Post Diesel-gate TDI's - buy?

In reply to CobraSpdRH :

Golf R suspension is a direct fit on the 4motion sportwagen & the Alltrack. There's also plenty of OEM wheel and brake options within the VAG family.  

I also agree the seats lack leg support for people over 6'0".  I'm 6'2" and it's frustrating.  I considered swapping seats, but I think even the SEL and GTI seats would be different, but not necessarily better.  Some people add washers and longer bolts so the seat has more tilt, but I'm hesitant to start modifying the seat bolts, based on their importance in a crash. 

I'm thinking about a Golf TDI myself. There was a 15 Golf TDI 6 speed manual leather  w/26k miles at the local dealer where Mrs. DX got her Jetta tonight. The online price was about $16k and change. I drive almost 60 miles round trip to work and the Golf would be a comfy place to park my ass for the commute. Anything to look out for? 

This thread is bad for me, just because while I love teh R (Volvo, not Golf) it has been two years and almost 40k miles and I have a short attention span.  And I drive a lot more than I used to, and 17mpg average with a 60 mile daily commute hurts a bit.  And my friend Miles towed his Miata with his Sportwagen no problem.

I have two customers with Dieselgate-era Jettas with DSG, they drive very nice.

Just found out that my new commute is going to be 85 miles a day, so I'm watching this thread with interest.  Is there any difference in reliability between the Passat TDi and Golf/Jetta TDi?

I bought a '11 Sportwagen 6spd with 48k CPO earlier this year. The car itself is awesome but I think all of these likely have suffered big time from sitting. I drove a couple before buying this one and all needed a lot of work. 

I chose this one partially because it had had just about everything you could have wanted replaced (brakes, suspension components, fuel filter, etc., etc.) after sitting for a few years. That said, it just spent literally two months at a local dealer getting a new clutch, flywheel, fuel filter and other things (all with $50 CPO deductible) trying to figure out why it stumbles and bucks with light throttle at consistent RPM. It finally threw an EGR code and they replaced the valve which was caked up and the exhaust flap but the problem persists. Technically the code it threw could mean an issue anywhere in the exhaust but that's all the troubleshooting the dealer did. They are essentially worthless without a OBDII code telling them exactly what's going on.

Long story short - unless you're buying it CPO I would stay away even though they're great cars. I would have been stuck with a gigantic bill because of a strange issue and poor troubleshooting by the dealer if it weren't for CPO. VW corporate has been extremely helpful throughout the process, however. 

Hopefully after the new year, I'll have enough patience to work with the dealer again to actually have the problem fixed. 

In reply to mikeatrpi :

When I priced commuter cars the one that screamed buy me was the Chevy Volt.  
about the same price as a VW 

much more reliable  ( I refer you to the GRM test article ) 

much cheaper to drive.  (friends with them tell me that a months worth of fuel is just $30-40 and that includes a few extended trips past the 30-50 miles electric range. ) 
 

I am coming up on a year with my '12 Sportwagen with DSG early Feb.  Just shy of 32MPG average (fuelly tracked), no mechanical issues between 117k purchase and 132k now.  Did do the tbelt at 130, put on new tires and a DSG service.  

I do have some cool spiderwebs in one of the headlights from sitting, but that is the only issue I have personally had.  It is a desert car (Palm Springs) with full records that is still in the desert (Phoenix).  Most of my miles are traffic freeway stop and go mixed with in town.

In reply to dxman92 :

Granted the dealers were incentivized by The Fatherland, to move product, but when the leftovers on dealer lots were green lit to sale in spring of '17 I got a "brand new" 23 miles on the odometer, 2015 Golf SE DSG TDI Fender Audio for $20K out the door.  $16K for a now 5 year old manual version of the same car with 100X the miles doesn't sound like that great of a deal.

I don't know what the market is like for them, maybe that's reasonable?

