[ChrstphrR]

My friend in Edmonton has a Golf just like this.

Non mileage tips:

- The pot metal door latch mechanism break on the MkII era cars very easily. Source them out, get a left and right one for the front doors at least, to keep as spares.

- Diesels generally give no heat, or only give cabin heat WELL into a longer drive, so buy one of those electric seat pad/covers, or a blower/heater that plugs into the 12v cigarette lighter socket (and make sure that socket works too). Otherwise, buy a scraper for someone to chip the ice off your arse when you get out of the car in February.

Mileage tips:

Most of the good tips have been passed on already.

Diesels give the best economy when hot, as was already said so:
- Make your trips with the furthest distance first, so you have the longest time to come to temperature
- You're in a northern climate - Get yourself some cardboard or coroplast, to block about 80-90% of your radiator (stealth it for now, worry about aero-external blocks later).

It's September already, do the rad-block NOW! (My more modern 2000 Jetta TDI is running with at least 1/3 radiator blockoff inside all year, and closer to 2/3 -3/4 blockage internal and external to the radiator in winter.)

I'll suggest cutting the block into easy to pull sections internally, so that, if you're doing highway driving / passing through different climates (mountains and valleys), you can stop if the temperature gauge gets too high, and unblock as necessary. Oh, check/change the thermostat so you know it works, too!

Consider, for the coldest part of winter, having two batteries - either rig up a second spot to put the "carry on", or swap them day by day. At -40C OR -40F -- or lower, a battery at house temperature will crank a diesel over easily. You'll get fast at changing terminals if you do a battery for battery swap at -40... out of necessity.