Too practical? Modded TDI anyone?

Our 2001 Jetta TDi was an excellent, practical commuter car for the five years we had it. My wife's family has owned 5 other Jetta TDi's so far, and I could see us owing another if it was a Wagon.

As noted above, chipping your car will make the car noticeably faster, particular on early cars like yours - but will likely chew through what's left of your stock clutch. Our car was also seriously improved by a set of BBS (Jetta Wolfsberg Edition) wheels running sticky tires. I never got into the suspension, because that's what our Miata was for.

On the other hand, the 2001 BMW 530i which replaced it has been a stellar car. I'm a big fan of E39 BMW's, but we're lucky to get much over 20 mpg in mixed driving and ownership costs are certainly higher than we were used to with our Jetta.

Both the Jetta and E39 were my wife's cars - great to have in the household, but not what I wanted to drive every day. If I were in your shoes, I'd keep the TDi and buy a cheap project car for having real fun with.

I daily a modded TDI for all the reasons you've mentioned. I personally have a '99.5 mkiv Golf TDI 5-speed. Koni coilovers. 17" OZ Superleggeras (snows on stock 15's). VR6 GTI brakes/spindles. GTI heated leather interior swap. Roof rack to haul the bike. Chipped. I knock down 45+ mpg's, drive it like I stole it, and put about 45K/year on the car.

Yes a chip wakes up the car. A chip + injectors as noted will take you right to the limit of what your clutch can handle. That said, replacements and upgrades are well documented at this point. Ditch the dual mass flywheel, and put a single mass G60 flywheel with any number of clutches.

My car is just chipped right now. I could use more power, but right now, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Stock clutch, injection pump, turbo, and injectors, and I'm at 210K (bought it with ~110K). I would love to pull the trigger on a VNT17/injectors/etc. if my stock turbo ever craps out, but I can't justify the cost with everything still working. I drive it hard, and it just keeps going.

As for brakes, yes upgrades are easy if you know how to DIY your own stuff and GRM style source parts. All the brake parts off a 1.8T or VR6 mk4 will bolt on. You need to take the entire spindle hub though, as the caliper/carrier is different (it's a two piece caliper carrier that bolts to the spindle, vs. the one piece spindle/carrier unit on the 2.0 gasser models and TDI's). Find any VR or 1.8T mk4 in a junkyard and take the whole lot off. The brake rotor isn't that much bigger, but the swept area is much larger of the caliper. Plus, once you have the 2-piece spindle/carrier, you can upgrade beyond that to even bigger brakes from some special models or aftermarket (which I think is entirely a waste of money unless you're making stupid power and tracking the car).

If you already own the car, know the car, and like the car... you likely have a good one. Beware, even the crank windows can fail (mine did...), as the clips that hold the window to the regulator fail and the window will fall in the door. There's repair kits that ensure it won't happen again.

Jaynen wrote: When BMW came out with the 335d I cried it could not come with a manual trans else that would be on my someday when it depreciates list

I agree with this statement.

So it there anything I am not thinking about that comes remotely close on the practicality front but would be more fun.

I would love the NA miata second toy but so far wife has said no to 3 cars. Would be a good time to try again tho :)

Wife said we can discuss a 3rd car if I sell my motorcycle.. well that is progress

A friend of mine had a Golf TDi that put down ~140ish hp and >300ftlb (chip, exhaust, injectors IIRC). I drove it. Fun little car, especially for something that got over 40mpg. Don't let the 300ftlb fool you though... 140hp is 140hp. It was about as fast as a stock Civic.

Suspension was decent, but not going to win any autocross trophies. Looked good with 17s and lowered a bit. It did nickel, dime and quarter him enough that he got fed up with it and got rid of it.

So yeah, a chip + injectors is a good bang for the buck if you want to hold onto it for a while, just don't get your hopes up too high.

So far mine has yet to do that to me I may be better off leaving well enough alone. If I can sell aforementioned motorcycle and get some leeway with the spouse maybe I can look for something less practical as a toy/project

That's been my debate for awhile... I just passed 286k today and other than basic maintenance the car has needed little in way of repairs... So do I really want to risk abusing it?

Well plus I think everyone here would argue for the toy/project separate car than your DD if possible anyway

Pretty much... And as much as I pride myself for being a jack-all-trades-and-master-of-none, I like my tools to be somewhat specialized for a given task.