Q7 TDI a good fit for me?

phoosty

New member
Joined
Dec 23, 2017
Location
Santa Cruz CA
TDI
3.0
Hello Q7 TDI'ers,
New member, first post. A little background on me: wife's MDX is getting old and I've always liked the Q7 as a step-up 7 seater option. In particular I like the idea of a TDI, having driven a Golf TDI in Europe back in the day, loving the mileage and the torque and the range. I found this forum in order to do some research on a potential (new or very slightly used) 2015 Q7 TDI purchase, as they seem to be coming out of the dealer woodwork in no small numbers these days.
The role of the wife-mobile is two-fold:
Weekdays: lots of very short cross-town trips, shuttling kids or going to/from local work.
Weekends: longer, and fewer, trips out of the area for various sports matches, getaways, etc.
My question/concern is that I have read here that the TDI does not like short trips where the engine never really comes up to temp, as it needs to get to a fully warmed up state to get into regeneration cycle.
Would the weekend only longer drive(s) be sufficient to maintain the health of the engine, given a weekday schedule of sometimes up to 10 short, 0.5-3 mile trips per day, where I'm sure the engine would never achieve a fully warmed up state?
thanks for any BTDT insight,
/Peter
 

Mythdoc

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2017
Location
Tennessee
TDI
2011 Touareg, 2015 Q5, 2015 Golf
Lots of short trips is not ideal for fuel economy, though of no danger to the engine, AFAIK. On my Touareg that type of use resulted in mpg at the bottom of the stated range, sometimes lower. 17-19 mpg.

I'd stick with a gasser if the short trips represented 75%+ of the vehicle use. More selection out there, simpler maintenance, and more reliable market dynamics for purchase and resale/
 

Trade Wind

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2016
Location
Minnesota
TDI
RIP 2012 Passat SE 6 spd MT
+1

TDIs are not meant for short trips. If you haven't, test drive a gas Q7. The cars themselves are phenomenal, regardless of fuel.
 

phoosty

New member
Joined
Dec 23, 2017
Location
Santa Cruz CA
TDI
3.0
Thanks. The dilemma is that the need is truly dual purpose. Most of the miles would be accumulated on longer trips on weekends (including mountains/snow), but most of the abuse would come from short weekday trips. We're averaging about 9.5k annual miles total on this vehicle.

My hope is that I can make a TDI work because:

1) You can still buy brand new (or practically brand new) ones.
2) I'm not interested in a new gasser Gen II as they look like like a minivan on the outside, and I also prefer the more analog look of the Gen I interior.
3) I dig the unique character of a Gen I TDI.

The mileage issue is essentially the same for diesel or gas, short drives result in poor fuel economy regardless, and resale value is not a significant consideration either, as I'd intend to keep the vehicle for the long term.

What I'm trying to gauge is whether the TDI can handle the admittedly less than ideal, short midweek drives, offset by the long trip weekends, without gradually screwing it up?
 

da.hs

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2012
Location
SK, Canada
TDI
2010 Golf, DSG, silver (from new). 2010 Audi Q7 (from 2016), 2004 Touareg V10 (from 2018)
If the longer drives are most weeks, or perhaps at least once a month, it should be just fine. My pattern has been 25 miles into town, park several hours, several short hops around town, 25 miles back. Occasional very long trips.

I've never been conscious of the Q7 doing regens, I don't know what the interval is. I was certainly conscious of my Golf doing them: about every two months it would run the fan after parking and smell a bit strange. I think its regen interval was about once per tank and I only noticed the ones where I stopped while it was in process.

I don't know my Q7's life history but its previous owner was a city dweller, presumably many small journeys. 110k miles in 8 years, only slightly higher than you envisage.
 

BarryT82

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2010
Location
Charleston, WV
TDI
‘12 JSW TDI
A TDI will be fine. Get a tune and you’ll love it.
How are TDI’s not ideal? People in Europe rarely drive long distances and almost every vehicle is a diesel. My wife and I drive 12 miles each way to work and we’ve owned 4 TDI’s without any issues.
 
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Mythdoc

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2017
Location
Tennessee
TDI
2011 Touareg, 2015 Q5, 2015 Golf
My Touareg was driven around town most of the time, except for three 2200 mile round trips on the highway every year during school vacations. If you are drawn to diesel, plan to keep the car a while, as you say, go ahead. The short trips will not harm the car in any way that I know of.
 
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