VW TDI Drivers Come and give me your overall experience

[isekii]

How is it?
Besides the godly gas mileage.

Do the TDI's suffer from electronic problems as the Non TDI versions?

 

[Glavinsolo]

Originally posted by: isekii
How is it?
Besides the godly diesel mileage.

Do the TDI's suffer from electronic problems as the Non TDI versions?

But then again Diesel $$$$
87 Octane $$$

 

[tbike06]

I would like to know this as well, hope there are some people on here.

 

[FoBoT]

when will the '08 models be available? september of 2007? or how does that work?

 

[isekii]

i'm looking at the 2003-2005 jetta or golf tdi

maybe a passat.

 

[DeviousTrap]

Originally posted by: isekii
i'm looking at the 2003-2005 jetta or golf tdi

maybe a passat.

I'd honestly avoid those cars. The MK IV cars a ton of electrical issues, although the engines are rock solid. The MK V and MK III cars are significantly more solid.

 

[Summitdrinker]

I saw a Jetta TDI broke down on the side of the road a few days ago, looked like a 1 or 2 year old model, they were loading it up on a truck

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

My mom's husband has one, i think an 03. Great gas mileage, around the 40 mark IIRC.

No problems at all...except...

Well one day he was out of town. Car wouldn't start. Just a bunch of crazy stuff on the readout. Had to be trailered and towed to a VW dealership a couple of hundred miles away.

Not an uncommon electrical gremlin.

If you can live with something like that happening, take a look. i don't go out of town much so wouldn't bother me as long as it is in warranty and have another car. out of warranty or travel a lot, no freakin' way.

 

[drnickriviera]

Originally posted by: Glavinsolo

Originally posted by: isekii
How is it?
Besides the godly diesel mileage.

Do the TDI's suffer from electronic problems as the Non TDI versions?

Biodiesel $
But then again Diesel $$$$
87 Octane $$$

 

[Specop 007]

05 MK V TDI.

LOVE it. No major problems. Only minor problem was my window control went from 2 stage to single stage. Replaced under warrenty. Everything else has been rock solid. 65k on it so far.
Timing belts are pricey, and oil aint all that cheap but oil is a wash with gassers so....

$60 for oil change every 10k.
$600-1000 for timing belt, every 40k, 65k or 100k depending on your model. Older models may possibly be upgraded to the newer belt designs.

We get around 38-40 MPG. Best has been 42, worst was 34 when I did KC to Denver in under 7 hours (Its a bit over 700 miles).

I do the fuel filter and air filter myself. Its comfortable, its safe, rides well and is fairly snappy. Overall, I'm very happy with it.

Now, my one personal complaint. The heater. Christ it takes forever to heat up in cold weather. If the tempaature is around 0 degrees I can turn the heater on high and my coolant temp will actually drop. I can watch the needle start moving down when stopped. Its a little deisel, very efficient but the downside is it takes forever to heat up. If you get one and live in a cold climate I would *highly* recommend you shop for one with heated seats or have an electric heater installed from the dealership.

 

[BigPoppa]

It smells like crayons inside my roomates TDI. And thats not a complaint, I feel like i'm in kindergarten everytime I smell it.

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by: DeviousTrap

Originally posted by: isekii
i'm looking at the 2003-2005 jetta or golf tdi

maybe a passat.

I'd honestly avoid those cars. The MK IV cars a ton of electrical issues, although the engines are rock solid. The MK V and MK III cars are significantly more solid.

What cars and model years are those ?

 

[MrBond]

I know a guy with a TDI Jetta. He's had a few electrical problems, but nothing major. I think it's an '02, but I'm not sure. Manual transmission, 50mpg is pretty common. He can do about 700 miles on a single fillup. I think the electrical problems are a VW problem across the board, not specific to certain models. I heard at one time that certain special edition models (ie: Wolfsburg edition, etc) had fewer problems, but I have no idea if that's true or not.

The number one complaint I have about the Jetta is the non-exsistant back seat. There's hardly any legroom.

It might seem like diesel fuel is a lot more expensive, but that's not always the case. Around here, the price of gasoline dropped way down ($2.15), but diesel hasn't really dropped (~$2.80). According to Edmunds, manual transmission gasser gets 31mpg at best. The TDI is 49. Both have a 14.5 gallon tank.

Assuming a full fillup, the gasser gets you 449.5 miles for $31.18, or 6.9 cents per mle. The TDI goes $710.5 miles for $41.33, or 5.8 cents per mile.

If I were looking at two VW Jettas, both the same price, but one was a TDI and the other was a gasser, I'd go TDI every time. Of course, good luck getting a TDI for the price of a gasser, the word is out on the mileage and their resale value has gone up accordingly.

Edit: OP, TDI club may be a good place to check out.

http://www.tdiclub.com/