friend of mine said that wiper bades, on average. should be changed once a year.  I live in a bad winter area.  Is he right?

Thanks

Answer
The thing is, why did the mechanic take a car out?  Why don't you find a car like yours and drive to compare. -Back in the days (sounds like a long time ago, but it ain't) the air cooled engines{Beetles and such} made a racket inside but when driving another the sound was relatively the same.  It varied accordingly with the muffler age and the -stuff in the interior of the car(eg, carpets or other stuff) which kills alot of the noise, or undercoating or tires(bias ply were much noiser than the radials).  With the exhaust, maybe the rubber hangers that hold the pipe up are harder or  any place the pipe touches the body would increase the noise.  YOU GOTTA  do the comparison but be fair about it and don't go for a newer car to compare with, and probably you gotta try more than 1.  If you can hear the "whistling" noise of the turbo when it kicks in, then the exhaust pipe is not on correctly to the manifold.  Its a general thing too, depending on which line on which day your car was on when being built.