I've not had any major issues with ours.  I've got 65K miles on it now.  I occasionally get a chime and a warning on the info screen in the gauge cluster telling me something like, "only service the car in park." I don't know what that means, it barely stays on long enough for me to have time to read what it says, and it happens so infrequently I don't care to deal with the dealer attempting to make it happen while it's there roulette.

I had a CEL that my scanner told me was a VW specific code, the internet told me that the code was for the heater in the DEF tank being bad.  Repair apparently involves replacing the whole tank.  It should be included in the extended warranty on the emissions system, it was summer time, so I wasn't really worried about the DEF heater not working, and I ignored it.  Eventually I was prompted to refill the DEF tank, happens about every 10K miles or so.  I refilled the DEF tank, about 200 miles later the CEL light went out, and hasn't come back on.  That was 3-4 months ago.

The car is stock, it's not particularly fast, it accelerates from a stop great, real quick acceleration, stop light to stop light, I leave everyone in my dust, but passing power isn't really there in the upper RPMs.  No surprise, the power is all down low in a diesel.  It'll run 85 on the highway with no effort, and actually maintain speed on a hill with the cruise set, but if you're already doing 70, and need to punch it to go a little quicker, it leisurely accelerates.

Mine is a DSG, it does have paddle shifters on the steering wheel, but I used them driving home from the dealer, and maybe twice since then.  It's better than the typical beige appliance, but still an appliance, I get in, set the cruise at 73, and go.  It maneuvers well, I've been called an aggressive driver by coworkers, I don't speed much, but I also don't stay behind slow people, the car is gocart-esque, and easy to dart around traffic in.  I take full advantage of that, and will frequently put the transmission in Sport mode, and let the DSG do its thing.

I like the car.  Biggest complaint is the number of cracks in the windshield.  I don't know if it's the angle, glass composition, how low the car is, or just dumb luck, but this car has gotten more cracks and rock chips than any other car I've ever had. 

The Fender Audio is surprisingly good.  There's a little subwoofer that fits in the spare tire, and really puts out some bass.  The iPhone integration sucks, because the audio connection is still the old ~30 pin connector not lightning cable, and last I checked there was no way to upgrade it.  I actually complained about this to VWoA when they called and asked me to fill out a survey, they apologized and sent a pre-paid Visa with $300 on it.  The bluetooth works good, and I use Android phones, so SWMBO is the only one with iPhone issues.

I think the value of these as a good deal depends on your local market. Around here your pick of Golf, Jetta sedan, or JSW buyback TDI is priced between $10k and $12k, with 25k to 65k miles. They pretty much all have hail damage to some degree though, due to living outside at PPIR during the recall. We got my wife a '14 Jetta sedan with DSG and 30k miles for around $11,000. It has golf balls for a roof and hood, but the interior is like new, and it came with new tires and brakes and whatever other miscellany was replaced during the inspection process. We have no complaints with it in the first few months. The mandatory extended emissions equipment warranty covers anything I'd really be worried about, like the DPF and injection pump. 

The DSG is definitely my new favorite automatic transmission, I think it's perfectly matched to the diesel. It pretty much does exactly what I would ask a manual to do in this car in varying driving conditions.

I know a few people who have bought them and they have mostly been good other than VW lying and straight up refusing warranty coverage until you file a lemon law claim then tripping over themselves to do what you asked them to do months ago.  One person bought one that had been badly wrecked and repaired that the dealer lied and said had a clean title, and the dealer even forgot to take the inspection report from the body shop that the previous buyer had taken it to before returning it lol.  Also the fuel pump can't handle the poor quality American diesel for near as long as the old TDIs, so it's considered a preventative maintenance item rather than lasting the life of the engine.

In reply to bigdaddylee82 :

30 pin to lightning adapter. 

https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Lighting-Hongwei-Charge-Converter/dp/B07KW6ZJH6/ref=asc_df_B07KW6ZJH6/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309769273676&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14399580871828271703&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019585&hvtargid=pla-683835736277&psc=1

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

It's been a while since I was researching it, but I recall reading somewhere that those don't work.