Anyone own a TDI?

[Chris]

The wife and I are looking to replace our CR-V with a family car that gets better fuel economy. Something that's come of interest is a Jetta TDI Sportwagon. I feel like that would be a decent family car since it's a hatchback, has room for both the kids, and room in the trunk.

However, I have a long, long history with VW and it hasn't been a good one. I've never in my life owned a VW TDI, but I have owned a handful of VR6 engines from 1993 to 2005. My mom had a 2004 Jetta VR6 that she purchased brand new, and that thing had so many issues it was insane. It was constantly breaking, developing electrical gremlins, etc. This parallels the experiences I had with all my VWs as well.

Anyways, in the quest for a family vehicle that gets better fuel economy, a diesel is at the front of the line. However, as we all know, the only passenger vehicles you can get in the US are German cars (i.e. Audi, VW, BMW and Mercedes). I'm tempted to potentially purchase a VW TDI in hopes that the issues that plagued all my other VWs (all VR6 engines) doesn't transfer over to the TDI diesel engines.

Does anyone on here own a TDI? If so, what are your impressions of it? How is maintenance, etc.?

I am a DIY guy so I'll do 80% of all maintenance myself unless it's something that requires a lift, in which case I'll just pay someone else. However, we don't want a family car that's constantly breaking or developing issues.

The flip side to that is that I'm a little reluctant to buy something like a Prius, mostly because I see all the electronics associated with it as being a potentially huge failure point down the road.

I'm also open to other suggestions as well. I just know that our CR-V doesn't get the best mpg (it's not completely crappy, just not as good as 600 miles to a tank like a TDI could do).

 

[hotolds442]

My son has one, he's had several problems with the bolts on one of the CV axles falling out at the most inopportune time. Seems the rotational force and their choice of LH/RH threads make this happen. We think we solved it with some loctite, but time will tell.
Between me, you, and the fence post, the gay porn and the PPPrius would go well together.

 

[Chris]

My son has one, he's had several problems with the bolts on one of the CV axles falling out at the most inopportune time. Seems the rotational force and their choice of LH/RH threads make this happen. We think we solved it with some loctite, but time will tell.
Between me, you, and the fence post, the gay porn and the PPPrius would go well together.

A Prius isn't my style, but this is mostly a vehicle for the wife and the family anyways. I'll do some more research on them. My concern is more related to the potential electronic gremlins and other things that seem to plague German cars.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

Personally, having owned several VWs, I'm done with them. My last VW was a diesel and it went through starter motors like crazy. Not to mention with VW's bad press over the smog system cheats, I'm convinced their resale value is going to tank. VW is looking at many years before/if they recover from the pending financial disaster they're facing at this point. They're in serious jeopardy right now and it's not looking good. Their potential financial exposure is mega-huge.

 

[Chris]

Yes, I've been through it with VW as well Jerry. Granted my experiences were all gasoline VWs, I guess for some reason I figured maybe a TDI would be different. Honestly, the more I look at it though the more I read about people saying they have all sorts of weird electrical and sensor related issue with the TDI engines. Maybe I'll just scratch that idea and find the wife a gasoline engine vehicle that is a bit better on fuel economy. The CR-V isn't that bad, I was just impressed by the numbers the TDI put down.

You're right about VW resale value tanking. That's one of the reasons I was looking at the TDIs... Man, you can get a 2012 or 2013 for like 10-11k with 80k miles or less, haha.

 

[billiebob]

We had a gas Jetta.... wonderful car to drive... horrible little men at the service department.
Everytime I buy a new German car.... same thing. Great engineering. Horrible attitude.

 

[badlieutenant]

I just watched Schindler's List and will never buy another German car again.

 

[Chris]

I will say that one thing I notice with every German vehicle I've ever owned is that they tend to be over engineered.

 

[StG58]

Youngest Daughter had a TDI Sportwagon for awhile that she bought new. She loved it. Don't remember any particular problems with it, but then she only owned it for about a year and half before selling it to go into the Army. Somebody gave her more than she paid for it and it sold in just a few days.

 

[TJ4Jim]

Kind of hard to match anything up to your CR-V when it comes to reliability and quality. Both my boys grew up in the back of a CR-V and although the mileage wasn't bad it made up for that by barely costing me anything beyond normal wear items for over 250,000 miles. They even gave my wife $1200 for it on a trade-in on another Honda. My sister-in-law hated her VW Jetta limited edition and eventually traded it in for a Subaru, I don't believe she had more than 50,000 miles on it at the time.

