New and will be driving... A LOT!!!

BONOMAN5064 · Apr 16, 2014

So here is the question:

I purchased my new 2014 TDI Sportswagen because of the amount of miles that I drive everyday. I had 2011 Mustang GT (That's right) and pretty much drove the hell out of it for 3 years. SO I am really happy with my new car. I drive to work and back home everyday 72 miles. That is 5 times a week. That is about 18,720 miles per year if I don't drive anywhere else.

But I do drive other places. My daughter lives in the Orlando area and I live in Miami, FL. Every time I go see her is a minimum 650 miles roundtrip. I do this at least 6 to 8 times a year. That gives me a total of 22,700 miles per year.

I purchased the extended service all the way to 100,000 miles and the service package up to 60,000 miles.

Any recommendations, ideas or suggestions will be welcomed. My plan is to keep this car once is paid for and use it as my daily driver, then in the future get me another car as my toy (If money is ok)

.

I really like this forum and all the members I have seen. Thank you.

white95v6 · Apr 17, 2014

Ah thats not alot lol. I put 30plus on my sedan and on my wagon. Now thats two ppl driving of course.

Now if you had said 45plus i would think is alot lol.

DieselRacer · Apr 17, 2014

If you just keep up with scheduled services, don't use any magical additives, although some may disagree on that, it will last you a lifetime...

TheGrove · Apr 17, 2014

Just follow the scheduled maintenance faithfully making sure to use the correct spec and weight of oil (I'm pretty sure you are 507 and it is only in 5w30).

I'm at 121,955 on my '12 Passat that I purchased in 9/2011 without a problem.

Welcome, and as the saying goes - Drive More, Worry Less.

oilhammer · Apr 17, 2014

That is not a lot of miles, many of us drive MUCH more than that. I do about 100 miles round trip every day, plus another 100 miles at least on the weekends. This past weekend, I drove over 900 miles. Our other car, when my wife was still working, saw 45k miles its first 12 months.

Maintain the car buy the book, use good parts, if it came with Hankook tires I'd plan on ditching them sooner rather than later (many like to explode the sidewalls, even if 50% of the tread is still left). Don't drive the car too easy, don't let it sit and idle, and learn about and understand the DPF regen process and try to avoid interrupting it if at all possible. Spend some time looking through the manual, too.

These are good cars. They are not cheap cars. So enjoy the car, enjoy its looks, the way it drives, the way it feels. Then the low fuel consumption will be icing on the cake. There are many cheaper to own cars out there, but none that I'd rather drive every day.

And of course, welcome to the club!

Lightflyer1 · Apr 17, 2014

Do a lot of reading here. Many things have already been discussed and are directly or indirectly relevant. You also get an answer right away if it has been discussed and answered already. Many people come here just as you did and want to be informed and have asked the same exact questions already. Welcome to tdiclub! There are other sites as well that have info that may be useful such as myturbodiesel and VWVortex.

Abacus · Apr 17, 2014

I agree, that isn't a lot of miles, I drive about 39K on average, and about 18K per year just going back and forth to work. It's one of the reasons I own B4's because they're something I can keep going forever.

Just maintain the car like normal and don't try to outthink what you're doing, like overinflating the tires, additives, and other stuff, just drive more and enjoy the savings.

Slurry Pumper · Apr 17, 2014

I too love the TDI that I drive, however now that I have around 115,000 on it, it seems that everything hits at once such as:

1. I will need a timing belt before 5,000 more miles and at 5,001 miles the car will explode into a heap of metal.
2. The brakes finally wore down to the level of needing a repair. I say finally because I've never been able to get over 100,000 miles on a set of brakes, and I've haven't had a car that needs back brakes before front brakes.
3. There is something going on with the DMF although the car is still moving and when other people drive it, they tell me I'm nuts. I'm not nuts, there is something going on with the clutch or something down in the manual tranny area.
4. It sounds like this DPF thing will "fill up" and require some repair. There is a new product that someone on this site clued us into, that cleans the DPF while on the car, so maybe that repair won't be so bad. I myself will be ditching the DPF and other smog stuff in favor of a tuner job with more power and less fresh air.

All of this stuff happening around the 120,000 mark is taking the cash levels down, and it sounds like all of this stuff is designed to die around this time which is annoying me, but other than that I do love driving this car.

oilhammer · Apr 17, 2014

Slurry Pumper said:
I too love the TDI that I drive, however now that I have around 115,000 on it, it seems that everything hits at once such as:

1. I will need a timing belt before 5,000 more miles and at 5,001 miles the car will explode into a heap of metal.
2. The brakes finally wore down to the level of needing a repair. I say finally because I've never been able to get over 100,000 miles on a set of brakes, and I've haven't had a car that needs back brakes before front brakes.
3. There is something going on with the DMF although the car is still moving and when other people drive it, they tell me I'm nuts. I'm not nuts, there is something going on with the clutch or something down in the manual tranny area.
4. It sounds like this DPF thing will "fill up" and require some repair. There is a new product that someone on this site clued us into, that cleans the DPF while on the car, so maybe that repair won't be so bad. I myself will be ditching the DPF and other smog stuff in favor of a tuner job with more power and less fresh air.

All of this stuff happening around the 120,000 mark is taking the cash levels down, and it sounds like all of this stuff is designed to die around this time which is annoying me, but other than that I do love driving this car.

Not really sure how a scheduled PM item like a timing belt sneaks up on you, so I'd cross that off your list. Just replace it every 120k miles, no big deal.

