Finally got my 2010 Golf TDI ... so I thought I'd "introduce" myself...
 

I've had it a week & love it so far. I got an indicated 42.5 mpg on my way to work one morning, but I'm not even through my 1st tank of gas..er..diesel, so I don't know what my starting average is. I doubt I'll be doing much in the way of aero mods, since the car has a fairly full underbody cover already. I might be able to cover the center tunnel if I can avoid rubbing on the exhaust & not reduce my clearance too much. Also the rear 1/3 or so might have room for improvement. I think a lot will just be improving my own habits.

I think today I'm going to wash it (since we had snow 2 days after I got it), then maybe I'll have some pics to post. :)

How many miles are on it? (i'm assuming low) They tend to do better after 9-10k miles.

How is that 230+ ft/lbs of torque? :D

A whopping 393 miles. ;)

As for torque, I'll put it this way, if I were to drive it all the time with ESP (traction control) off, I'd be buying a LOT of front tires. :thumbup:

MaxHedrm -

That's great! You should keep one of those "rakeboards" in the trunk for short excursions to/from the TDI, ;) . Maybe a modern electric rakeboard?

CarloSW2

Welcome to ecomodder!

Washed the cars today...
http://maxhedrm.montebellopark.com/I...T+Golf_Sig.jpg

Ahhhhh I'm so jealous of that Golf TDI Just drove a TDI jetta for the first time the other day those things HAUUUL

You actually get 25mpg out of an El Camino? Impressive.

Not all the time but i can if i try really hard

37.7mpg on my first tank. I have a pretty mixed city/highway commute. I think it must be downhill between school & home. I got about 44mpg tonight on my way home.

There was a thread on here about the benefits of straightpiping the muffler on turbodiesels ;) hint hint

Alas, the 2010 (& prolly 2009) TDIs don't benefit much. The new emissions controls are too restrictive. :( I may try it anyway. At least it might weigh a bit less. :)

haha and even if not it sounds AWEEEEESOOOOMEEEE

That's the thing, the emissions systems keep it pretty quiet too.

ttrue true but if worse comes to worse it's only like 40 bucks to put straight pipe past the muffler at a muffler shop

Very true ... it's on my list to look into. Easy to test too ... just temporarily disconnect the exhaust after the cats.

that is awesome.

In another thread, there is a question of what small car will be like the geo metro 20 years from now...

the newer tdi is a sure contender.
I seek these thoughts, I know there is a winner among the failing bunch of stuff we suffer with. I still drive a 23 year old subaru..and it aint exactly a loser.:rolleyes:

Yeah ... the tough part is that nothing is exactly simple on these cars. So, the limiting factor, to me, is the maintainability of the electronics.

Max,

Both of your cars look really nice. I'm seriously thinking of a TDI for our next car, either a Golf, Jetta 'Wagen or maybe Audi A3, depending on how things look when we buy. What kind of options did you get with it?

Thanks.

Mine's pretty much loaded, everything but the DSG ("auto" trans). I even got Nav, which has turned out to be a fun toy. :)

Of course that also means it came in only about $3000 under a base A3 TDI.

Yeah, the Audi is a bit pricey. How does the cargo-carrying look when you have the back seats folded? Did you take a look at the Jetta Sportswagen, too?


EDIT: Also, how was the dealer experience? I have to admit, I've been a little leery of VW's just because I've seen a lot of feedback (mostly from TDIClub.com) about poor dealer service.... That is one reason the Audi remains on the list, even though it's much more expensive.

Well, the Audi is better optioned by default, but the interior on the new VWs is still pretty high end. I looked at the JSW last summer, but once I found out the Golf was not only coming as a TDI, but on an updated platform as well, the Golf won easily ... so I ordered this one in December. It doesn't have as much cargo space as the JSW (Golf<A3<JSW) but the other day a friend's new 47" LCD TV laid down in the back (with the seats down) like it was made for it.

As for dealers, like all makes, it's a mixed bag. There are a few guys that help out over on VWVortex and I think one of them is in your area. Check out The Official MkVI Ask a Salesperson Thread. Scan the first page of posts for the basics, then jump right in (it's up to 208 pages or so).

I actually went with a friend to an Audi dealer yesterday and looked at an A3 TDI. The cargo space didn't look bad with the seats folded down, although unfortunately we didn't test-drive it (my friend didn't like the styling, and I don't think it was 'luxury' enough for him, so we tested an A4 instead.)

We also took a Lexus HS250h for a test-drive, and I have to admit, I wasn't too impressed with it...between the air conditioning not working (on a demonstrator? Really? And it was almost 80*F here yesterday!) the "A" pillar causing a small blind spot, what felt (at least to me in the passenger seat,) like uneven power delivery, and a lack of folding rear seats, it confirmed in my mind that diesel is the way I want to go for more fuel efficiency.... The joystick controller for the nav/computer was neat, though.

We probably won't buy a new car for a couple of years still, but I'm definitely interested in anything you have to say about the Golf TDI. Enjoy your new car!

By the time you buy the demand should have tapered a bit. Maybe you won't have to wait so long to get it when you finally jump in. :) Also, by then, there may be a TDI version of the new Jetta available in Wagon form. It's actually kind of a mystery how they are going to handle that. The current Jetta platform is slated to be replaced, but they updated (only) the front end on the JSW this year since it's a Golf Variant/Wagon/whatever everywhere else in the world. The wagon usually trails the sedan/hatch by a bit when it is revamped, but this is the first time the Jetta & Golf will be a different platform, so who knows.

