|
They are not made any more, about 30,000 3L's were produced. You can only get them second hand. They obviously appealed to people that wanted to rack up the miles so you do see them with quite high mileage but for a diesel that's not such an issue and it parallels the 1.4TDIs you find in the UK. the auto system ensures it has smooth gear changes and a the car is so light there will never be a huge load on the engine.
All parts that i can get through VW UK should be available at VW USA dealers special order form Germany. I did hear that you can no longer get the alloy bonnets but i have not confirmed that. Such a part could be replaced with carbon fibre anyway.
They are not without faults. I got my one for a steal at £500, it was already imported by the previous owner so all mods needed to be UK legal were done but it did have a hydraulics leak. It was still drivable but i have now take it off the road so i can sort it.
The hydraulics is some what the achilles heel in this car. when they work they work like a dream but they are prone to leaks. Obviously there is a slight design issue with them. I know if i go to VW they will screw me as its not the culture to repair parts. That is all well and good but the parts for this are costly. I have taken the unit off the car and now. looking at it the repair does not appear as if it will be that hard and i am sure i can do something to ensure its a better seal than from factory. I have also finally tracked down a guy in Germany that will do a re-con on them if need. i send the part he just swaps your parts for ones he has already sorted all at a fraction of the cost of VW.
The main hurdle i have found was just lack of information in English. I have spent a long time with google chrome using the translate function to get all the info i can. Its a very unusual car so even in Europe there is not a huge amount of information on certain things but i think i have enough now to get everything sorted.
The whole gear shift system never made it into any other cars as VW moved on to DSG but what was learnt form the 3L was the starting block for making DSG a workable reality. Noting like the 3L will ever be replicated again and sold to the consumer it was basically a concept car that made it into production as a real world eco R&D project. I think it was also a way of achieving world records and awards. The VAG group do this sort of thing from time to time in different areas the Bugatti Veyron is another example or a car that will never be replicated.
Every Veyron sells at a loss and i would not be surprised if the 3L was the same. What they lose in return on investment from each car is more than made up by the insight and real world experience that it gained. Many things form the 3L went on to be implemented into next generation VWs such as the injectors.
Its my belief that VW still have some of the most advanced research insight into making eco cars and as it stands their current 2010 blumotion is using a 1.2TDI simalar to that in the 3L. Most car manufacturers are jumping heavily into hybrids without the long term insight that VW has.
once VW comes to adoption hybrid technology they will be way in advance over the competition as they are achieving such good MPG on standard engines.
|