Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am considering the purchase of my first VW. Gas prices being what they are, I'm looking at a Jetta TDI. It seems to have all of the characteristics I want, but I figured I'd ask a group of people with a lot of experience, and based on what I read here, I figure you're the folks I want to speak to.

First of all, apologies if I have put this in the wrong forum or area. If I have I hope the moderators will move it to the correct area.

I drive a lot. I have, in the last ten years, driven half a million miles. I tend to take care of my vehicles to that end, so much so that I consider a car with less than 200,000 miles to be barely broken in. The vehicles in my driveway total more than a million miles between them. I like to keep things for a very long time.

I have never owned a VW. I have been appraised of their quality by many friends, and i have driven some jettas (But a very long time ago). The newer style Jetta seems to be a very nice car, and the specific qualities I want in a vehicle are as follows:

1: I want to drive it for a very long time. I fully expect to get at least half a million miles. For this reason I am looking at the Jetta Diesel; I get the impression that this is well within it's operating parameters. I'd like to hear from some people who have high mileage jettas, especially diesels.

2: I do at least 110 and as many as 250 miles, every single day. This does not include common and often long distance "Spoecial" trips. I need a vehicle that is comfortable to drive over those distances. I'm a big guy, 6'2" 330 lbs. If I feel cramped or have to stop and stretch every 20 minutes that will hose up my day royally. I'd like to hear from some big guys who drive their Jettas a lot.

3: I do all my own scheduled maintenance myself. I also do general repairs including brakes, wheel bearings, axle shafts, plugs, wires, etc. (on current vehicles) as well as things like window motors, fuel injector cleaning, etc. I'm fairly well equippped but I'd like to know if there are a lot of specialty tools required to do any of those things, aside form the typical presses/pullers/hydraulics. I'd love to hear from people who wrench their own cars.

4:I currently drive an automatic, and with my commute, which is through Chicago Xways, rowing a clutch every day is brutal. I have had... issues before with automatic transmissions in foreign vehicles. I'd like to hear from people who drive autos and like them, and have done so for a very long time.

5:I am an engineer, and tote around about 200 lbs of tools most of the time. The Sportwagon looks nicely suited to this task, while still allowing four people inside the vehicle. Is there anything I should be careful of, adding this weight as a "Normal" part of operation?

Thank you all in advance for your answers and your patience. I have a while to decide what I'm doing here, there is no emergency and I'd rather learn all I can and do this correctly, because I intend to live with this choice for a very long time.

Welcome.


First, I want to say that the modern diesel is an emissions nightmare due to the EPA and government mandated emissions regulations. This is NOT Volkswagens fault and they have done a very good job of keeping it compliant while adding reliability. There will be things that break because of this more so than a 20 year old car so you must expect this. If you feel this is unacceptable, stop reading now.


We have customers who have their sportwagen diesels since they came out in 2009 and drive 60+ thousand miles a year. They have very few problems. One in particular has 140k on the clock and he had an antenna, door latch, and turbo replaced. The turbo was replaced because someone broke the sensor on the turbo for vane position. NOT a factory defect.

I'm 6ft 200 lbs and have plenty of room. I know big guys are comfy in it though.

Follow volkswagens service intervals. Oil changes every 10k miles with VW approved 507 spec oil. The manual trans needs no maintenance. The Auto transmission is called a DSG or direct shift gearbox, or twin clutch gearbox. This needs an oil and filter change every 40k miles and CANNOT be done by YOU. A DEALER must do this. This auto is a manual trans with twin clutches actuated by the computer and shifts in 0.08 seconds...the fastest shifting trans they make.

Put all your daily junk in the trunk and have an alignment performed with all that junk in there.

That's great information. If it requires a dealer service once a year, I'm fine with that- certainly, under warranty. Once the warranty is over I will figure a way to do it myself, if I can.

When you say "There will be things that break because of this more so than a 20 year old car" you mean emissions control components? Over a 500,000 mile lifespan, how much investment can I expect to make in those kinds of repairs? Are they the kind of repairs I can make myself? I'm a pretty good wrench.

That being said, is there a vintage of VW diesel that's better? In other words, if I buy a perfect condition 99 0r 04 it won't have any of the issues you describe?

Also: I see that the difference in the price of a Jetta and a Passat amounts to a couple dollars a month. Is there any advantage to the Passat over the Jetta, and if so what?

Thank you for your patience, and your very helpful information.

Sadly many repairs you CANNOT do yourself. The new clean diesels (09 and newer) require dealership scanners and a trained person to adapt certain components. A few of these items requiring adaptation are: Fuel injectors (yes, they need to be coded to the ecm because each one has a different flow rate) turbo charger, EGR valve, exhaust throttle valve, intake throttle valve, intake manifold runner control valve, Diesel particulate filter. Oxygen sensors, should a fault be stored, will not be able to fully reset the computer unless you do an adaptation to reset it. Clearing the fault will NOT reset oxygen sensors.

Pre 2009 diesels have MUCH fewer emissions components and pre 2004 have even less.....such as a cat that isn't monitored and EGR. Early TDI's have 90 HP and 170ish torque. The clean diesels have 140 HP and 236 tq.

The new passat TDI is the same 2.0 common rail BUT it has urea injection so you need to fill that tank in the trunk with ad blue every so often.

TDI's have 90 HP and 170ish torque. The clean diesels have 140 HP and 236 tq.

The new passat TDI is the same 2.0 common rail BUT it has urea injection so you need to fill that tank in the trunk with ad blue every so often.

That's very interesting. I like the idea of letting someone be abused by the depreciation. and as far as the HP is concerned, if I was looking for a performance vehicle, my first choice would probably not be a diesel. This will simply be a long distance work vehicle, and it sounds like the older vehicles might be a better fit all the way around.