So, We're Wagon People Now

I was concentrating on the wagen part of Volkswagen.

I love wagons and my friends can suck it if they don't like it.

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

The VW display at the NY Auto Show last year had a "concept" TDI, 4-Motion, 6 spd Sportwagon on display - which was pretty much a Euro-market car yanked off the assembly line with "concept" plates stuck on it - right down to the Euro 220V outlet in the cargo area. It was even the perfect dark metallic blue. I would have bought that car right then and there if I could have.

I'll admit my knowledge of the DSG is general at best. Mainly because I have pretty much zero interest in buying a TDI without a manual transmission. It's what makes the car enjoyable to drive, regardless of Per's opinion.

Welcome to the wagon club! May yours serve you well.

My Passat wagon is currently in pieces on the dealers floor, apparently the timing chain tensioner "disintegrated" causing the timing chain to "shred". Next week it will go back together with new valves and timing chain assembly. Thank goodness for extended warrantees.

singleslammer wrote: I love wagons and my friends can suck it if they don't like it.

I have determined that car people are not car people if they don't like wagons. I'm like this when one says they don't like wagons or hatches-

evildky wrote: I'm just dumbfounded that after hating everything about your 13 vw you went shopping for a newer one.

It sounds counterintuitive, but it's a bit misleading that the sedan, and wagons, are actually very different cars.

The sedans got the cheapest "Americanized" bits to get the price point down and decontented to max out profits, when the platform for the mk6 (sedans only) changed in 2010.

The wagons, as noted, were a mk5 derived carryover, and were actually much higher content interiors. A lot of the touch points/seats/etc. just offer a much nicer package as a whole.

fwiw the Golf's are similarly nicer than the Jetta sedans, and all of the mk6 TDI Golf's were fairly well contented by default.

So, in looking at a "new" wagon, he was essentially looking at an "improved" mk5 wagon update with better interior, vs. the decontented next generation chassis jetta sedan which is more or less a very different car.

The brand spanking newest wagons which aren't quite here yet will finally leave the architecture of the mk5/6 carryover, and go to the new MQB platform for the first time.

We've had our new to us 2012 JSW TDI for several months now. It has ~35k and is DSG equipped. For a daily driver, it really is wonderful. And my wife loves it. We're both wagon people through and through. The Jetta replaced a V70R and I had an e46 BMW 325iT I loved.

Our car had the same wheels your new car has on it. I just swapped on some killer looking 18" BBS CH that came off a 30th anniversary GTI.

Before and after:

In reply to xflowgolf:

I agree - the Jetta sedan was/is spec'd to compete with similar budget sedans: Altima, Corolla, etc. A very competitive segment with tight profit margins due to the low and often discounted prices.

Conversely, the wagon market is is open in the US. They can price the car at a good profit level and keep the content high enough so the buyer feels like they are getting their money's worth.

I was looking on True car and saw that a new manual TDI wagon should be capable of being had for just over 24K. Not too bad... it would certainly be the easiest way to get a manual wagon. I also saw a dealer in STL has a 2010 Manual wagon with 148K miles for sale but I am told that I have a while before getting a new to me DD. 14K for a 150k mile car seems rough too.

xflowgolf wrote:

evildky wrote: I'm just dumbfounded that after hating everything about your 13 vw you went shopping for a newer one.

It sounds counterintuitive, but it's a bit misleading that the sedan, and wagons, are actually very different cars. The sedans got the cheapest "Americanized" bits to get the price point down and decontented to max out profits, when the platform for the mk6 (sedans only) changed in 2010. The wagons, as noted, were a mk5 derived carryover, and were actually much higher content interiors. A lot of the touch points/seats/etc. just offer a much nicer package as a whole. fwiw the Golf's are similarly nicer than the Jetta sedans, and all of the mk6 TDI Golf's were fairly well contented by default. So, in looking at a "new" wagon, he was essentially looking at an "improved" mk5 wagon update with better interior, vs. the decontented next generation chassis jetta sedan which is more or less a very different car. The brand spanking newest wagons which aren't quite here yet will finally leave the architecture of the mk5/6 carryover, and go to the new MQB platform for the first time.

Yeah, I probably didn't explain that well enough, I was assuming most folks knew the difference between the Sportwagen and sedan. We knew we didn't want an '11-'14 sedan, but with the updates to the '15 sedan we thought we'd give it a shot, it's better but still no Mk5 sedan or Mk5/6 Sportwagen.

singleslammer wrote: I was looking on True car and saw that a new manual TDI wagon should be capable of being had for just over 24K. Not too bad... it would certainly be the easiest way to get a manual wagon. I also saw a dealer in STL has a 2010 Manual wagon with 148K miles for sale but I am told that I have a while before getting a new to me DD. 14K for a 150k mile car seems rough too.

The TDIs hold their value well. We got $12.5K from insurance for our '09, with little effort. I was happy, similar cars in the area were ranging from $10.5-13K. While gas burners are $7-8K. One of the primary reasons we've bought new both times now is because how expensive the slightly used and CPO cars are.

Too bad you're not buying now, they're wheeling and dealing to get rid of the '14s. We got ours at what TrueCar is calling an "Unusually Low Price" on their bell curve.

I'm a wagon owner and I approve of this purchase.

In reply to mrwillie:

I love the Jetta Sportwagen TDi. I will need to buy one in a few years; You can't beat the diesel torque, engine chatter (IMO), and fuel efficiency. The really good handling and interior make them better than most grocery getters.

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

Yeah, unless I have an exceedingly good Christmas that ain't happening.

A year and 27K miles later, we still love the Sportwagen. Yes 27,000 miles, hard for me to believe we've done that in a year.

