Diesel Cars

[snpower]

I bought a 1998 Jetta TDI in November for 3K. The car had always been local, and all records were available. I am driving 88 miles to work 2x per week and getting 37-45 mpg. Car has 126k and the engine runs like a top. The body has some rust which I need to fix.

 

[rjok]

I have a 2003 VW golf that was bought new in August 2003. Now have 402,000 miles.Averages 50 mpg on a daily rond trip of 216 miles. Had a 1984 rabbit that had 404,000 miles. No comparison. We also have a 2005 jetta that has about 100,000.

 

[GlennaR]

You wrote:
I have a 2003 VW golf that was bought new in August 2003. Now have 402,000 miles.Averages 50 mpg on a daily rond trip of 216 miles. Had a 1984 rabbit that had 404,000 miles. No comparison. We also have a 2005 jetta that has about 100,000.

Think my major problem may have been that 90% of the time my Jet was only on short local trips. Suspect my 3 de carbonizing problems were just due to the motor not reaching n maintaing full operating temp. for min for an half hour or so on a daily basis.

Like I said, except for the price to buy and minatain, I truly liked my Jet and was well pleased with it........

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

Here's a link to a 2012 VW Golf TDI review.

Fan of fuel efficiency finds a car that's just right

 

[rsewill]

Better late than never to this thread.

I love my '04 Passat wagon ($14,995 used w/37k miles via eBay in August 2010) and '03 Jetta ($19,100 new via eBay) Diesels, both automatics. I'm 61 and these will probably be the last cars I ever buy. I drove the Jetta 110 miles round trip to work. Filled it up once a week. We are an all Diesel family except for our zero turn mower (Z425) and a Toro walk behind.

Here is a pic of my Passat pulling a trailer with my Deere 4100 CUT. Just a bit over what the Passat is rated to haul but I very, very carefully pulled it some 400 miles from where I bought the Deere. I scaled it just to see what it all weighed (in pounds):

Steer 2160
Drive 2160
Trailer 3360
Gross 7680

The Passat curb weight is about 3500 pounds.

I got about 16 mpg pulling just the trailer into a 25 mph wind on the way out and 20 mpg pulling the loaded trailer back with the same wind - both ways in fourth gear (out of five.) And I bungied up the safety chains at this stop. The tractor was well chained to the trailer.

The Passat gets around 35 mpg mixed and the Jetta 44 mpg mixed.

 

[GlennaR]

You Said:
I love my '04 Passat wagon We are an all Diesel family.

Just love that Passat Wagon too...... Congrats on your fleet.

To all prospective diesel owners that read this, one word of caution I learned the expensive way. All engines like to be drought up to design operating temperature and kept there for 15+ min or so before shutdown. HOWEVER with modern emission controls, in a diesel I believe this is somewhat mandatory in order to get the long life and low maintenance costs on your exhaust and intake systems.

We too had a all diesel fleet at one time (2ooo Jet n 2oo4 Golf). Both both cars only went a few miles per trip since work was only 4 miles from home. My Jet averaged 18,ooo a year but this is only because I work 7 days a week from April to end of November. Being the owner/manager I was always off on mostly local errands many times a day it seems.

My Jet was a maintenance hog in the end. So to all that read this don't make this same mistake I made with my Jet. If you are considering getting a diesel car (my Kub does not have the emissions system on the exhaust a car has) strongly suggest you get a second opinion on my findings described above, after all I could be wrong (we now have all gas cars). However I found out unless most of your treks are long enough to bring up to 180 degrees and kept there for 15 min or so, don't get a diesel.......

Love your foto, pulling your Deere. I too use a trailer regularly. My best haul was a 1,5oo lb pizza oven on a 5oolb utility trailer over 125 miles south on the NY thruway than south on 84. In 5th gear all the way but going up long grade up over the hill just before entering into PA on rt 84. I now use my Suzuki to pull my 1,ooo lb. Gravely tractor to work, this car is pitiful pulling a trailer compared to the Jet. I miss my Jet big time, bet it would be worse if I owen a Passat

 

[MontereyDave]

Better late than never to this thread.

I love my '04 Passat wagon ($14,995 used w/37k miles via eBay in August 2010) and '03 Jetta ($19,100 new via eBay) Diesels, both automatics. I'm 61 and these will probably be the last cars I ever buy. I drove the Jetta 110 miles round trip to work. Filled it up once a week. We are an all Diesel family except for our zero turn mower (Z425) and a Toro walk behind.

Here is a pic of my Passat pulling a trailer with my Deere 4100 CUT. Just a bit over what the Passat is rated to haul but I very, very carefully pulled it some 400 miles from where I bought the Deere. I scaled it just to see what it all weighed (in pounds):

Steer 2160
Drive 2160
Trailer 3360
Gross 7680

The Passat curb weight is about 3500 pounds.

I got about 16 mpg pulling just the trailer into a 25 mph wind on the way out and 20 mpg pulling the loaded trailer back with the same wind - both ways in fourth gear (out of five.) And I bungied up the safety chains at this stop. The tractor was well chained to the trailer.

The Passat gets around 35 mpg mixed and the Jetta 44 mpg mixed.

I love the pic of your Passat pulling a tractor! Please give me as much information as you can about the make/model/installation of that hitch. Is it a Class I, II or III? Curt? Reese? Hidden Hitch? Fabricated installation of some other hitch?

I hope to find the Passat B5.5 trailer hitch with the greatest towing limits? I'd like to pull a 14~17 ft camper trailer i.e. something similar to those posted below with a dry weight of 2,000~3,000 lbs with my 2003 Passat B5.5 W8 4Motion sedan 6MT.

From my searches I found:

A) Curt Class I, Hidden Hitch and Draw-Tite Class I hitches have a gross towing weight (GTW) of 2,000 lbs with a tongue weight (TW) of 200 lbs.

Trailer Hitch by Curt for 2003 Passat - 11164

B) I also found the European Westfalia has a GTW of 4,800 lbs but the TW is only 180.

C) Would it me possible to reinforce and strengthen a Class I to handle greather GTW and/or TW?

D) Is it possible to fabricate the installation of a Class II or III hitch intended for some other vehicle i.e. Hidden Hitch Class III designed for a VW Golf-based 3,400 lb 2.0L VW Tiguan onto a B5.5 4,000 lb 4.0L Passat?

Trailer Hitch by Hidden Hitch for 2009 Tiguan - 87600

I really appreciate the expertise of those of you who've already solved trailer hitch problems as you obviously have with your Passat wagon.

 

[Diamondpilot]

To me you are asking for lots of troubles. The forces on a travel trailer are totally different from any other and they are the quickest way to kill a tranny.

There is a reason the hitch limits for your vehicles are so low. Get a small SUV to do your pulling duty's.

Chris

 

[schoolsout]

What's in the transmission service?

Not sure I ever answered this, but the special fluid they use and a filter, I believe. I think parts alone, from the internet, is about $150.

 

[Branchchipper]

We have had a 2003 Jetta TDI, manual trans., since new.
It gets a steady 50mpg.

But, as stated above by others, run time is important- ours never gets used for short trips. The shortest round-trip from here is 14 miles (7 each way to the nearest town).
My wife's commute, the car's main purpose, is a 60 mile round trip.
The TDI is perfect for such commutes, and easily beats out hybrids.

We have a mid-1990s Ford Powerstroke diesel as well, and the same rule applies-
it is not the rig we'd choose to run a 2-mile errand- we've got a smelly gas rig for that!