Now if they would only bring the Golf with the 1.6 litre engine to the US. I don't know why they think we wouldn't want that as an optional engine. I for one would enjoy the 60+ MPG.

What kind of MPG are you pulling now that its broke in? I am looking at getting a TDI Golf to replace my Metro when it rusts away.

Considering how narrow the margins are on the German built Golf TDIs, I don't think it's a matter of us not wanting it so much as not enough of us wanting it to ever pay for the certification of the engine for the US. I for one still would have gone for the 2.0 if the 1.6 was available.


Well, it's not really broken in yet. Still only halfway through my second tank. This one looks to be a bit better than the last though.

Yea my 06 TDI has been going up since I bought it. I only have 50K on it but its keeps getting better, even thought its tappering off now so I think this is as good as its going to get.

Up to 39.4 for my second tank!

I'm trying out B5 from Green Spot this time. I wonder if it will effect my mileage noticeably.

Just a tiny little increase this tank at 39.7. That included a lot more air conditioning though. & I think it's time to check my tires. It also involved a bit of furniture hauling ... so a good bit more weight was in the car a few times. It's creeping up though, so that is good. :)

How are you liking the TDI? We're starting to get a little more serious about a new car, and the A3 TDI keeps popping up on the radar....

I enjoy it so far. The mileage seems to continue to improve a bit, so it costs about half what my other car did to run. I got my first door ding though. :( It's also been handy to have to haul stuff. From an IKEA entertainment center, to a friend's big screen TV, to a wheelbarrow. :) I haven't had any problems with it.

Thanks. We're going to try both the A3 2.0T and the A3 TDI. The decision is my wife's, since it will be her primary car, though.

There are only three things that have appeared on my radar that I'm a little concerned about:

1.) There's rumors of HPFP trouble with the TDI powertrain swirling on TDICLUB.com. I already have one car whose achilles' heel is the HPFP, not sure I want another one!
2.) THe possibility of (expensive) gasoline mis-fueling. (Neither of us have ever owned a diesel before.)
3.) We live in a colder climate, and I've heard that it takes a bit longer for heaters to blow hot b/c the engine doesn't get warm was fast as a gasoline engine.

I'm also kind of wondering about the Toyota Prius, since it seems to be a shade bigger, although I'm sure the driving dynamics of the Audi will be 100x better. :)

1) That's what warranties are for. All new cars have expensive parts that will eventually break. From what I've read, the pump does seem to fail in a bad way, but I don't think of it as a real worry.

2) Just pay attention to what you're doing. ;) Pennsylvania isn't one of those annoying states where they make someone else fill it up, is it?

3) That is what I've heard as well, but VWs (& I would assume the A3 as well) have a heat strip in the heater that will turn on to at least warm the air a little. I got mine in March, so I haven't had much of a chance to test it.

The Prius may appear larger, but I'm not sure it really is from a usable interior space perspective. And I think it might be more like 1000x better. ;)

Fair point, hope you're right. The thing that worries me isn't the part failing so much as that it seems to go spectacularly when it does. Guess I might just start changing my own fuel filter and religiously checking it...

No, but the car's for Mrs. JKP1187 and she has to drive to NJ sometimes, which is just such an annoying state. :mad:

Yeah, and not like you'd be able to give me some true cold-weather feedback from Texas anyway! The TDIClub people seemed to think it was no big deal, and I suppose a lot of people from Canada drive them anyway. It's just that I'm the one who suggested diesel to my wife, and it'll be bad if there are some 'comfort' issues that she doesn't like.

You may be right -- we'll see. She's going to test the A3 and Prius this weekend.

Thanks again!

We just got back from test-driving an A3 TDI, an A3 2.0T Quattro, and a Prius.

We were very impressed with the A3 TDI. It drove and handled very well -- in fact, I noticed a significant difference between how the A3 TDI drove and the Jetta Sportswagen TDI we test-drove last week -- which surprised me. (The Jetta felt a bit wheezy in acceleration and a bit sloppy in some turns, the A3 hugged the road very nicely and hat lots of pickup.)

The 2.0T Quattro was just as nice. Clearly a 'faster' car, but we both walked away from it thinking that, all things considered, we'd rather have the diesel, both for the lower up-front price, and the lower fuel cost in the long run.

We also test-drove a Prius. I know a lot of people interested in eco-driving swear by them, but frankly we weren't as impressed. The interior just seemed...cheap compared to the Audi. It was a brand-new Prius still in the plastic wrapping, but we could hear some interior rattles during the test drive. The lack of power seats was a minus. And I think by the official numbers, the Prius has slightly more cargo carrying capacity than the A3, it didn't look that way from our eyeball test.

So overall, I think the TDI sold us! Looks like we have the 'car buying' bug, so we may be making a purchase sooner than we thought.

Nice. That's good to hear.

The improved handling of the A3 over the Jetta doesn't surprise me. If they were both DSG the A3 may also have different programming than the Jetta. I know my manual Golf feels a lot peppier than the DSG Jetta I drove.

I think there is often a big difference between numerical cargo capacity & useable cargo capacity.

Yep, the Jetta and the Audis were all DSGs.

I just bought a 2012 Golf TDI in July and I'm curious if you are seeing the same thing I am with the overall fuel economy reported by the computer. Mine is reporting about 3 MPG better than I am calculating at the pump. Even my best tank average on fuelly is about 1 MPG under what the computer is telling me my average is. I'm wondering if something is up with the computer or if this is normal. Thanks.

For me the computer tends to be between about .5 and 1 mpg optimistic. I'm not sure what makes the difference other than possibly not filling it to the same level every time (though I cheat & fill it til visible in the neck, so it should be pretty close).