[Vwdiesel] The new TDI's

[James Hansen]

Huh.  New Jettas.
If you are wanting a cheap car, for a 2 passenger vehicle, it may be very
economical. If you are comparing it to the previous model year, you will be
shocked.  I have 2 children, tall girls 15 and 12, we drive long distances,
and the comfort of the rear seat passengers is on my mind.  So I tried them
out. The back seats are shit.  The A5 was comfortable.  The 6?  feh.  It's
so cheapened up, it's like starting over.  It's like you outsourced a luxury
car back in the 80's to China, looks right, but it just isn't there.  The
one I drove rode rough, steering was not right.  Fit and finish was....
cheap looking. Tranny was good, powertrain very good as a whole, but they
ruined the ride and handling of the A5, which was built on a lot more
chassis.  FOr your parents I would look at a passat.

I ordered a 2012 Passat loaded when they were announced...(trim levels are
called different things on this side of the border, but I ordered loaded
everything except sat nav) with the manual trans option (6 speed) with
mileage in mind.  Nice red on VW's site. Nearly India Red.  Cool thoughts I.
Wife drives it mostly, she's stoked about the color. Shows up burgundy.
Sienna Red....    Okay, it grows on you. Oops sorry, there was an error on
teh website...
I suspect it was the car itself, a monday car or something.  Turbo went
south (I was told a bearing frag'ed on the exhaust side) with about 6k miles
on it, had to limp mode it home 300 miles and was never the same after that.
Dealership that Vw Roadside would take it to, wouldn't even change the
engine oil after that either.  Mileage was terrible right out of the box, it
only started to improve on the last trip with it, Yorkton to Phoenix this
spring break with about 24k miles on the clock. A service bulletin came out
about the anti shudder flapper the week we traded it off, I suspect that
that was the problem, but there were no DTC codes either ( I have VCDS) In a
nutshell, acceleration was terrible in 6th, you could run up on a car, pull
out, floor it, and wait while nothing really happened until you downshifted
to 5.  Just no torque.  City driving was the same.  You were shifting
constantly.  I suspect that they used the exact ratios of the auto in the
manual, which doesn't work out too great when they expect you to shift as
much as an autbox would.  
Dealer we bought the car at was pretty cool , make that VERY cool about it,
offered a very good deal to trade it on a new one, so now we have a 2013
with the auto, same car with nav this time.  It's great, drives easy, goes
like hell, mileage is better than the manual ever was right out of the
box.... except for one thing.   The thing sucks dirt.  We drive 4 miles of
gravel road per day.  There is road dust, I suspect front fender dirt is
making it's way to the HVAC system, where it collects.  Get in, turn on max
ac cause it's hot, and to an outside observer, the occupants disappear, sort
of a freaky magic trick where you cough a lot.  Oh, and it has a cabin
filter, which is ineffectual obviously... and the HVAC fan has started to
vibrate like a magic fingers bed on meth. The dealer will attempt repair in
august sometime when I can get it there.
One note, if you drive in a snow storm, the snow ingested by the hvac pools
at the low spot, which is the fan/cabin filter area just above the
passenger's feet, where it freezes the fan into a block of ice. Next
morning, you go to drive away with no heater fan.  Real fun.
Otherwise, it works great.  lol....  Gee, I re-read that it sounds pretty
bad.  So, gotta have some plusses.

Plus side, handles well, nearly as well as the 2005 Passat, which is
spectacular. Far bigger car inside.  Far far.  My kids are stretching out
and they tour in the back seat with great comfort, cause hey, we are on the
prairies, everything is at least an hour's drive, the good stuff, 3 hours,
skiing (the best stuff) 8 hours, so yeah, we put on miles and miles.  The
cabin is wider.  No knocking elbows with your passenger. The seat is better
than the B5 which I found a tad narrow, and too hard a bolsters for a car
that you sit in for five hours at a stretch.  I detest this "sport" seat
bullshit.  In some obscure corner of the world, "sport" means "hard, narrow,
and uncomfortable", and THAT'S where they build "sport" seats.  When you pay
40 bills for a car, you should be able to choose seats like colors, and
choose a range from the big comfy that you can actually sit in for a day, to
something hard and narrow that makes you drive like an ass, zigging and
zagging in traffic pretending you are a race car driver with side bolsters
to hold your numb ass in the "sport" seat, while you are desperately trying
to arrive at your destination so you can get out of it. My opinion anyway.
Trunk is huge as usual, could haul around a smart car instead of a spare
wheel, the engine compartment looks like the shuttle crashed , they covered
it with a hood, and called it an engine.  There is a staggering amount of
underbody air management plastic adornments, probably why a car this size
gets better than 50, but I can see that as becoming a thing too as it gets
older. Wheels are enormous and gaudy like all wheels they use now.  Stereo
(premium) is okay, handles pop okay, a little deficient when you start to
rock out on Baroque.  Nav is a little weird, but does okay.  Garmin is still
better.
Overall, I think the dust issue is easily fixable, I'll give the vw guys
first crack at it under warranty, but I can see having to finish it off
myself too. I'd give the car 4 out of 5 stars. 
When I heard that GM was bringing a diesel out I find myself wondering if
they are going to give us another notorious car that they seem to do more
often than not where diesels are concerned. I wouldn't hold my breath for it
to be good.  They have made their pickup trucks better to the point they are
nearly useless for work, which I guess was the goal all along.  I have high
hopes for Mazda, but meh, unless Toyota steps to the plate with a diesel, I
don't think it's going to be too spectacular.
Hope this helps Shalyn.
-james


-----Original Message-----
From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com] On
Behalf Of Shalyn Shourds
Sent: July-07-13 9:55 PM
To: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
Subject: [Vwdiesel] The new TDI's

Sadly, not for me.  My dad is finally reaching an age where he'd rather work
on the things he wants to work on (the sailboat, his play tractor--JD 70,
and, for some reason, his knitting) than the things he frequently has to
(mainly a fleet of '80s Volvo 240's that he and his wife drive).  They're
thinking of selling their accumulated Volvo collection and probably the shed
full of MG's and just buying a new JettaTDI wagon.  He asked me my thoughts
and I just don't know.  I spend all my VW time either driving or fixing my
now 13 year old TDI.  Something about fruit not falling far from a tree....


What's the word on the new models?  I keep hearing that the ALH like I have
was kind of a high-water mark for the TDI engine line and that the Mk 6 body
was designed for a world looking for a much cheaper VW.  If his wife will be
driving it, they'll be getting an automatic.  How are those these days?


On the whole, I suspect they'll not be racking up hundreds of thousands of
miles and are looking for a nice, solid car that will get good mileage and
have a warranty.  On the other hand, considering a VW dealer will be
fulfilling the warranty..........

-Shalyn    
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