 Re: Diesel VW Jetta....opinions?
We bought a '02 VW TDI for much the same reasons - quite driving the Suburban as a daily driver.
The Jetta was "OK"; I like doing the maintenance so that wasn't a problem. Just seemed that there were WAY too many items (mostly electrical) that went out on the vehicle. While under warranty, VW stood behind them. These included the stereo deck, the rear window defroster, one heated side mirror, the power windows (bad clip, both fronts re-done). Additionally, the tranny was replaced (it was an auto) at 59K under warranty. Lots of misc bulbs going out as well.
I am a member of TDICLub as well and had a local guru hook up the vehicle to the computer/software before I bought it at 40K - it all checked out fine.
With the arrival of our third child we did not have enough room in the backseat of the TDI and sold it outright at 87K (made out quite well) and bought a Toyota Camry Hybrid. So far, we love the hybrid and we get better mileage with the Toyota that we did with the Jetta automatic. The Toyota outperforms our auto Jetta as well (quite easily).
So - bottom line for us was the the Jetta was OK and did pretty good on fuel but was way too needy in terms of items needing repair.
BTW - WalMart is a great place to buy the Mobil 1 5W-40 Diesel rated synthetic - that is what I ran in ours for 10K intervals.
Good luck!
Scott | 
Linear Mode
