[Vwdiesel] The new TDI's

[Travis .]

Father bought and 06 TDI Jetta Sedan automatic in 07 and drove it till the 09 year came out. No issues with it and he traded I think at 80K miles before the timing belt. He wanted a bigger car and with the company policy he can't have a vehicle get too old (close to 5 years and they stop paying partly for it-replacement of the old company car program where they pay some of the expenses). The company policy is only on age-not miles. The 09 Jetta sportwagon TDI was the next car. Only issue he had with it was an exhaust flap valve had seized on him which was a $500 part. Later there was a warranty/recall type of thing that he was just out of the milage on that the dealer came back and actually paid some of the valve cost. He like the other two TDI's in our family have/has a 2 inch reciever hitch built into the car as we tow the crap out of our TDI's. I know the sportwagon has towwed more then 3000 LBS behind it as well as a full car. It has done two Ultra classic Harley's (one a trike version-this is the biggest HD they make). Also had a "W" JD engine (stationary JD "D" engine without the rest of the tractor. Those were trips that were across a couple states even. The car has been through snow storms were my father required a push to get him going in the UP of Michigan where the only other vehicles were 4X4 trucks. He has driven through the blizzards of South Dakota and started in the well below zero temps with the Midwest winters. He put 171K miles on that car and traded the Gas Passat in and kept the Sport wagon. The life time MPG average is just over 38 MPG will all the hauling he has done. The car has done nothing but work work work. That is now my mothers car untill the next car trade for the company. The Sportwagon has the automatic-which is nothing like the slush boxes of previous years. I remember going through the Bear Tooth Mountains of MT/WY. I put in sport mode to prevent added shifting/braking. I hardly ever hit the brakes and almost never down shifted. 

 

Now my fathers company car is a 2013 Passat. His average with that car MPG is around 44/45 at around 5K miles. Since it is summer he has been on the motorcycle a lot of miles. He loves the added room and comfort of the Passat and the higher MPG. The Jetta uses a different exhaust system so that you don't use any treatments but it uses raw fuel to burn things clean. If you don't get the engine warm enough ever they you have the chance of plugging a couple expensive parts up. The passat uses Uria so the tuning is different and thus gets better MPG. The only issues so far with the Passat is that they don't make it in a wagon and there is no tow hooks on the car. Only tow hook for getting out of the ditch is to add a hitch to it. The car is still fairly new so my father will put it through hell as well by the time the next car is needed. 

 

My father had considered the Chevy Cruze but he finally agrees that VW makes a hell of a product and even though he was a Chevy man his whole life he is converted as he knows the Chevy's he has driven would never have made the miles/conditions he put the VW's through. He started with VW's when they took the full blown company car program away. He puts on over 70K miles a year so that is why the TDI was pushed on him from my brother and I. Previously the company cars were traded in for resale value at around 60-70K miles so he never had a car with more then that for miles. The Cruze is a much smaller car then the Pass and MPG isn't any better. I do hope the Cruze diesel works out as we need more diesel options in this country.  

 

Everyone seems to be so hung up on they "NEED" an ALH TDI as all other VW diesel TDI's are junk. Considering the last ALH in the USA was 10 years ago and people bought them to put miles on you won't find many with less then 200K miles and the dents/scratches to show the wear. VW has made a nice diesel engine in all of the years. There have been some issues but that doesn't mean all cars will blow up at xxx miles. The new cars have more power, comforts and still get great MPG-as great or even better then previous cars. Only issue I have with them is the cost of any vehicle (I do mean any) is getting so high it is hard to get anything other then a 200K mile vehicle. Now if they would just put a diesel in the Mazda Mini van as it already has a stick shift-I would be in cloud 9 and would figure a way to buy that. 

 

Travis