DPFs, I'd not lose any sleep over that one. You can check the ash load with a scan tool if you wish, but that one isn't likely to sneak up on you either.

Plenty of other stuff you could worry about, but those items are not ones I would worry about.

BONOMAN5064 · Apr 17, 2014

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Well its clear I dont drive as much as I thought... My hat off to everyone here

. Please keep it coming... By the way.... Anybody here in South Florida? Any meets?

curtludwig · Apr 17, 2014

When I read "72 miles" at first I thought "each way" which is pretty high mileage but one way isn't really. I'd love to have a 36 mile commute, I could sleep in

.

The amount I drive is the reason I don't buy new cars, I'd hate to watch it degrade as I rolled the miles onto it. I do 56 miles each way and although I complain sometimes its nothing compared to when I work out of our office in Burbank, 10 hours door to door is a tough commute. Fortunately when I'm there I commute across the street...

Lightflyer1 · Apr 17, 2014

Slurry Pumper said:
4. It sounds like this DPF thing will "fill up" and require some repair. There is a new product that someone on this site clued us into, that cleans the DPF while on the car, so maybe that repair won't be so bad. I myself will be ditching the DPF and other smog stuff in favor of a tuner job with more power and less fresh air.

In my opinion cleaning it on the car probably isn't going to be effective. The demo I saw the dpf was horizontal and ours is vertical. Theirs was a stand alone dpf and ours is integrated with another filter at the top. These things need to be back flushed to remove the ash and somewhat aggressively from watching the dpf cleaners who do it out of the car. With the other filter on top that won't happen very well on ours. I am either going to buy some ones take off that did a delete or a new one. Then cut the ends off the old one and clean it and have the ends welded back on. I will leave the side casing alone to protect the internals as I watched one being done and it was somewhat delicate in there. Then I can always have a spare on hand. Things may change by the time I need one though.

Slurry Pumper · Apr 17, 2014

oilhammer said:
Not really sure how a scheduled PM item like a timing belt sneaks up on you, so I'd cross that off your list. Just replace it every 120k miles, no big deal.

DPFs, I'd not lose any sleep over that one. You can check the ash load with a scan tool if you wish, but that one isn't likely to sneak up on you either.

Plenty of other stuff you could worry about, but those items are not ones I would worry about.

I not complaining about anything sneaking up on me, and I don't really care about things designed to die at the (100-150,000) mile mark. I'm just saying that unless you plan on doing the work yourself, plan on having a few piles of cash handy for this time period in your cars life. Unless of course this isn't normal for the VW TDI class of vehicles. I do drive like I am late all the time, and I have done things that are not recommended to do to the car on this very forum, and still the car runs and looks fine.

Oh, and the wipers are still an annoyance by stopping when the car stops, it makes it tougher to pull out in traffic when the windshield isn't clear, and I have to address the situation myself when I have already set the wipers to an automated setting of my choice.

TheGrove · Apr 17, 2014

Slurry Pumper said:
I not complaining about anything sneaking up on me, and I don't really care about things designed to die at the (100-150,000) mile mark. I'm just saying that unless you plan on doing the work yourself, plan on having a few piles of cash handy for this time period in your cars life. Unless of course this isn't normal for the VW TDI class of vehicles. I do drive like I am late all the time, and I have done things that are not recommended to do to the car on this very forum, and still the car runs and looks fine.

Oh, and the wipers are still an annoyance by stopping when the car stops, it makes it tougher to pull out in traffic when the windshield isn't clear, and I have to address the situation myself when I have already set the wipers to an automated setting of my choice.

I'm not sure what a "piles of cash" are. I just had the 120K service done on my Passat and pushed the 130K timing belt into the 120K service. All the work was done by Oilhammer and the TB parts are VW OEM's as they are not avaliable aftermarket yet. The total cost for all of the service items (TB, DSG Service, Oil, Filters, Couple of bulbs, tire rotation, brake shock and CV check, etc) was just under $1,700. I didn't consider that too bad considering all of the items that needed to be serviced.

oilhammer · Apr 17, 2014

Yeah, and hopefully once the goofy CKRA-specific bits become available in the aftermarket, that price will come down some more.

Slurry Pumper · Apr 17, 2014

TheGrove said:
I'm not sure what a "piles of cash" are. I just had the 120K service done on my Passat and pushed the 130K timing belt into the 120K service. All the work was done by Oilhammer and the TB parts are VW OEM's as they are not avaliable aftermarket yet. The total cost for all of the service items (TB, DSG Service, Oil, Filters, Couple of bulbs, tire rotation, brake shock and CV check, etc) was just under $1,700. I didn't consider that too bad considering all of the items that needed to be serviced.

at around .0043" per bill, the smallest pile of U.S. cash to take care of this is around 1 bill shy of 5/64 of an inch. The largest at a tad under 7-5/16 of an inch.

South Coast Guy · Apr 17, 2014

See if you can cancel the extended warranty and get your money back. It is a waste. Just put the money in your bank account.

New and will be driving... A LOT!!!

BONOMAN5064

Member

white95v6

Veteran Member

DieselRacer

banned

TheGrove

TDIClub Enthusiast, Veteran Member

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor

Lightflyer1

Top Post Dawg

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy

Slurry Pumper

Veteran Member

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor

BONOMAN5064

Member

curtludwig

Veteran Member

Lightflyer1

Top Post Dawg

Slurry Pumper

Veteran Member

TheGrove

TDIClub Enthusiast, Veteran Member

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor

Slurry Pumper

Veteran Member

South Coast Guy

Veteran Member