Good car for going to school...

[boygenius]

I'm headed off to look at VW's tomorrow. I found a few low mile GTI's in my price range. Best part is that one dealer is also a porsche dealer so I can get my chassis hardware that I need. It is a win win situation for me.

[boygenius]

OK I was thinking about the milage I wiil be driving and the price of gas and the TDI is starting to look very good. Now I am thinking of either a Golf TDI or a Jetta TDI. What are some things I should know about a diesel car before I buy one. My freind keeps warning me about "BAD" diesel and there is only 2 places in my town to get "GOOD" diesel. Is there such a thing as bad diesel or is it just the fact that he had a 1982 mercedes with 200K on the odometer. What type of maintainence is involved with this type of car. I heard things like I have to run injector cleaner through it every couple of thousand miles. What is the real story with VW TDI maintainence. And what are some real MPG numbers I can expect to see. 60% highway and 40% city driving is what I will be driving most of the time.

[oasis]

Originally Posted by boygenius

Is there such a thing as bad diesel or is it just the fact that he had a 1982 mercedes with 200K on the odometer. What type of maintainence is involved with this type of car. I heard things like I have to run injector cleaner through it every couple of thousand miles. What is the real story with VW TDI maintainence. And what are some real MPG numbers I can expect to see. 60% highway and 40% city driving is what I will be driving most of the time.

Maybe there is such a thing as "bad" diesel, but I've never encountered it. I owned an '81 Pickup LX for five years (wish I still had it ) and I've owned the aforementioned Golf for two years.

TDI info: My wife drives very little highway and she gets 38-43 MPG routinely. Our best is 50.1. Doing 60/40 in Florida with the a/c on half the time should net you 43-47 MPG in my opinion based on our figures. Running the a/c makes a difference, but so does highway driving with the windows down.

Maintenance: Nothing special as far as time intervals are concerned. Obviously, there are differences. The biggest difference is you must use synthetic oil with a TDI. Forget the injector cleaner stories. Routine maintenance every 5000 miles with the Pickup netted me trouble-free driving from a 78k odometer reading to 152k.

Frankly, I wish my Cabbie had a TDI, but we didn't get such things in the states. Regardless if you look at a Golf or Jetta, just make sure it was owned properly previously.

[boygenius]

OK what is the power like with TDI. Is it enough to pass a truck on the highway without taking too long. Which engine has more pep, the TDI or the 2.0???

[NO_H2O]

My wife loves her TDI, it has plenty of power and if you chip it it will realy go. Many people have to do a clutch upgrade after chipping. The last road trip she went on was to Moragntown WV. and it got 48mpg. Remember her car has an auto-trans. A 5 speed will be 2-3 mpg more than an auto.
BAD FUEL = OLD FUEL. Get your fuel from a station that goes through lots of fuel.

Here is a great site for TDI info.
http://www.tdiclub.com/

[boygenius]

Thanks for the link NO_H2O... There is so much information there it will keep me reading for hours...

[NO_H2O]

Hours? I spent a week on it when I first found it.