I got to drive my aunt's brand new 2011 Jetta Sportwagon TDi with 6 spd manual. I was impressed!
After a few miles of spirited driving I could tell it wan't a "fast" car...at least not compared to my C5 Z06...but it was indeed quite peppy. I'd say by the seat of the pants "feel" that it was at least as snappy as my old '94 Formula Firebird. The numbers will say otherwise but that's just how it felt.
Really nice driving car and almost 50mpg to boot!
What are the drawbacks? Are these as trouble prone as I've heard people say?
I recently went along with a neighbor to test drive and buy a used TDi wagon. What we learned was that the latest and greatest TDi fuel systems cannot run biodiesel, so if that's a big selling point for you, you'd need to get an older car (sorry, don't recall the cutoff year).
In reply to a401cj:
Maintenance costs can be high - esp. with the DSG transmission. My dad has one that he's driven cross country and regularly back and forth between D.C. and the White Mountains. He's probably creeping up on 50K on a 2009 with no complaints.
FYI - he recently put Conti Extreme Contacts on it (he does drive in NH winters) and I have to say that they took the car from a sloppy driver - with the Dealer Spec'd Michelins to a pretty solid driver. I still think he need Bilstein HD's and stiffer springs - but for a station wagon it's pretty impressive.
I work as vw technician at a dealership and the one main issue to watch out for is high pressure fuel pump failure. If you get bad diesel fuel (which is somewhat common), or accidentally run gasoline in the car, the hpfp fails, sending metal fragments through the fuel system. The only way this can be repaired, according to vw, is by replacing the entire fuel system. This typically costs $10,000 after parts and labor! However, it ends up being covered by your insurance, at least in all the cases we've seen. There's currently an nhtsa investigation going on about this issue. So if you buy one, ALWAYS buy name brand fuel, and KEEP YOUR RECEIPT! And get good insurance lol. We've seen this issue at my dealership probably 5-10 times so far. I'm not sure if this issue will get a recall or a production change or anything but at the moment it's not covered by warranty.
Also, at first they had issues with the check engine light coming on due to an issue with the exhaust, but this was taken care of through a recall/software update.
To me they feel a bit odd with a dsg transmission, but it probably just takes some getting used to. Other than these issues most of our customers LOVE these cars, and are fanatical about them. And many people never experience either of these concerns, just watch what you put in the fuel tank.
don't think you'll save a ton of money with the diesel engine.
High prices of repairs + high fuel prices + high buy in premium = long long payback.
I want one.
ignorant wrote:
don't think you'll save a ton of money with the diesel engine.
High prices of repairs + high fuel prices + high buy in premium = long long payback.
I want one.
The resale value on TDI's is insane though. I've seen the mk4 tdi's with well over 140-150k miles still going for 5-6k from private parties.
They are badass cars! If you decide to tune it at all (helps with more low end torque and better MPG), the 2010s require the ECUs being pulled and a security lock being jumped by powering the ECU off and on while holding down a power supply to a certain ECU pin. Its the only way to get the ECU unlocked to flash it. The 2011s are a whole nuther story. Not one tuner can tune any 2011 car.
my co-worker has his sights set on a 2011 Jetta Sportwagen in black with black steelies and the DPF removed...
Diesel Particulate Filter
