If i can recall i think a couple of you guys own VW tdis or if anyone has some knowledge on them. To make a long story short. i currently live in the Cleveland area of Ohio, i go to school at WVU in Morgantown West Virginia, but my dad got promoted and we have to move to Arkansas little rock area. So i need to buy a fuel efficient and reliable car to make the 12 drive back and forth from Arkansas to WV

Love the truck but i dont want to take in the big city there and have it be a pain to park and it always breaking down either. Not to mention the amount of money it would be to drive back and forth. so i was thinking a VW tdi would be a great idea.

If anyone has an knowledge in what to look for in a used like jetta passat or even golfs with the tdi motors.

 

I have a 04 Jetta TDI and I love it! Fairly snappy 38+ MPG and easy to park drive and change lanes. I've had it for....2+ years? It has paid for itself in the fuel savings alone. Just make sure you keep the timing belt changed as perscribed. Good luck searching!

 

I have a 2013 Passat TDI and have had a good experience with it. I will have had it for two years in July. I drive from St. Louis to Garfield Heights, OH this week and with a SW wind, or no wind, I expect to get near 48 miles per gallon. I average 38 MPG mixed. There are some things that you need to research on the different models over the years. Like said, timing belts are important, if it is a DSG auto/manual trans the fluid changes are very important etc. I did a lot of research on TDI.com. Good luck.

 

You might also want to consider a Jeep Liberty CRD. I think they made them from 2005-2006??? Anyway they get like 30 mpg and are fun to drive. Lots of room to pack stuff back and forth to college too.

 

I had an 01 tdi.worst pos i EVER owned.never again! Not for my worst enemy.great mileage if you could keep it going.

 

With the transmissions a couple I've seen on craigslist will say that the transmission shifts and drive but will have a problem engaging.

Other thing is alot of that I see have new water pump or timing belts. Are those problematic for them?

Other thing is how many miles do these engines typically go? Majority of the ones in my area and price range are around or above 200k

 

They will go well above 200K miles if maintained per recommendations. I believe they have "interference" motors so if the belt breaks, pistons and valves will become one with each other. I am no mechanic on the TDI but I know belts need to be changed per maintenance schedule and on the DSG trans fluid changes are mandatory. That's all I know about them other than buying any used car can be a crap shoot.

I read for a year on tdiclub.com and vortex.com before I decide to buy new. I learned a lot and they discuss all the model years.

BUT, those forums are not FTE I can tell you that. FTE will spoil you!

 

Unfortunate. The "grandfather" of that engine was the old 1.7L "slant" transverse I4 gasser they put in the first Rabbits in the '70s. They even came in the first Dodge Omnis. Tough, simple engines. Belt-timed but non-interference. Belt breaks, two hours in the driveway and a $15 (back then) belt, and Bob's your uncle. IMHO, all interference engines should be chain- or gear-timed.

I'm surprised at the MPG numbers here. My FIL got 50 MPG mixed driving in his old NA diesel Rabbit back in the '80s. I would expect close to 50 mixed, and 55+ highway, out of a TDI.

There are a couple forum threads / cardomain pages, dude dropped a TDI into a gen-1 Saturn sedan. Monster. 60 MPG all day, and more butt dyno than you could shake stick at.

If you're looking at 30-ish MPG as in that Jeep, all the old little diesel pickups could do that. Ranger, Isuzu, etc, there was even an S-10 with an Isuzu diesel for a brief while. 'Course, having a truck (even a small one) in college can be a curse; everybody and his roommate will want you to help them move....

 

This is a good source of info. Fred's TDI Page. TDIClub.com. VW TDI Enthusiast Community

I have a 81 Jetta with 250K, still gets 40mpg. I also have two 98 new beetle's and a 06 new beetle TDI's. They all get 42mpg at 80mph. No major problems.

 

"BUT, those forums are not FTE I can tell you that. FTE will spoil you!"

That is an understatement! FTE is the BEST! I think you can get a lot out of those forums if you know how to talk on them... Nothing like FTE, here people know how to talk and conversate on a "blue collar" level...the other forums.....not so much. Hopefully you will find a fellow FTE'er there and they will help explain things. They are rather snobbish and stuck up, IMO

 

...but that was before anyone gave a hoot about emissions.

 

Who drives 50mph to get 50mpg? My TDI's will get 50mpg if I drive slow, did it once just sight seeing. I don't have the patience to do that very often.

Who can possibility complain about 42mpg at a constant 80mph? I guess I can because my 81 Jetta can and that's 30+ years ago technology. They should be getting 80mpg + nowadays!!

 

Never really looked at the Liberties but now that I have, I would love one of these. I would also love to put the front of the 08+ on one. Not a fan of the girly, bubbly, roundy look... I was (and am) XJ guy.

I think they might be the same chassis.

Unfortunately, it is hard to get one for less than $10K. If I could find one that needed work, that would be perfect.

I think they only produced 10k of them. the 06 has a few more electronic bells and whistles.

As I understand it, stock will only get you to 20ish mpg but add the corrected TC and fix the computers (along with cleaning up the EGR system that gets clogged) and you are at 25-35mpg.

Richard

 

When I was researching TDI's I found that (in general) the automatic transmissions have a much shorter life than the rest of the car and some years had problems wiping out the camshafts.

Also, certain years required special oils that they never got if they were taken to jiffy lube type places (this was a major contributor to the cam wipe-out). The correction was to replace the cams with an updated part (but you still needed to use the correct oil).

In the price range I was looking at there were two main engines and the crossover was somewhere in 04ish i think.

I liked the interior amenities and layout of the 01+ (I think that was when they changed).

I seem to recall TDI Passat came out in 04 iirc and were a step up in build quality, size, and sound insulation. It was based on the same chassis as the Jetta so a lot of the upgrades crossed over.

I liked the wagons in general but they are significantly harder to find (except golf I think). There were some years of the jetta that were called the "SportWagon" that had a pretty neat setup and some special features.

I haven't really looked at them for a coupe of years because to get the amenities I want (I like fully loaded vehicles) combined with the years I wanted they were just too expensive for me.

Richard

 

There were a couple years that the auto's were crap, can't remember which years. Yes about the special oil but to me that's just a thing for the buyer to know about.