 

[billiebob]

this ^^^^ is why my wife drive Japanese cars. They are the best buy. Period.
we/she had Camarys, Accords, Subarus... love the Subi AWD......
and one Jetta. She loved driving that Jetta but the Japs build a better deal.

 

[Chris]

I know, I know... This CR-V we have has 200k miles on it and runs like a champ, seriously. It's so low maintenance and so reliable.

I really have to give it to these Japs. The cars they build may not be on the same level as German or Italian cars in regards to fun level, but they build them so reliable and easy to maintain that they really, really serve their purpose that will!

One of the things I think about with the VW is that maintenance costs would be higher, so at that point it may actually just be cheaper to own a CR-V since lower maintenance costs might offset the better gas mileage in a TDI.

 

[billiebob]

"cheaper to own a CR-V since lower maintenance costs might offset the better gas mileage in a TDI."

Thats guaranteed !!!
​

 

[Chris]

Yes, I think a lot of people don't take the maintenance into consideration. Case in point: The Toyota Prius.

51 mpg in town, that's friggin awesome. However, every 6-7 years you have to spend $3000 and replace the battery. Okay, so that sort of takes away from some of the money you saved on using less fuel. Not to mention that while the Prius is actually rated as being very reliable (makes sense, it is a Toyota after all), I can't imagine the headache and maintenance costs you'd encounter when you have to start replacing any of the electronics under the hood of that thing.

 

[brianb2]

Odd man out here. 2012 diesel TDI, it's been great. Other than a major corporate deception around emissions we've had no problems at all. They screwed up, no doubt; but it's a good car. Ours is manual as well, which is more fun to drive. And choosing manual means we don't care about resale value much, and will hopefully get 10 years out of it. We get about 35 around the city. Good luck whichever way you go.

 

[Chris]

I think it's ultimately going to come down to a test drive and which one we like more. The tragic part is that it will have to be an automatic because the wife refuses to learn to drive a manual.

 

[TJ4Jim]

I think it's ultimately going to come down to a test drive and which one we like more. The tragic part is that it will have to be an automatic because the wife refuses to learn to drive a manual.

That's funny because my wife refuses to drive an automatic and it's not as easy finding a standard these days. Her Compass is the only one with a 5 speed I have seen.

 

[Chris]

That's funny because my wife refuses to drive an automatic and it's not as easy finding a standard these days. Her Compass is the only one with a 5 speed I have seen.

Lucky you. I grew up driving nothing but manuals and really prefer them. The wife never learned and with 2 kids I guess I can't blame her for not waiting to learn now. Oh well!

 

[badlieutenant]

Yes, I think a lot of people don't take the maintenance into consideration. Case in point: The Toyota Prius.

51 mpg in town, that's friggin awesome. However, every 6-7 years you have to spend $3000 and replace the battery. Okay, so that sort of takes away from some of the money you saved on using less fuel. Not to mention that while the Prius is actually rated as being very reliable (makes sense, it is a Toyota after all), I can't imagine the headache and maintenance costs you'd encounter when you have to start replacing any of the electronics under the hood of that thing.

I could be wrong but I thought I remembered reading that the Prius batteries have an 8 year/100k mile warranty.

and I've never actually heard of anyone having to replace the battery but I'm sure people have. I don't think it's too common or perhaps people sell the Prius before they have to and just buy another one [emoji13]

 

[Frank]

Just my $.02 worth, I just bought my wife a ford fusion energy,(Hybrid) and love it, Averaging 50.3 mpg all around. You can plug it in at night at home in a 110 volt plugin and it fully charged in about 6 hours, or you can buy a 220 volt charging station and plug it and fully charges in 2 hours and run it totally on electric and go 18-19 miles or set it on auto and it runs on both electric and gas. Even my little town here in North Carolina has an uptown charging station I can use. Or you don't have to ever plug it in and it still gets 45-49 mpg going back and forth electric to gas just more often. Put gas in it every 3 to 4 weeks depending on how far we run it. rides great and the batteries have a 10 year 100000 mile warranty on it. I also bought when I got the car an extended warranty with it for 10 years and 100000 mile bumper to bumper warranty with no deductible. range on auto is around 600 miles per tank. 14 gallon tank. If you totally drive short distances around town you hardly ever need gas, Have to run it so I can keep gas fresh. Has 23500 miles on it now and so far NO problems. Just an option for you to look at. Good luck and hope this helps give you another option.