My wife and I are both retired, which gives us adequate free time for road trips, however, we have two dogs and two cats, which restrict our travel time (we hire pet sitters whenever we leave, but still feel guilty).
We have other vehicles (a sedan, a pick up, three motorcycles and an ATV), but still put over 40,000 miles on our TDI in 2 years, because we love driving it.
Our first road trip in the JSW was up to Nevada, which is only a couple hours drive, but it's over Hwy 88 through the Sierra Nevada mountains, so it's a fun drive, and this little TDI with a 6 sp manual loves the mountains. We went to Iggy & Squiggy's Bar and Grill for their famous ribeye steak sandwich lunch. It's on Hwy 395 just north of Lake Topaz and unless you know exactly where to look you'll never find it.
Our second road trip was to Pinetop Arizona. My wife wanted to see some of old Route 66 and I have a cousin in Pinetop that I hadn't seen in years, so off we went, stopping in Winslow Arizona to see the famous corner (Standing on the Corner in Winslow Arizona). We also enjoyed seeing Wig Wom motels, Burma Shave signs and other relics of by gone days. I think we averaged about 43 MPG, even with my heavy foot.
Our most recent trip was to San Felipe, Mexico. We fueled up before leaving home and did't need more fuel until we got to Palm Springs (almost 600 miles). We spent the night in Palm Springs and joined up with friends and continued into Mexico the following morning. San Felipe is a little fishing village on the East coast of the Baja, Inexpensive, friendly and great weather during our cold winter months. I probably kept the speedometer at around 80 MPH more often than not on this trip and with my wife and a weeks worth of baggage (and 4 kilos of shrimp coming back in my cooler), I still averaged about 42 MPG.
We absolutely love this little JSW and just hope that the VW “fix” doesn't screw it up.