Zero mechanical issues, I've done two oil changes with Mobil 1 5W30 ESP, one fuel filter, one engine air filter, one tire rotation (due for another). I have a new cabin filter but haven't changed it yet.

It still doesn't get quite as good of mileage as we got from our sedan, but it's not much worse.

Within the first 3,000 miles I picked up a nail in the right rear tire, that sucked, but it was patchable. We've got a minor door ding near the handle on the front driver door, and the left rear inner door panel has developed a minor rattle. The same door with a rattle also retains water between the door and body, if you open the door after a rain, you're likely to get wet feet.

I'm going to take the wagon in to the dealer to take advantage of the "Goodwill" package they're offering to TDI owners in the next couple weeks, and will have them address the door rattle while they've got it.

I'm still not a fan of the ContiProContact that the Sportwagen came equipped with, they kind of suck in the rain, especially with the TDI's instant torque, very easy to spin accelerating from a stop, even easier to spin when turning. I had ExtreamContact DWS on the sedan, I guess they spoiled me, they're not LRR tires like the ContiProContact, so they probably hurt MPGs a tad, but lack of traction was almost never an issue. It's hard to justify replacing the stock tires, since they've got so much life left still, but when they're finally used up, I will not be getting the same tire to replace them. I'm either going DWS again, or Cooper CS5 Ultra.

I started strong, keeping up with Fuelly records, but have missed a couple, and I've got a ~4 month back log of fuel receipts I've got to make time to enter. I don't think there'll be much change from what has been recorded so far.

We did a 3 day weekend drive to Columbus & Ashland, OH for a wedding. The return trip to central AR showed 40.4 MPG, that was with one stop, 98% highway, and cruise set on 73 MPH.

We have no intention to get rid of the wagon, but we had no intention to get rid of the sedan either, we'll be driving the Sportwagen until it won't go anymore.

SWMBO and I carpool to work most of the time, and obviously use the wagon, we don't need another car, since we've got plenty of beaters in the fleet and usually at least one of them works well enough for one of us (me) to drive when we have to drive separate, but I've been having more and more frequent thoughts about officially retiring the 850 and picking up a used TDI/DSG 4 door Golf. Hard to justify right now, but who knows what the future may hold.

The wagons (of all makes) that you see on the Autobahn make you realize how stupid CUVs are.

Thanks for the update, Lee.

I'm starting to like the sportwagons more, but their "history" still kinda scares me. How does it compare, handling and comfort-wise to the 850?

In reply to mrwillie:

Our previous Jetta sedan was reliable for 101K miles, one minor repair to replace a glow plug/cylinder pressure sensor at 70-something thousand miles, one set of tires, one battery at ~5 years in, and maintenance was all we did. Even still had original pads & rotors with a lot of life left. That car was an '09 and the allegedly the "worst" offender of the common rail TDIs. There's a lot of VW haters here, and I'm sure some might be warranted, but my experience has been pleasant.

I have no rational reason to be concerned about the reliability of our Sportwagen.

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

So look for 2009< TDI?

The more I look at my car, the more I think it's a wagon. To which I'm happy about.

Somewhat related : I'll never own a sedan after owning a hatchback. I suspect the same could be said about wagons.

In reply to mrwillie:

I'm not sure I'm qualified to tell you what are good and what aren't, my only hands on experience is with the common rails. I've heard good and bad about them all. If you believe everything you read on the internet, my '09 should have lost its high pressure fuel pump, and destroyed the engine, turbo, etc. as soon as I drove it off the lot. Our '09 had a CBEA engine, and our '14 has a CJAA engine, the CBEA wasn't around for long, but the CJAA was from ~'10-'14 at least. I don't know what's different, most of the consumables are the same, they look the same, perform the same, only thing I know for sure to be different are the fuel filters. I've read that the CJAA is more reliable, but you can take that with a grain of salt.

All the TDIs in the cars were a whole new architecture, EA288 engines from '15 until the EPA made them stop selling them. I test drove one, but couldn't really tell you anything about their reliability, they make a smidge more power on paper, but felt the same in back-to-back seat-of-the-pants comparisons, the EA288 is supposed to be more efficient, but I have no first hand experience. All the EA288s used urea/diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) so I don't know if they cheated emissions as much as the previous generation common rails? Probably some cheating at least, or they'd still be selling them.

My son was negotiating for a similar car, same color, same interior; the Stealership dropped from $32k to $28 right off the rip because it had been on the lot 15 months. He had his GTi sold and was ready with a check when the whole VW Diesel Disaster hit and they weren't allowed to sell it.

Shame really, it's a nice car with enough snot to keep up with the GTi.

Dan

In reply to 914Driver:

That stinks. If he's still in the market, there's some good deals on low mile examples on Cars dot com. There's some on there listed as new still, they may not actually be for sale though, just still listed after the ban. I look at the Golfs on there occasionally, and there's a few "new" cars with ~300 miles on them, so dealers might be finding work arounds for selling diesels as program cars, or something similar.

Sounds like he's already got his financing figured out, but while it turned out to be a huge headache for us (totally the individual dealer's finance manager's fault, not VWs) VW Credit beat our Credit Union by a little bit over 2%, and there was an extra $1K off incentive for financing through VW Credit. Hopefully these will be selling again soon in the US. I love the looks of the MK7 Golf, and the new Golf Sportwagen is supposed to have AWD soon. I guess it's probably a pipe dream to hope for an AWD TDI Sportwagen.

Speaking of keeping up with the GTI, I found this entertaining. I'm not a huge Matt Farah fan, but do like a lot of the One Takes he does. https://www.youtube.com/embed/x3HwWn55MJY